Basketball Wives

Former NBA megastar Stephon Marbury's wife is at war over nearly a million bucks worth of jewelry which she claims was stolen right out from under her.

Latasha Marbury had a pair of diamond earrings, a diamond pendant and a diamond necklace which she claims she had to sell to reduce the insanely expensive insurance premiums she was paying for her $2.5 mil jewelry collection. Yes, even rich people get cash-strapped.

Latasha claims she took the 3 items -- worth $900,000 -- to an NYC jeweler to sell, but she claims he outright stole them from her.

So Latasha filed a theft claim with her insurance company. Now here's the snag. The insurance company says the only way it would pay on a theft claim is if the jewelry were taken by force or stolen from a safe place.

The insurance company claims in Latasha's case she voluntarily handed the goods over so it's a case of tough luck.

"Basketball Wives" star Eric Williams -- who spent 12 seasons in the NBA -- is on the hook for more than $24k in unpaid child support ... but his baby mama says the 41-year-old has gone M.I.A.

TMZ Sports has learned ... back in November, a Colorado judge ordered Williams to fork over a total of $24,434.45 to the mother of his 13-year-old son.

Problem is ... no one can find Williams to collect the cash -- so the baby mama has yet to collect.

We contacted to the woman's lawyer who tells us, "Efforts to locate [Williams] have been exhausting."

It seems the woman's legal team is preparing to turn up the heat if she doesn't get paid -- and could move to get Eric locked up if he doesn't pay up.

It's not the first time Williams has had child support issues -- last year a judge issued an arrest warrant for the guy after he blew off a hearing in which he was supposed to submit a DNA test to establish paternity for a different child.

Evelyn Lozada got a helluva Christmas gift this morning from Dodgers star Carl Crawford ... a 14.5 carat DIAMOND ENGAGEMENT RING ... and sources tell TMZ the ring's worth $1.4 MILLION!!!

Crawford -- who's in the middle of a $142 million contract -- popped the question this morning ... and the "Basketball Wives" star said YES!

Just like Dwyane Wade, Crawford picked up the ring from go-to celebrity jeweler Jason of Beverly Hills.

For the record, the ring Wade gave to Gabrielle Union was ONLY 8.5 carats ... but size doesn't really matter, right???

Evelyn has been married before -- she tied the knot with Chad Johnson back in 2012 ... but divorced him later that year after the NFL star headbutted her during an argument. Before Johnson, she was engaged to NBA star Antoine Walker (but they never married).

As for her new man, she started dating Crawford earlier this year ... and Evelyn is 7 months pregnant with his child.

Congrats!

"Basketball Wives" star Evelyn Lozada isn't just pregnant ... she's bursting ... and we got photos of the enormous baby bump.

The pics were snapped yesterday in Hawaii -- where Evelyn hit the beach with her 20-year-old daughter Shaniece -- and there's no denying ... Evelyn's got one big bun in the oven.

"Basketball Wives" star Evelyn Lozada has been keeping a big secret -- she's 6-months pregnant -- and TMZ has learned Chad Johnson is NOT the baby daddy.

Sources close to Lozada tell us ... she's been seeing a guy for almost a year now and the relationship has gotten serious.

We're told ... the pregnancy was planned -- it's not a case of the whoops! And until now only a small number of relatives were privy to the news.

Lozada famously divorced Chad Johnson in Sept. 2012 ... after an explosive domestic dispute ended their 2-month-old marriage.

Don't count on seeing a new "Basketball Wives" reunion show any time soon ... the Season 5 reunion special has been canceled because Evelyn Lozada pulled out.

The show was supposed to tape earlier this month -- but sources close to production tell us, Evelyn bailed, forcing producers to pull the plug on the entire thing. We're told the taping will not be rescheduled.

According to sources, Evelyn jumped ship because she's sick and tired of talking about her split from ex-husband Chad Johnson. We're told she knew the break-up would be the biggest topic on the reunion show, so she refused to participate.

Apparently, the other 'Wives' (specifically Tami, Tasha, and Suzie) have zilch to talk about -- we're told producers felt the girls didn't have enough material for the hour-long episode sans Ev.

Sources tell us, Evelyn has grown tired of the cattiness on 'BW' and wants to move on with her life.

"Basketball Wives" star Draya Michele says ex-cast member Laura Govan only ranted against the VH1 show out of spite ... 'cause she's still pissed about being kicked off.

Draya was scramming from a sushi spot in West Hollywood last night ... and dissed Laura hard for telling us the show's creator Shaunie O'Neal ruined BB wives by keying in on "hos" who aren't even married to basketball players.

Govan never mentioned Draya by name -- but it was pretty clear she was throwing shade at Michele and co-star Sunday Carter.

"Basketball Wives" should only feature the WIVES of basketball players ... and NOT random "hos" ... so says former cast member Laura Govan who says the recent crop of women are ruining the reality show.

Govan -- who was axed from the show after Season 2 -- tells us she's got a serious beef with show creator Shaunie O'Neal ... explaining, "I feel like she didn't keep [the show] in the basketball creed."

"She shoulda kept 'Basketball Wives,' basketball wives" ... adding, "There coulda been a 'Housewives or a Ho' show for everybody else later."

Clearly, Laura is talking about cast members like Draya Michele (ex-GF of football player Orlando Scandrick) and Sunday Carter (who reportedly had a daughter with married ex-NBA star Larry Hughes.)

