It’s the start of episode two of Basketball Wives: L.A., and the ladies of Los Angeles are already brawling over brunch. Shaunie O’Neal should be so proud. Malaysia Pargo and Laura Govan are in a fight so large it takes several minutes and several crew members to break it up while Tanya sits at the table like she is waiting for her order to be taken. Classic. I’m impressed to see that most of these ladies are actually currently married to basketball players though, so that is a plus.
Gloria Govan decides to have a barbeque and invites all of the ladies, sans Malaysia…which makes sense seeing that Gloria is Laura’s sister. It will be the first chance for the women to rehash the event. Gloria wasn’t at the lunch, so she is prepared to jump Malaysia the next time she is in the same vicinity. Jackie Christie, Gloria, and Imani Showalter have a laugh over the fact that Malaysia’s real first name is LaQuisha. Imani tells Gloria that Tanya wouldn’t lift a finger to help break up the fight.
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Tanya arrives at the barbeque and explains that she didn’t jump in because she was 1) frozen in shock due to the amount of ghetto-ness being exhibited, and 2) googling “hood rat” because she wasn’t sure what that term meant. Tanya doesn’t like this confrontation, didn’t like Laura and Malaysia’s altercation, and prefers to be in non-hostile environments. I say, Fair enough!, but the ladies seem to think her disdain for drama is a sign of disloyalty.
At Imani’s house, Laura apologizes to the ladies, and all they can tell her is that Tanya did nothing to help. Laura doesn’t feel like Tanya should get any sort of blame, and it seems like she’d be open to reconciling with Malaysia, although Jackie advises that Malaysia is not to be trusted.
Gloria plans a paintball outing and invites her friend Draya Michele (a non-wife…perhaps she should migrate to Miami) from acting class. Jackie, who seems to be asserting herself as the ringleader/HBIC is less than impressed by Draya’s shiny exterior. The women suit up and start shooting. Imani may want to consider a career with the Navy Seals. If you thought Jackie was less than impressed with Draya’s Louis Vuitton bag in the desert, she really could have cared less that she lost Draya won the entire paint ball battle. New(est) Draya wants to make nice with her new frenimies, so she invites them to a party she is hosting. Draya immediately gets on Imani’s bad side when she brings up the first time they met…only Imani has met her but she’s bad news so she won’t admit she knows her, although she totally does has never met her before.
Draya used to be a stripper (of course!), which according to Gloria is the biggest enemy of any basketball wife. Imani thinks stripping is immoral, and she quickly tells Draya that. It’s judgment day at a picnic table in the desert at a paintball establishment. The ladies ask Draya if she’s a “jump off.” After trying to decipher the conversation, it seems that a “jump-off” is a chick who wants to steal ballers from their wives/girlfriends. Um, shouldn’t these women put just a tad more trust in their husbands? A “jump-off” can try whatever the flip she wants, but at the end of the day, isn’t it the dude’s choice to stray? Ahh, the twisted world of basketball wives.
Sisters Laura and Gloria go shopping for Laura’s new baby with their mother, Gloria, Senior (WHAT??). Gloria, Sr. and Gloria address Laura’s anger due to all the life changes she’s been through lately. She went from a larger than life “basketball wives” type lifestyle to the tough, hard knocks of a single mother with three children. After talking to her sister and her mother, Laura wants to meet with Malaysia to discuss what happened and apologize. Laura thinks she took out her laundry list of issues on Malaysia, and the two seem to enjoy mending fences when they get together. The ladies make amends, but now need to figure out how to get their sisters to cool down and get over the argument.
Laura brings Gloria to meet with Malaysia and her sister Krystal to make sure that everything is cool. After their lunch, the Sharks and the Jets, I mean Team Lauria and Team Krystasia decide to call a truce. Malaysia thinks their behavior was embarrassing and wants to put it behind her. Everyone is in agreement, although Gloria may not be as on board as she appears…Next, Imani, Laura and Malaysia (new besties?) head to lunch to fill in an absent Malaysia on Draya’s paintball antics. Imani just cannot get over Draya’s past as a stripper, but Laura hopes the ladies can guide Draya in a better, more positive direction.
Imani hosts a passion party for the ladies, complete with her life coach to help guide the women to achieve their goals. Right out of the gate, Draya seems disappointed, as she was under the impression that it was going to be a sex toy party. Laura had the same assumption, although she won’t admit it. The ladies are given cards with words such as “family” and “career” and must reveal whether they are “passionate” or “not passionate” about those aspects of their lives. Draya’s card says “social relations” and she is not passionate about those as people always seem to view her negatively, despite her best efforts to get along. She believes people’s perceptions of her are often inaccurate.
The women then play a game where they anonymously place adjectives describing the others into a box with each woman’s name on it. The adjectives in Draya’s box are less than stellar, with Imani describing her as “worthless.” Ouch. Anonymous much? Although Imani won’t reveal why she feels this way, I’m betting it has something to do with the history between the two that Imani won’t admit exists. Malaysia comes to Draya’s defense as she feels no human being is worthless. Imani apologizes for making Draya feel badly, and the pair decides that this party isn’t the proper forum for them to hash out their differences. We’ll just let this conflict stew and fester a little while longer…
Draya is now hosting a party of her own for BET weekend, and she extends an invitation to the ladies, who find the shindig a tad boring. When Draya arrives, she turns off her guests with her drunken comments. Then Draya begins antagonizing Malaysia about being a “beauty queen” and requests to see her lady bits. Request denied.
Next week, the ladies go from passion parties to stripper pole parties, and Imani and Draya meet to discuss their issues, although Imani doesn’t seem convinced by Draya’s version of events.
WHAT DO YOU THINK OF THE NEW SEASON SO FAR? WHAT SKELETONS ARE IN DRAYA’S CLOSET? WILL GLORIA ACCEPT MALAYSIA AS OPENLY AS LAURA HAS?
