Major Exclusive: Tami Roman Of Basketball Wives [Part 1]

When Tami Roman joined the cast of VH1′s hit reality show Basketball Wives last season, she definitely made her arrival known. It wasn’t her first time appearing on reality TV, as she had appeared on MTV’s The Real World: Los Angeles. The ex-wife of NBA player, Kenny Anderson, brought us her reality, as she introduced us to life post basketball wife.  The mother of two fell short and, at one point, was on food stamps as she raised her  two beautiful daughters, Lyric and Jazz.

We had the opportunity to chat with Tami in our two-part interview. She dished about this season of Basketball Wives, the awkwardness between her and Evelyn, who the new cast mate is, her upcoming business ventures and more.

Read Part 1 of our in-depth interview:

Vanessa: What made you make the decision to become a part of Basketball Wives and why do you think people are able to relate to you?

Tami: I watched the first season of Basketball Wives and I just felt like when I looked at the show that my life wasn’t being portrayed. I was a basketball wife and I wasn’t mani/pedi, you know, eating at restaurants everyday and living a lavish lifestyle. My life had taken a different turn and so I thought by bringing my truth of what happened with my life and me and my children would be a valuable asset to the show and a good side for the viewers to see because it’s not all that glamorous, fantasy life. I think people can relate to me because I don’t put up airs or a facade. I’m not trying to be something that I’m not. I’m showing the world my flaws and all and they’re able to take this journey with me. My family had gone through a hardship and now you see us recovering and now we’re making strides to get back on top. I think people can relate to that because everybody’s been down.

Vanessa: This season you guys are taping while the show is airing. Does it make things harder in regards to your interactions with each other?

Tami: I think it did only because normally when we watch the shows, the season is over so whatever somebody said you really don’t have the opportunity to react to it., [Laughs] that moment has gone. Now we’re taping and the night before you might have heard, Royce might have heard something that Evelyn said and now they have a scene together the next day, you know, it’s very awkward and very different from the way it’s been done in the past.

Vanessa: Out of all your castmates, I think people are shocked to see you and Royce so close. How did that happen?

Tami: I got a chance to know Royce when we went overseas to Spain during the second season. People tend to forget that what you see of us on TV is not the real amount of time that we’ve actually spent together. You see 20 minutes for a scene, we may have spent 3 hours that day. You’re sitting and you’re talking and just vibing with people and what I like about Royce is I noticed that she doesn’t try to be something that she’s not either, she’s like “this is just me, you either like it or you don’t.” In talking to some of the other people, I see a lot of façade. I see a lot of what they think people want to see rather than who they really are. So I just got closer to her. We text each other, we check in on each other, we talk on the phone, you know. I think out of everybody she’s been the most real with me and I know the other girls don’t like her but I haven’t had that experience with her. I treat people how they treat me.

Vanessa: The season just started and the drama between you and Evelyn has started. We all saw how last season ended so it’s natural for you to put your guard up but it must’ve broke your heart when you found out she was coming out with her “YOU ARE A NON F’N FACTOR B!TCH” T-shirt line.

Tami: I want to answer it before you say what you wanna say because I don’t want you to feel like I’m taking your answer. [Laughs] Here’s the truth about how I feel. That incident happened a whole year ago, a year and a half ago now and it wasn’t that I was affected by her having slept with my ex-husband. I didn’t care. We were already separated at that time. That would not have been an issue had she told me that when I first met her. It would’ve been like, oh girl okay, you know, whatever. The point that I was upset about was I filmed with this girl for three months, being in her space, getting to know her. Yes we had our ups and downs but for the most part, outside of the drama that VH1 wanted you to see, Evelyn and I were actually cool most of the time.  So for me it’s like we get to the end and you want to tell me something like that and then you want to be belligerent, boisterous, you know, calling me out of my name and all this other stuff. I think that any other woman in my position would’ve reacted the same way, which was you’re not going to call me out of my name, that’s not how it’s gonna go down. So now we know what happened with that. Now a whole year and a half later, we’re taping the third season, you apologize in the interim. “I really apologize for not having told her, she was cool with me. Hopefully we can work it out.” I’m thinking to myself, I really don’t know if I can trust you but you apologized so maybe there is something we can work out. We start season three and now your basically slapping me in my face again by endorsing the most negative thing one woman can say to another woman. I felt like that’s what bothered me about this. You apologizing which now I basically have to feel you’re just fake because you don’t mean what you say because when you apologize for something you don’t try to capitalize on it, especially when there’s so much stuff that comes out of your mouth. You could’ve made a T-shirt that said anything. It didn’t have to be that. So that’s how I felt, it just really bothered me and I felt like that statement was directly relative to me. People don’t know this, like my kids go to school and those T-shirts caused a lot of problems in my family. People coming up to my kids, “You a non-mother f*cking factor and your mother is too”. My kids are gonna go to bat for their mother. So now my kids are fighting in school and have never had a history of having any type of behavioral issues whatsoever. It’s a trickled down effect that’s continuing when it doesn’t have to. That’s what bothers me.

Vanessa: So it had nothing to do with profits, more about principle and respect.

Tami: Yes! I don’t care about profits. And I told her I’m not knocking your hustle but I just felt like, as a woman because Antoine had infidelities, we don’t know Chad could possibly have infidelities. Would you want somebody that slept with him to say, “You a non-mother f*cking factor bitch because he’s sleeping with me,” and go out and make shirts about it? [Laughs]

Vanessa: Since we’re on the topic of Evelyn, what are your thoughts on Evelyn and Chad? Do you think they will ever get married?

Tami: You know what? I think that the viewers are not stupid and people are going to see through things because eventually the truth will be exposed. Everything that you do in the dark will come to light but my experience now I’m just talking about my experience, I’ve never been around her and Chad together but I’ve heard them on the phone, I see them texting each other all the time. When I’m around her, he is calling her, he’s checking on her, he’s around in that sense. So for me, all I can say is it appears to be real. Now whether that proves to be true still remains to be seen.

Stay tuned for part 2! If you thought this was MAJOR, we have a whole lot more.