Sister to Sister Magazine talks with Basketball Wives Executive Producer Sean Rankine. He clears up the "None of Them Are Wives" Phrase that Everyone burns out. Tracy: How do you respond to those who criticize the shows because there aren't many actual wives on them?
Sean: First thing to point out is that when we started shooting the show, Shaunie and Jen were married and Evelyn was engaged to be married very soon. Meeka [Claxton] was also married while on the show and now so is Kenya [Bell]. We also have Jackie and Malaysia [Pargo] on our Los Angeles cast. When people criticize the show based on semantics, I have to say that they need to have a bit of perspective. While a title may be taken literally, things are open to interpretation. Some people have focused on the word 'wives', but I ask them, “What is the definition of a wife?” It’s a woman that shares her life with her mate over a prolonged period of time. Granted, there are those on our show that have not gotten the “piece of paper” and there are those that have. However, I would like to point out that in many states, the amount of time that some of these women were in relationships with their players does constitute ‘common law’ marriage. For example, Evelyn was with her significant other for 10 years, as was Suzie [Ketcham]. Shaunie, Tami [Roman], Jen and Kenya were legally married. Nevertheless, these women were integral parts of their players’ lives. In the end, it’s just a name. Just because you name an SUV “Durango” doesn’t mean that the city from Colorado is rolling out of dealerships around the country onto the highway.
