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Shaunie and Evelyn

CENTURY CITY, CA – OCTOBER 19: Evelyn Lozada and Shaunie O’Neal attend the Faithful Central Bible Church Event on October 19, 2012 in Century City, California. (Photo by Maury Phillips/WireImage)

While the behavior of Malaysia Pargo and the poor memory of Jennifer Williams happened to be the major focus in the season finale of Basketball Wives, viewers did have some questions for Shaunie O’Neal. They wondered why she knew that Williams allegedly criticized Evelyn Lozada’s parenting and said her daughter, Shanice, was taking care of home while her mom was running the streets of Miami, but said nothing to her friend, Evelyn.

Shaunie was forced to go on the defensive on social media about it. She said that she didn’t feel it necessary to tell Evelyn after the fact, because at the time the comments were made, Jenn and Evelyn were in a bad place.

As she told a woman who said she is “the worst kind of friend,” she “never would’ve told her if the issue of lying didn’t come up… for what? They were mad at each other said sh-t, what purpose would it have served to run and tell her? They weren’t friends, weren’t around each other. No point!”

Shaunie also shared that Evelyn was actually upset with her for not telling her soon after Jennifer made the comment. She said there are all sorts of conversations had that people don’t get to see.

“So you do realize we are filming a show with each other correct?” she asked a critic. “As well as you realize you don’t get to see the entire hour long conversations? You also do realize that while shooting the show we continue to talk about things that are going on amongst our group for the sake of you as an audience to understand. That’s kinda how it works in a nutshell love. Oh yeah, there’s so many things that you don’t see or hear but I’m sure you’re smart enough to know that right?”

https://www.instagram.com/p/Bnmg1zxlAmK/?hl=en&taken-by=thebasketballwives

Shaunie is being chastised for holding out on that info because she was so upset earlier this season that all of the women knew about the rumor surrounding Evelyn allegedly sleeping with her ex, but failed to tell her. And while she could have spoken up and said something to Evelyn sooner than later about Jennifer’s comments, it is true that it wouldn’t have changed anything. The two women, at the time, hated each other, so that would have just added more fuel to the fire. As she said, the information was only useful during the confrontation in Amsterdam because Jennifer accused Malaysia of lying about her saying something negative about Shanice.

But the more important question is what did she say in response when Jennifer made the comment about Evelyn’s parenting? Also, why did Jennifer allegedly feel so comfortable talking in that way to Shaunie, who has always been close to Evelyn? We get spilling tea to Tami and the other girls who really aren’t that friendly with Evelyn, but Shaunie? As a real friend, if she didn’t defend Evelyn or chose to entertain the stories being told, that’s a lot worse than holding on to that information. It also says a lot about what kinds of conversations Jennifer and Shanice were likely having and who they were having them about. And that’s no surprise, because we’ve watched Shaunie sit with Tami and hear her make all sorts of comments about Evelyn, with Shaunie only responding by bugging her eyes out, or in some cases, laughing. So while she may have a point about this situation, it doesn’t change the fact that like her co-stars, Shaunie knows more, a lot more in fact, than she often shares. So much for supposedly not liking drama.

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