"Basketball Wives" star Royce Reed claims Dwight Howard took off with their son and won't tell her where he is ... a perilous problem because the tyke doesn't have his meds.

Royce went to court asking for an emergency hearing ... claiming their 6-year-old son Braylon went to California to visit Dwight, and that's the last she heard from her baby daddy or the boy. Dwight's parents eventually called her to say the kid was in Colorado.

Royce says her son needs his meds for an undisclosed medical condition and the Rx bottle is now empty -- Dwight never bothered to get it refilled.

She says without the meds, their son's health is in danger.

Royce doesn't have a problem with Dwight taking care of the boy for a while, but she wants the judge to order him to refill the prescription and give Braylon his meds. She also wants to know exactly where her boy is and how she can get in touch.

Shank ... fish ... yard-out ... all words Nia Crooks doesn't need to learn -- the "Basketball Wives" star copped a plea deal for her insane bitch-slap-case ... and won't spend a day behind bars.

TMZ broke the story ... Nia was charged with misdemeanor battery by the Broward County State Attorney's Office after she pimp slapped the S**t out of co-star Jennifer Williams -- and it was all caught by VH1's cameras.

Nia faced up to a year in jail, but decided to strike a deal with prosecutors (good idea considering the whole "on tape" thing) ... and pled no contest.

In exchange she was sentenced to the following: 1-year probation, $645 fine, and ordered to write a letter of apology, stay away from Jennifer and undergo 13 weeks of anger management.

Now, let's learn from Nia's mistakes -- by watching the slap:

Chad Johnson headbutted ex-wife Evelyn Lozada so hard during their infamous domestic dispute last year, she was left with a massive bloody gash on her forehead -- and TMZ has obtained photographic evidence.

The photos were taken by Davie Police in the Florida emergency room where Evelyn was transported following Chad's attack on August 11th, 2012. According to police, the forehead laceration measured 3 inches.

TMZ broke the story ... Johnson was arrested for domestic violence shortly after the explosive argument at his Jupiter, FL mansion. Evelyn filed for divorce three days later.

Following the arrest, Chad pled "no contest" to the domestic violence charge and was sentenced to 12 months probation and domestic violence classes.

Chad was thrown back in the slammer last week after slapping his lawyer's backside during a sentencing hearing.

He was released again yesterday following a probation violation sentencing hearing. During the hearing, the judge called the head gash photos "horrific."

Better late than never ... so says "Basketball Wives" star Evelyn Lozada who finally went to prom last night -- TWENTY YEARS after graduating from high school, TMZ has learned.

Here's how it all went down -- just a few months ago, a high school senior from Bloomfield, Michigan reached out to the VH1 star on Twitter and threw up a Hail Mary ... by asking her to be his date to the prom.

Shockingly, Lozada ACCEPTED -- thinking it would be a fun experience ... particularly because she never went to her own high school prom because she was pregnant at the time.

We're told Evelyn's date Anthony was quite the Romeo ... and even bought Evelyn's corsage.

She took care of the rest -- paying for transportation (in a sick Denali) ... and a fancy dinner -- plus, she paid for her own plane ticket out from L.A..

We're told the two had a great time -- with Evelyn dancing her face off the entire night ... but unfortunately for her date -- her prom dress stayed ON after the party.

Still, not a bad night.

Evelyn Lozada has a message for Chad Johnson ... wait, no she doesn't ... 'cause she doesn't ever wanna speak two words to her ex-husband ever again.

The "Basketball Wives" star had just arrived at LAX yesterday when we asked if she had spoken with Chad since Monday's arrest ... stemming from the time he attacked her last year.

But Evelyn -- who immediately divorced Chad after the incident -- told TMZ ... she doesn't want anything to do with the ex-NFL star ever again.

No relationship. No communication. No nothing.

Evelyn Lozada fired off a cease and desist letter to ex-hubby Chad Johnson ... warning him to stop harassing her online ... OR ELSE.

Sources close to the "Basketball Wives" star tell TMZ ... Evelyn's lawyer sent the letter Thursday after Chad BLASTED her on Twitter ... making crude comments and accusing her of cheating.

Sources close to Evelyn tell us ... Chad's Twitter allegations are 100% false -- she NEVER cheated and if he doesn't stop spreading lies STAT ... she'll get a restraining order.

Not only that, we're told the prosecutor's office overseeing Chad's criminal domestic violence case is aware of the situation and is concerned. We broke the story ... Evelyn filed for divorce after Chad was arrested for allegedly headbutting her just weeks after they got hitched.

Beware of flying meatballs ... "Basketball Wives" stars Suzie Ketcham and Kenya Bell got into an all out physical brawl on set last week ... that started when one threw a plate of meatballs at the other.

Sources close to the production tell TMZ that the fight went down at a restaurant in L.A. where the cast was taping an episode for season 5 -- in which Kenya (who was fired last year) was temporarily brought back to settle her beef with Suzie.

But it didn't go as planned ... OR DID IT??? We're told the two got into a heated verbal exchange ... which quickly escalated when Suzie threw her plate of meatballs across the table, striking Kenya.

According to our sources, Kenya fired back by lunging at Suzie and then punches were thrown on both sides. Producers were forced to step in and break it up.

Our sources say fellow cast members Evelyn Lozada and Tami Roman walked away -- wanting no part in the melee. Police were NOT called to the scene.