As fans brace themselves for what promises to be another drama-filled season of “Basketball Wives” Wednesday night, the cast is addressing one of the major elephants in the room: the show’s title.
Many of the women are divorcées or have only ever been engaged. Some have simply had children with ball players. Knowing that, fans have been asking since day one why the long-running VH1 reality show has a seemingly inaccurate title.
“The fact that people still say, ‘Oh, they’re not wives, blah, blah, blah,’ I say get the f— over it because we are 12 seasons in,” explains star and executive producer Shaunie O’Neal after Malaysia Pargo and Evelyn Lozada basically dismissed the issue. “Everybody’s not a wife. We’ve been divorced, we’ve been married, we’ve been engaged, baby mama, whatever it is — you might be a girlfriend. You get the gist of it, OK? Let’s just not be that petty. OK, you’re not a wife.”
After a dose of shade from Jackie Christie, who said some of the women are “hoochie mamas,” O’Neal continued by explaining how difficult it is to cast women who are presently married to an NBA Star.
“It’s extremely hard to get ladies on the show that are married or in a current relationship with a basketball player,” she says. “Why? Because it opens up Pandora’s box.”
Jennifer Williams argued that the show was essentially named after her since she was actually married during the inaugural season. She added she “earned this title of basketball wife” since her now-retired NBA journeyman then-husband Eric Williams famously threw a drink in her face.
Next the women bounced around names for the show that would be more encompassing of the cast’s actual marital statuses. “Basketball Wives and Baby Mamas,” “Basketball Wives Adjacent,” and “Women with Ambition,” were among the titles thrown out.
As for what fans thought of the cast’s views on their show title, they were largely unamused.
“Y’all too old for the foolery is what it should be called. Find Black Girls that rock.”
“I don’t see the need for this recording. If you’re twelve seasons in, let season 13, 14, 15, etc… speak for you. Some of these condescending takes will shorten all of the future seasons. I know any publicity seems to be better than none, but these recordings were just not necessary.”
“WE DON’T CARE.”
