Basketball Wives’ cast member Kesha Nichols confirms that the show is indeed the hot mess that it appears to be and calls Shaunie a “secondary bully”.
By: Taren Vaughan
After the airing of the fourth season of Basketball Wives, it is plain to see that the show has taken a downturn from Shaunie O’Neal’s initial vision. Bottle throwing and foul language spewing from their mouths on the regular, the VH1 reality show has even some of its present cast members going in on the horrid displace of minority women.
Tami “I’m Not A Bully” Roman has been precisely that as she popped Meeka Claxton in the face on Season 3 and drove Kesha Nichols to tears. And as Kesha appeared to be timid on the show, she recently spilled the beans to several media outlets about the show and how she felt Shaunie could have done more to alleviate the ratchetness:
“Shaunie definitely could have used her influence and her friendship with these ladies to stop some of the bullying and not one time did she stand up and say anything.”
Nichols also referred to executive producer of the show as a “secondary bully”, runner up to Tami.
Not only was Kesha unhappy with Shaunie not using her power and having the hush mouth, she says that the show itself has depicted Black women in a negative light and the sisterhood that they claim is non-existent:
“I don’t think that there has been anything positive shown about Black women on this show,” “I thought at some point we would all come together and have each other’s backs as sisters, and that never happened.”
And the negativity has trickled its way down to the younger generations coming up:
“I never realized how many young girls look up to the women in this show and other reality TV shows and they’re emulating what they see and what they’re seeing is not positive.”
Is Shaunie O’Neal to blame for the constant bullying and string of violence amongst these grown behind women? Or was it completely out of her control?
So she basically confirmed what we already knew. Interesting.
Why did she even join the show? She and Jennifer are too good for this trashy show! And both are coming back to continue to look foolish for a check. I just don’t understand it.
“Is Shaunie O’Neal to blame for the constant bullying and string of violence amongst these grown behind women? Or was it completely out of her control?”
“Blame” is a tricky word, however, I feel the turn the show took Shaunie was well aware and in some ways, in support of. Their attempts at reconciling were far from effective on the show. Furthermore, as much as she talked about “wanting to see everyone succeed,” she obviously criticized Jenn’s lip gloss line in a scene with Tami and Evelyn. Hypocrite much? I don’t know that she is to blame, as all these women voluntarily sign up and tape the show. But I feel Shaunie’s act of disappointment, disapproval, and surprise with the route the show has taken is phony.
I’m glad someone else thinks Shaunie’s a phony. I thought it was just me,
Shaunie should have spoke up more but she is someone I felt played both sides of the fence a little too much. Her attitude towards Jen was disgusting and the obvious favoritism she has for Evelyn and Tami is ridiculous. How can you be the boss lady of the show and not know how to run your franchise? She has a lot to learn and her image has been destroyed because she wasn’t smart about any of this.