Shaunie finally convinced two happily married women to join the cast of Basketball Ex’s and Baby mamas.
In addition to attention whoring Real World alum/basketball ex Tami Roman and upwardly mobile been-in-it-for-years basketball girlfriend Ashley Walker, Season 2 also welcomes Juli Richmond and Kimberli Russell.
Flip the pages to see the official promo photos of the Season 2 cast and learn a little more about the new girls and the girls you already love to hate.
Juli (short for Juliannah) is married to Mitch Richmond, who played for the Warriors, Kings, Wizards and Lakers before retiring in ’02. The Richmonds have three boys, ages 11, 15, and 17; at least one of which is following in their daddy’s footsteps. Juli is also a member of the National Basketball Wives Association, Behind The Bench. (We would love to be a fly on the wall at one of those meetings.)
Kimberli is the wife of Byron Russell, whose career highlight is the fact that he guarded Michael Jordan in Game 6 of the ’98 NBA Finals while playing for the Utah Jazz. For years it’s been said that a foul should have been called in that play ’cause Jordan pushed him. But even Russell admits Jordan would have gotten that shot regardless.
The Russells still party together, most recently kicking it with Snoop and Shante at Mike Epps’ birthday party in LA last night.
From her cast bio:
It has been years since Tami Roman left the “Real World” and started living in it. Shortly after the show, Tami met, dated, and married NBA player Kenny Anderson. Initially it was a marriage made in heaven but soon things went awry. Noted for lacking a filter, a determined Tami was not going to stand idly by and she did what she thought was best for herself and her girls. Tami left the marriage with what she brought to it, due to the prenup that she signed but never really discussed publicly. She didn’t get a dime. Without any child support, Tami has had to accept welfare and use food stamps to care for her family. In one of Season 2’s dramatically compelling storylines, Tami and Kenny try to resolve their issues and he attempts to have a relationship with his daughters, who he hasn’t seen in a decade.
Ashley Walker, longtime girlfriend of Miami Heat trouble maker Rafer Alston – better known as Skip To My Lou in his And 1 streetball days – seems to be the tamest of the crew. Here’s what she recently told us about her man, the show, and their relationship.
Well, like any basketball player, he’s very opposed to me doing this but, eventually, he did support me but he was totally against me doing the show, in the beginning. He kept going back and forth with making appearance, so, we’ll see. I couldn’t see any guy really wanting their significant other to be a part of a show like this but he does support me in it.
We will be getting married in 2012 but we’re not officially engaged.
The original cast – Shaunie O’Neal, Evelyn Lozada, Jennifer Williams, Suzie Ketcham and Royce Reed – are all back for Season 2. So is Gloria Govan, who swore she was through with reality TV. Royce is still a little on the ratchet side. Suzie is set to kick off the season with some drama from the group’s Vegas trip. Jennifer is still trying to save her marriage to Eric for whatever reason. Evelyn’s cast bio says she wants another child, we hope that doesn’t mean we’re going to be watching her ‘relationship’ with Ochocinco develop on camera. And Shaunie is still playing puppet master.
Check out the ladies’ individual photos and candids from a girls’ night out on the next page.
