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‘Basketball Wives’ Executive Producer Shaunie O’Neal Didn’t Want Brandi Maxiell Back, But VH1 Intervened

By Shaunee Flowers
Published on: 18:53 PST, Jul 16, 2016

One of the biggest feuds on Basketball Wives LA last season was between Shaunie O’Neal and Brandi Maxiell. During one of the most contentious arguments between the reality stars, Shaunie even told Brandi that she wouldn’t be coming back. Now fans are learning that Shaunie really didn’t want Brandi back on the reality TV hit, but VH1 intervened and kept her around for another season.

Imagine how surprised fans were when trailers for the Season 5 premiere of Basketball Wives LA debuted and Brandi was on the show again. It turns out that Brandi was still under contract with the show, so despite how badly Shaunie wanted to fire her and the fact that she already had done as much on camera, she really couldn’t just end Brandi’s run.

On the other hand, sneak peeks were shown with Brandi Maxiell and her friend LaTosha Duffey, who has joined BBWLA as a newcomer for this season. The women were seen in Dallas, where Brandi lives, and she was trying to decide if she really wanted to head to Los Angeles to do the show again. It’s pretty clear what she decided to do, and now we get to see Brandi square off with Shaunie again.

“VH1 had to step in on this one because I was like ‘I — no I don’t want to rock with her, I don’t care what y’all got to do, get us out that contract,’ But after sitting down I had to put on my professional hat…but the Shaunie did not want to, trust me,” Shaunie said of the decision to bring back Brandi.

It turns out that the executive producer role doesn’t give Shaunie the power to just hire and fire at will. She teased about another Basketball Wives star that she would have given the boot but wasn’t able to from the original Miami-based series.

“In Miami I had that moment. She was a dancer. Sorry Royce. Don’t get in your feelings… It’s years later,” Shaunie said about her former Basketball Wives co-star.

Brandi confirmed that she was returning to Basketball Wives LA for Season 5 back in June. When Malaysia Pargo shared the promotional poster on Twitter, that sealed the deal. Even though Shaunie O’Neal admitted that she didn’t really want to deal with Brandi Maxiell for another season, the women were being thrown together again, and it didn’t take long for things to escalate.

In the Season 5 teaser, Shaunie and Brandi are seen starting up where they left off. This time around, Brandi is refusing to apologize to Shaunie. While the Basketball Wives LA executive producer is definitely regretting working with Maxiell again, it’s pretty clear that she isn’t going anywhere.

“You’ll see how everything plays out. But we definitely went back to bad moments,” Brandi told Radar Online. “There were still bad feelings. It was really intense and difficult. I had a headache for about a month filming.”

Is it possible that Shaunie and Brandi will make up before the end of Season 5? It seems like Brandi was hinting that things are better. At least she said in the interview that the season is “really good.”

Also returning to the VH1 reality hit are Jackie Christie, Malaysia Pargo, Tami Roman, and Angel Brinks. Two newcomers are joining the BBWLA cast for a season that is already proving to be drama-filled.

Season 5 of Basketball Wives LA premieres on Sunday, July 17 on VH1.

[Photo by Jason Kempin/Getty Images]

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