Source: Robin L Marshall / Getty
Since Basketball Wives began in 2010, one comment/complaint has been pretty common just about every season: Why is the show called Basketball Wives when most of the women aren’t wives?
Good question. The ladies finally decided to answer that question in their ever-intriguing Season 8 promo videos. In the newest clip shared, they called out social media for being petty about the name not being as accurate as it could be.
“The fact that people still say, ‘Oh they’re not wives and blah blah blah, I’m like, get the f–k over it because we are 12 seasons in,” Shaunie O’Neal said, speaking on the Miami and LA seasons combined. “Everybody’s not a wife but you know, we’ve been divorced, we’ve been married, we’ve been engaged, been a baby mama, whatever it is, you might be a girlfriend. You get the gist of it. Let’s just not be that petty. Okay, you’re not a wife.”
Shaunie added that it’s harder than people realize to get actual wives on the show due to the issues that can arise in their relationships. Some who started on the series as wives are no longer married, including Malaysia Pargo and Jennifer Williams.
“It’s extremely hard to get ladies on the show that are married or are in a current relationship with a basketball player,” Shaunie said. “Why? Because it opens up Pandora’s box.”
And for the record, Jennifer said while she may no longer be a wife on paper, she earned her stripes to be on the show.
“I feel that this show was named after me because when this show started, I actually was a basketball wife,” she said. “My husband at the time threw a drink on me, in my face, on national television, so I earned this title: basketball wife.”
“What do you want us to be called? Basketball wife exes? Basketball wife hos?” Evelyn Lozada chimed in. “I don’t know what you guys want the name of the show to be.”
Malaysia had some ideas.
“Boss B—hes or Women with Ambition?”
We approve of Jackie Christie’s suggestion though.
“Basketball Wife and Baller Chicks! That would be the name.”
For the record, in Season 8, the actual wives on the roster are Jackie Christie, Kristen Scott, and now, Tami Roman. CeCe Gutierrez is engaged to be married. Still, whether married, divorced or single, the lack of actual wives doesn’t make the show any less entertaining.
