Shaunie O’Neal isn’t shying away from voicing her disdain for the upcoming spin-off of her original Basketball Wives. Shaunie completed an interview with Ebony Jet where she further clarified how black women are portrayed and also revealing her lack of control in the final product. But the sting came when Shaunie revealed her thoughts on the cast of Basketball Wives: LA. Read below:
On the portrayal of black women:
“I get a lot of flack,” says O’Neal. “People say to me: ‘You’re saying the betrayal of Black women is bad on TV, but your show is one of the number one reasons why it is.’ Guess what? I agree! But you look at those credits — it’s more than me executive producing it. I brought this vision to a table full of people, a table full of executives, and since then it has taken on its own new thing.”
On the difference in her vision and reality:
“Honestly, they’ve distorted it a little bit. I really came in with the concept of having a group of women that come together and are associated by the game of basketball, whether it be their husbands, fiancés — there’s some long-term relationship with a man in basketball and the game of basketball — and that’s how we formed this sisterhood and friendship,” she says. “The L.A. cast — there are some wives and fiancés, which I’m fine with. But there’s a little bit of trash kind of sprinkled into that cast that I’m totally against. I was really very hands off with that cast.”
(Basketball Wives: Miami)
On the cast of Basketball Wives: LA
“Yeah, you know they have Jackie Christie, I love her — they have a long lasting marriage and it works. There’s also Malaysia Pargo, you’ve got Imani who was the former fiancée of Stephen Jackson — they went to the altar, you get that connection. These ladies have been around forever in the game of basketball. But then you’ve got people that just might’ve slept with somebody. I’m not OK with that,” O’Neal says. “It’s just drama and … that’s not my vision. I don’t think that all money is good money. I don’t need it that bad. So we are having some issues. I’ve kind of just had to take a backseat and shut up and just let it go, let it ride. It’s David and Goliath right now.”
It’s no secret that Shaunie and Laura Govan are not besties as Laura was accused of having an affair with Shaquille O’Neal. Laura’s sister Gloria has also joined the LA cast. Whether or not the sisters are the “trash” Shaunie is referring to – we’re more concern with the idea that Shaunie actually believed a VH1 produced reality show would produce anything short of drama..
