Anger Management: Basketball Wives Reunion Edition
From The Black Snob – Vh-1′s Basketball Wives wrapped its fourth season this spring and it was a boozy haze of fights, bullying, more fights, more bullying, pettiness and finally Tami Roman and Evelyn Lozada (who used to not care all that much for each other) coming together to form Rage Wonder Twins all over Tahiti. So, naturally, the reunion had to be about “Hey, we’re not bullies in stilettos! Look! We’re all going to sit here and pretend to be normal. We’re normal. Look, NORMAL! Tee-hee!”
Hahahahaha. No, girl. Y’all not normal.
You had Evelyn Lozada this season trying to commit attempted homicide with a wine bottle over yet another person accusing her of being “loose.” (I mean, is she going to swing on all of the Internet too? The Internet says the same thing. Does Al Gore need to watch his back?) You had Evelyn and her ex-bestie Jennifer Williams fight over Twitter statuses and blog posts. And people leapt on tables. And people slapped people. But all that would have probably been forgiven since everyone involved in these rowdy-bouts seemed to be about on the same screwed up level.
In fact, I’m pretty sure the protests over this season would have been a bit more muted, even with wine bottle assassination attempts, if that whole thing with Kesha Nichols and Tami hadn’t happened.
Say what you will about Jennifer and husband stabber Kenya Bell (who Evelyn tried to murder), they at least seemed to understand what they signed up for. That Kesha/Tami thing is what happens when an only passively catty person finds out her bitchiness has limits and those limits don’t involve adhering “prison rules” outside of a prison setting.
For the first time, the bad behavior became painful to watch as you had someone who OBVIOUSLY didn’t want to engage and wanted this to go back to “real world” rules where when someone is intimidating and threatening you, you call the authorities. In the real world, at a posh resort with all these people watching, someone would have made an attempt to defuse the situation. Someone would have intervened because they didn’t want Tami to go to jail or didn’t want Kesha to be hurt or that they just wanted the damn yelling to stop. Order would be restored and all would calm down as what the fight was over — in the real world — is not a big deal. Especially not one worth going “primal rage” over.
Good piece Danielle.
I mainly watched the show because it was refreshing to see designer labels worn on women who were black and not rail thin. I loved Miami as the backdrop. I loved when they went to Spain. I loved their life. But when Moms Mabley aka Tami stumbled onto the show….everything went downhill. Actually streamlined to hell.
Regarding anger management: I think they thought their audience would appreciate how ghetto catty they were. They proved that well traveled, money and simi education does not equal classy. Evelyn really thought her bitchy-ness was cute. She was stuned when she realized that the only people who enjoy her gutter ghetto antics were pre-teen/future baby-mamas. A segment she thought she’d left behind years ago.
I strongly dislike Tami however she came off so dignified last nite that I thought she was acting. Someone must have told her that her gravy train would come to a halt if she did not sober up.
They all just need to stop production and call it quits. They have done the devils works and did it well.
This season was horrible. I admit that I watched but after this I wont. It was highly embarrassing and sad to see the way Tami treated Keisha, yet years ago Tami play the position of Keisha. Tami and Eve have emotional issues that need to be addressed.
I can’t tolerate the women. The only ones who are entitled to their opinions are Shaunie, Tammi, Evelyn and Suzie (she’s just a follower). It appears to be, if you disagree with any of these women you are automatically WRONG! And that’s what I can’t take. They can dish it, but they don’t t take it.
Great piece, as always, Danielle! I completely agree with you on Tammi being a “lost cause”. I recognize Tammi as the hurt little girl who hurt other people as a way of coping with anger, anxiety and insecurity. If she is still displaying this schoolyard-type behavior at 40-ish, I don’t have much hope that she will ever change. What’s worse, she is being manipulated by the likes of Shaunie O’Neal who is doing nothing but exploiting her for financial gain and will gladly throw Tammi under the proverbial bus to deflect criticism away from her. Shaunie is the ring-leader. She is a true “mean girl” – sinister, insidious, manipulative – all while feigning exasperated sighs and shaking her head like she wants no part of it, when she is really smirking and suppressing a grin behind her pointing little teeth.
no one is a lost cause