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The former wife of NBA player Michael Olowokandi told an NBC reporter recently that the Miami Heat has instructed its players and their wives and girlfriends to not participate in an NBA-themed VH1 reality show
Basketball Wives cast member Suzie Ketchum made the claim to Chicago-based NBC 5 reporter LaShonda Matlock:
The NBA hates it. I heard that the Miami Heat has put restrictions on the players and their wives: they are not allowed to do it. The wives are not allowed to be apart of the show at ALL. And I personally think that the entire NBA may put restrictions on any wife, girlfriend or player from being apart of the show. You know obviously, if the players are not allowed to do it, then they are NOT going to allow their women to do it.
Matlock then contacted the Heat for a response about Ketchum’s claim:
I reached out to Miami Heat assistant director of sports media relations Michael Lissack to confirm the restrictions and he stated: “I’m not going to make a comment on anything about that show“.
Sounds like we have our answer.
The interesting part of this story isn’t that the Heat banned anyone from the show, it’s the irony lost on Ketchum. Ketchum’s boss and creator of the show’s original concept, Executive Producer Shaunie O’Neal, apparently feels the same as the Heat do about the show.
O’Neal came up with the initial idea for the VH1 reality show, but it was to be centered on her and her husband at the time, Shaq. The theme of that show was no more than a public relations vehicle for the O’Neals and the NBA. But when the couple divorced, VH1 was suddenly left groping for a new concept.
Enter women like Ketchum, the ex-wife of Olowokandi. She’s part of a cast of divorcees and baby mamas, all genuinely bitter over their current life condition. With that you get the recent, ugly scene involving Matt Barnes of the Orlando Magic on the show.
Barnes fiancee Gloria Govan is the only woman in the cast with a current partner in the NBA, and when Govan and Barnes appeared on the show, he was ambushed by two of the cast members who essentially accused him and all NBA players of cheating on their partners.
Barnes has since gone to the media to voice his displeasure for the show.
So where is Shaunie O’Neal in all of this? Nowhere.
She’s rarely seen on the show now and doesn’t participate in the production’s inane, staged bits.
Now that she’s spilled the beans on the Heat, perhaps Ketchum can tell us why Shaunie was once the centerpiece of the program but is now almost never seen on-camera.
Could it be that the show now has a cast that O’Neal doesn’t want to be associated with?
Sounds like a certain South Florida NBA team Ketchum previously denigrate
