'Basketball Wives' Recap: Who's The Real Tami?
Basketball Wives
Season 5, Episode 5
After weeks of trying to show a more evolved (re: less trifling) image of the women who make up the cast of Basketball Wives, the show has returned to its most natural state i.e. gossipy women bitching each other out over nothing particularly important. I’m all for it. After all, this is the show that shade built. Let’s all stop pretending otherwise.
Now before one of you “respectable” types draw up more petitions to be ignored by VH1, even though there was friction throughout the episode, some old habits were not resurrected. There were several disputes, but like most adults, they were discussed without the throwing of fists or the finest bottles of wine. It’s a lil’ bit of the old with a nouveau way of handling things. Good deal, ladies, because there was a certain wing of social media openly declaring that y’all were starting to bore the hell out of them. —Michael Arceneaux (@youngsinick)
1
6
2
6
1. This Week In Evelyn and Chad
This week saw the return of Shaniece Hairston, Evelyn’s daughter and maybe one of the most level-headed women we’ve ever seen on this show. Since Chad Johnson is a de facto cast member of Basketball Wives, the conversation surrounding him and the fallout of his marriage to Ev continued. Shaniece still doesn’t seem to see it for her former step-daddy, telling her mom that he brought on “negative energy” and told her mama flat out that he “brings you down.”
When asked about the photo of her mother and Chad holding hands, Shaniece said she wasn’t surprised, but did say “you kind of put yourself in that predicament.” Evelyn said she overlooked certain things that might’ve led to the violent night that ended her marriage. In response, Shaniece says, “I knew all of that.” Goodness, do I love her.
In her confessional for this segment, Evelyn ended with, “Thank you for being my greatest teacher, Chad. Something great came out of that.” She then proceeded to flip him off.
3
6
2. New Tami and Old Tami Are One And The Same
Evelyn said it best when she said in last night’s episode, “Tami’s trying to change, but I think Tami will forever be that chick that tells you to ‘go f*ck yourself.’” To wit, Tami visited “the world renowned life coach” Vasavi Kumar to discuss her knack for wanting to curse a person out and go upside their head. However, it wasn’t long before she said that while she’s working on dealing with her anger issues, “It just seems that within this journey, people won’t allow me to progress.”
She then invokes Shaunie’s comment about how meeting her could go either good or bad, followed by additional comments about mannerisms that lit her fuse. In response, Vasavi took her back to the source of those frustrations: her mommy. Yes, it’s always a deep-seeded childhood issue that spurs so many adults to behave as if they have no home training.
I wish Tami well, but there’s something about the way she refuses to own her behavior that makes you wonder whether she’ll ever conquer her demons. It shouldn’t be long now before she meets with Iyanla Vanzant. Tami may hate the phrase, but that meeting could go really well or really badly. One thing is for certain: Iyanla would probably know to look for the sucker punches Tami’s good for throwing. Iyanla looks like she’ll shake that voodoo priestess vibe and go straight Floyd Mayweather if you push her hard enough.
P.S. Tami’s best moments on camera are when she's with her children. I’d rather see Tami talk about business and family with her pretty, well-mannered daughters versus watching her spontaneously combust over inconsequential comments made by half-friends.
4
6
3. Wives of Basketball
Shaunie O’Neal is working on a stage play called Wives of Basketball. In other words, after being inspired by all of the manufactured drama orchestrated by she and other producers, she thought to herself, “Lemme get some actors, turn up the drama and make some more money off this obsession with the women who bed the ballers.” Already en route to New York, Shaunie makes plans to meet with her partner who helmed the script and start auditioning actors. One of those actors includes her boyfriend, model/actor Marlon, who Shaunie told in their bedroom that he’d have to audition, too. Fortunately for him, he was pretty damn decent. Look at that, a star is born. It won’t be long now before Tyler Perry comes calling.
As for the show itself, have you all seen one of those Black stage plays that show on BET on any given Sunday? It gave teases of that during the reading. That’s not an insult, or at least, not a complete one. Those can be entertaining and with the past Black star
5
6
4. It’s Tasha’s Birthday
While shopping for a birthday gift, Shaunie O’Neal, Evelyn Lozada and Suzie Ketcham did what they do best: gossip about their fellow cast member behind her back. Tasha was called “bougie” and “stuck up” by Suzie while Evelyn questioned whether or not she was really ready to open up her weave bar. Evelyn was right in her angst as shortly thereafter we followed Tasha on a field trip to her unfinished weave bar. Once Tasha arrived, there was no electricity and it looked as though not even a broom had entered the building let alone furniture or any actual construction.
Tasha shared her frustrations with Shaunie during a shopping trip, only she made the mistake of quipping that she asked her business partner whether she needed to “head butt” her to get things in order. That’s the sort of B.S. behind God creating the gays who in turn created the phase, “[Redacted], you tried it.”
6
6
5. The Discussion
We’ve reached a point in this franchise where Evelyn Lozada can serve in the role as moderator and neutral party. Well, initially anyway. Evelyn got right down to it, kicking off yet another discussion about a simple comment made by Shaunie that Tami blew way out of proportion. After pressing Tasha to reveal whether or not Shaunie gave her a bad impression of Tami based on a harmless comment, Tasha said, “She didn’t plant a negative seed. I just said ‘You know what? I’ll meet Tami for myself and come up with my own conclusions.’”
As Shaunie and Tami spoke to each other, Shaunie explained to Tami, “You have to take responsibility for acting a damn fool back then.” And: “You’re living [and] talking about a moment that didn’t happen. You’re talking about this phantom seed that was sown that was never sown.”
Evelyn swooped in with a “boop,” which pretty much spoke for all of us watching at hand. Tami being Tami, she took issue with Evelyn’s hand being in the hair, telling her, “Don’t put your hand up.” So what did Evelyn do? Put her hand up again. A “bitch” was thrown out, too, which ultimately led to Tami hovering over Evelyn Lozada and daring her to put her hand up again.
Evelyn sat there with her fork in hand, informing Tami of how “foolish” she looked. You see, Evelyn is now beyond that show and is angling for something more once Basketball Wives is finally put to sleep. She needn’t go back into her violent behavior as it serves no purpose.
Thankfully, Shaunie told Tami, “We’re not gonna do that. We’re definitely not gonna do that.” Tami sat her happy ass down and then other beefs were given the floor. Enter Tasha’s “head butting” comment. Evelyn was offended, but Tasha quickly informed her that she could’ve easily taken issue with the story about her husband bedding a chef being included in Evelyn’s novel with no fair warning. Evelyn didn’t disagree, but after that disclosure came another – Tasha revealing the joke about her needing a helmet on future dates. The spotlight then turned to Suzie, who got put on blast for laughing at the distasteful remark.
When asked by Evelyn if she thought it was funny, Suzie says she doesn’t find abuse funny, but laughed at the joke. That makes no sense so Evelyn shot her the look of death. She then cried and walked her merry way out of the restaurant, not seeing it for people who would make light of such a serious situation like domestic violence. That’s all for now, see you next week for the next slab of beef.
The Vibe Mix Newsletter
All things VIBE.
Daily - Straight to your inbox.
Whoops!
All things VIBE.
You have signed up and will start receiving the Vibe Mix Newsletter immediately.
