Draya Michele said it herself at the Basketball Wives L.A. reunion “The underdog rose to the top on this show.” She admitted to me during our interview that the show isn’t quite what she imagined, but that she’s happy with it because she stayed true to herself. But one thing is for sure, she had no idea her name would be in so many of the other women’s mouths for so much of the season. “I didn’t know I was going to be like a highlight,” she told me. Oh, but she was, both on the show and during the two-part reunion where she held her own and easily had some of the best quotes of the night which stole the show.
Did you have any idea what this would be like, this whole filming experience?
Definitely imagined it to be something different. I kind of imagined it to be with me more like Royce in the Miami show.
I think that’s what a lot of people imagined.
Right. I don’t think it turned out that way, though.
No. What I’m most surprised by is you are the one person, you even said it yourself at one point, “Everybody at first is against me and now everybody’s with me.” I don’t think anybody really expected that.
Right. I mean, I don’t know what everybody thought they were going to think of me, but what I thought everyone was going to think of me—I though everyone was going to hate me and just not like me. You know, what I did was I just went in and promised myself that I’d stay true to myself, and I did, and it ended up working in my favor.
Watching the show back, was there anything that shocked you the most about how anyone was portrayed?
Not really as much as anyone was portrayed, I was shocked about how much time they consumed talking about me because I really had no idea all of that was taking place.
Right. I’m always checking Twitter and the fans are always like, “This is the Draya show,” but I feel like you weren’t trying to make it about you, it’s just how things played out.
Right. I mean, I didn’t expect any of that. I didn’t know it was going to happen like that. I didn’t know I was going to be like a highlight.
Are you—were you offended at all that people were so harsh and calling you names from the get-go? “Groupie” and all that stuff.
Yeah, I was definitely offended being that it was coming from them. I mean, they’re not God-like women, so it’s like, where do you get off saying that? It was shocking but, you know, I took it.
Did you know when the series started that your past and the whole internet thing was going to be a topic of conversation?
I pretty much expected it and prepared myself for it. But I just assumed that if I discussed it once, I wasn’t going to have to discuss it several times. Once I did discuss it one time, I thought I was done. So being that it kept being brought up, it became a problem for me.
At this point, are you friends with everyone? It seems like Hawaii helped you all bond.
No, I’m not really friendly with any of them except for Malaysia.
Do you think that they believe you? Or do you think that it’s still an open-ended thing with them?
I think that they don’t want to believe me, so it’s like I really don’t care if they do or don’t. I’m like kind of done trying to prove myself to them.
Were you worried that it would affect your reputation? Even just like talking about it and if fans don’t believe you, were you worried about that reaction?
I was definitely worried how I was going to be looked at by the fans, but you know, they weren’t saying anything that wasn’t already said. So, they were kind of bringing up old news basically, and I walked through the fire already, so this coming around a second time, it wasn’t as traumatizing as it was the first time. It was more just annoying.
When the situation was in the air, did you ever want to be like, I could Google any of you and come up with something nasty?
I actually said that, like, ‘You know, I’m sure I could Google and find out whatever I need to find out about you.’ It’s like I don’t have the time to do that. I have like six day jobs and two night jobs. I don’t have time to sit on a computer and Google you.
Yeah. How’s the bathing suit line?
My bikini line is doing good. So far, so good. It’ll be ready by Christmas. I’m excited and happy. Everything that I could ever expect from what I wanted to do, it came to life. I made it come true. I’m happy.
I don’t want to dwell on one storyline, but like, the worthless thing; does that still stick with you at all?
No, only because like…as soon as Imani called me worthless, her dirt hit the blogs because people were like, “How dare she?” You know, everybody has their own stuff, mine just surfaced. Luckily for them, no one even cares enough about them to even put their dirt out. But I mean, it happens. Everybody has dirt, so coming from her I was just like, it’s the pot calling the kettle black.
Did it affect your relationship with her? Is it strained even now?
You know, she was one of the people I was most shocked at because in the beginning, I really liked her.
Can we talk about your style? How do you describe yourself?
For the show, I really just wanted to look fresh, you don’t see me very made up, I wanted that “fresh from the shower” look during my interviews.
Your pointy nails are what caught my eye.
Everybody talks about these nails! I don’t know what it is.
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