Getty
The season finale of Basketball Wives was a pretty rough ending to things for Jennifer Williams. She literally traveled all of the way to Amsterdam to get called a “b—h,” almost get beat up twice, and to end up standing by herself in the street. She could have stayed home.
Jennifer started the episode hopeful that she could finally clear the air about who started what with that whole Evelyn Lozada rumor, but Malaysia Pargo wasn’t going to allow it. Malaysia, in her best fedora hat, showed up for drinks with the ladies, and immediately wasn’t pleased at Jennifer’s surprise presence; neither was Shaunie O’Neal, who turned her back to Jennifer and waited for the ladies to speak up and handle things for her, per the usual.
When Jennifer tried to address Malaysia over her grievances, she didn’t really take responsibility for her role in pushing the rumor about Evelyn. Instead, she told Malaysia that Tami Roman was the mastermind. She said Tami wanted her to spread what she heard about Evelyn, but she didn’t admit that she brought the rumor to Tami first, which has been the story. Malaysia, angrier than expected about the whole thing because she felt like she was used as a pawn, decided to call her out for being a “manipulative b—h.” She also spilled some unsettling tea, that Jennifer allegedly vented about Evelyn’s daughter Shaunice, whose life Jennifer has been in since she was six. When confronted about such comments, Jennifer called them out as false, only for Shaunie to say that Jennifer has talked about Shaunice to her in the past, too.
Again, this group’s penchant for holding on to ugly secrets and rumors is really alarming. Can’t trust none of ’em…
Anywho, with Malaysia throwing tables at her in the hopes of fighting and Shaunie calling her a liar, Jennifer finally admitted that she did say something about Shaunice, but it wasn’t as bad as claims that she called her BFF’s daughter a “build-a-whore.” However, Shaunie said that Jennifer told her that Shaunice was the one paying all of the bills in her mother’s home and taking care of the household when they lived in Miami because Evelyn wasn’t really around. It took everything in Evelyn, who was in tears at a certain point because she was so angry and hurt, to not revert back to her early days of bottle flinging and table jumping.
But what is the truth? Either everyone is lying on Jennifer, or she is super forgetful about the things she said about Evelyn when their friendship fell apart. Either way, sis is officially on an island by herself.
I felt a tad bit bad for her, just because it did seem like she was very caught off guard about everything, and probably would have benefited from that one-on-one she initially wanted. But you can’t come around talking about you have “receipts” ready and then when other people have their own, stand there looking like a deer in headlights. You also can’t be messy and then not be ready to defend yourself and said messiness.
All in all, Jennifer’s trek to Amsterdam was a waste of time. Not only because she ended up losing all of her friends by the end of the episode, but also because she never planned to own up to anything in front of the ladies. Yes, Tami was problematic in this whole situation as well (I still stand by the belief that she told Shaunie about the rumor a year later to hurt both Jennifer and Evelyn and their friendship, which is messy), but Jennifer seems to have brought the rumor to the table. Whether or not anyone else had ever heard it before, Jennifer brought it to the attention of the ladies, particularly Tami and Malaysia, and then hoped that they would take it to Shaunie to ruin Evelyn. When they didn’t, Jennifer let it go and eventually mended things with her old friend. But just because she no longer was the vehicle for the rumor certainly didn’t mean she was exempt from blame in getting it out there.
To travel 10 hours to say the same thing and have zero receipts, which she also didn’t have the last time she was confronted by the ladies, was foolish. And while friendships probably couldn’t have been salvaged with everyone, she likely would have received some respect for owning up to her part and saying sorry to those who were all affected by the rumor. Instead, she held herself up as a victim up until the very end. She said the women ganged up on her, she put her feelings about the Amsterdam “ponderosa” over what Evelyn was likely feeling after what had allegedly been shared about her daughter, and refused to take any responsibility for being a petty Betty when she was hurt.
If Jennifer truly wants to have the growth and change that she told relationship expert Spicy Mari about earlier this season, she needs to look within herself. And if this season has shown anything, it’s that she needs to not be so involved, at this stage in her life, in entertaining rumors about other people’s jobs, other people’s relationships, other people’s kids, other people’s beefs, and overall, other people’s lives. While stirring the pot for sh-ts and giggles initially seemed to bring her so much joy because of the tea she was able to spill, caring not about who it impacted, she’s officially paying the consequences and being burned by it now. So it all makes sense why she didn’t bother showing up to the reunion, which airs next week. It’s not only because she gets along with pretty much no one in the cast at this point, but it’s also because she has no interest in being called out on stuff she has no plans on owning up to anytime soon. Bye, Jennifer.
Wanna know what the Twitterverse thought about the finale drama? Check out the best responses by hitting the flip.
