New York Knicks guard Jose Alvarado loves his “Grand Theft Alvarado” nickname, but it might have brought back some bad memories the first time he heard it. Alvarado was wrongfully arrested in China in 2017 during his time with Georgia Tech and spoke about it during an appearance on the Roommates Show.
“I did get arrested because they thought it was me,” Alvarado said. “… UCLA vs. Georgia Tech, we played in China. So obviously, the situation, y’all know the situation. The police out there said they got confused and they thought it was me, and one of my other teammates, too. So, I literally got arrested, went to the police station for like six, seven hours… Obviously, you could tell who it was; they didn’t know.”
Alvarado and his teammates, Jon Brown and Justin Moore, had been mistaken for UCLA’s LiAngelo Ball, Jalen Hill, and Cody Riley. Ball, Hill, and Riley had shoplifted from multiple stores in Hangzhou, China, on Nov. 6, 2017. Most notably, they stole some sunglasses from a Louis Vuitton store. The shoplifting was caught on camera, and the store reported the incident.
Street surveillance footage would show three players leaving the store and eventually returning to the Hyatt Regency Hangzhou, the hotel where both teams were staying. The authorities had a look at the passport photos of the guests and initially believed Alvarado, Brown, and Moore might be the individuals they were looking for. They were wrong, and the Georgia Tech trio was eventually cleared of any wrongdoing.
Alvarado was asked here if he was terrified at the time, and he unsurprisingly was. You’re talking about a teenager suddenly finding himself suspected of a crime he didn’t commit in a foreign country. Alvarado’s parents were panicking as well, as they couldn’t do anything for their son. You can imagine how helpless they’d have felt.
While this whole situation was quite terrible, Alvarado does find one part of it quite funny.
“Shoutout to Coach [Josh] Pastner,” Alvarado stated. “I love him, he’s a great guy. But he looked at me, and he said, ‘Jose, we know you did it. Please tell us, so we could help you.’ And I’m like, ‘Coach, I didn’t do it. I promise.’ ‘Cause eventually they told me what it was. When it first happened, they came in my room and started looking for whatever what they was looking for..”
Alvarado had no idea what he had done and started panicking. He was eventually informed that this was about sunglasses.
“When they said that, I’m like, ‘No, what?'” Alvarado said. “And then still was like, ‘No, no, no, no. It’s you. It’s you.’ And then my coach, he came in and said, ‘Jose, the only way we could help you is you tell us the truth.’ And I’m continually telling him, ‘Yo, I didn’t do it. I didn’t do it.’ And yeah, so he’s like, ‘We know you did it. They said that it’s you.’ I’m like, ‘They lying.'”
Once the truth came out, Alvarado cursed out everyone who didn’t believe him. He still has a lot of love for his former head coach, Josh Pastner, though.
Alvarado would end up playing four seasons for Georgia Tech. He’d head to the NBA in 2021 with career averages of 13.5 points, 3.6 rebounds, 3.6 assists, 2.1 steals, and 0.1 blocks per game in college. He’d go undrafted, but has managed to have a very respectable career as a pesky defender.
Alvarado spent the first four and a half seasons of his professional career with the New Orleans Pelicans and was then traded to the Knicks at this year’s deadline. The 27-year-old is now averaging 6.2 points, 2.1 rebounds, 3.5 assists, 1.1 steals, and 0.1 blocks per game as a Knick.
We’ll see Alvarado in action next when the Knicks take on the Utah Jazz at the Delta Center on Wednesday at 9 p.m. ET.
