ICYMI Shaunie O'Neal Put on Her Executive Producer Hat to Reunite Former Besties Jennifer Williams and Evelyn Lozada
In an interview with VH1 last year, Shaunie opened up about what it was like shooting with her Miami co-stars verse the ladies in LA and how desperately she wanted Evelyn and Jennifer (and Suzie!) to rejoin the franchise.
"I feel like Miami was so easy, we had Evelyn, Tami, and Jen, and Suzie and it was so organic. We would go shoot Miami and we didn’t have hair and makeup show up every single day. If we were going to the gym we didn’t have to, we would go shoot that scene and it would be real and it would work. Everything we’re doing on LA is real, don’t get me wrong, but it just seems more, "Hollywood." And we’re in Hollywood, I get it, but it’s about being pretty on TV versus content. That’s how I feel." She wont to say, "[Basketball Wives LA] is like, work, as opposed to Miami, where we were girlfriends that shot a TV show."
Back then it was Shaunie's dream to reunite her Miami co-stars but she struggled with their real lives getting in the way, "Evelyn, she really can’t with the places she’s at in her life right now. I mean as much fun as I have shooting with her, and there’s nothing like me and her shooting together and I miss it so very much. I understand where she is, and she has her own show on a different network so it just could complicate it. Suzie, we try for Suzie, every year but her kids are in Miami and it’s hard for her to just go away from them for three months at a time, if she had a TV show all the way in LA, so it’s logistics with her. And, although Jen would probably come back in a heartbeat, we’ve had this conversation. That is way beyond my control that is a contract thing from her last season of Miami, so that part is out of my hands. I think we could get a couple; trickle here and there if that got fixed. I would love, love, love, love to have some of my girls back. Now, granted, I don’t think anybody on the LA cast would be very happy about that."
Well, this interview really predicted the future. We are just still waiting for our girl Suzie Ketcham!