I love basketball and while I don’t like reality shows, you will get my attention if you name your show Basketball Wives of LA. The bonus of this title for me is the Los Angeles part, since my Lakers are based there.
So I would expect to see Mrs Kobe Bryant round up all the wives of the LA Lakers and LA Clippers and just make a show out of it. That is what this title insinuates right?
We can almost see other wives alienate Vanessa at their meets on the basis that her hubby is a ball hog. I can also see Matt Barnes’ wife Gloria raise her voice the loudest because while her hubby is the same age as Kobe, his career hasn’t quite rocketed as that of the NBA’s “Black Mamba”.
The point I am trying to make is, it would be great if the title of this show actually represented what we see on it. It is simple, we want to see the lives of the wives of basketball players who reside in LA, but that’s not what we get. Instead we get an excuse of a show where we see girlfriends, fiancées and in some cases ex-partners of NBA players. There are only two people since the show started who are listed as wives and these are Tanya Williams who is the wife of Jayson Williams and Gloria Barnes.
While Matt Barnes is still playing, Jayson Williams is retired and even when he played he did not play for any team in Los Angeles. Perhaps they are going with the idea that he lives in California, but still, that’s stretching it.
If the same title was done for soccer then you know Spice Girl Victoria Beckham would be leading the pack. If Tony Parker had stayed with Eva Longoria, then she would have qualified for the basketball reality show, if we take off the “LA” in the title.
Perhaps that could be the solution. Remove the “Los Angeles” part and just find legit basketball wives. Lala Anthony is a great candidate as she has her own clout as a celebrity.
Married to the talented Carmelo Anthony, Lala has her own show, Lala’s Full Court Life, which rivals Basketball Wives of LA. The one thing she has over them is that she is real and when you watch the NBA you can verify the things that she chooses to show on her production. If, for example, Carmelo is traded to another team, on Lala’s show we actually see them moving house at the same time.
R&B singer Tamia, who is married to legend Grant Hill, could also have been a great candidate for a show like this. Tamia has been with Grant since 1999 and they are as real as it gets.
Another candidate could have been Khloe Kardashian, who is married to Lamar Odom. Odom is rumoured to be in talks with the LA Lakers to rejoin them for next season and so she will be in the right place at the right time.
This is what a Basketball Wives show should have, not some females affiliated to basketball players. Let’s face it, these dudes don’t only play basketball when they are on the road.
• Basketball Wives of LA airs from tonight at 7.30pm on Vuzu (DStv channel 116).
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