Former NBA Champion Jason Caffey Has 10 Kids With 8 Different Women
Stories of NBA stars having multiple children is not unusual. Unfortunately, some of those stories involve children from other relationships, sometimes unknowingly. Sometimes it involves more serious accusations like not paying child support. This is what happened to former Chicago Bull Jason Caffey.
At one time, he found himself in a situation where he fathered 10 kids with eight different women due to a promiscuous sex life. If such stories were once common in the sports world, not all of those situations ended well. Caffey’s story took a positive turn in more recent years thanks to him writing a book and co-creating a program to help others.
Why did Jason Caffey have so many children?
According to Caffey, his life spiraled out of control before he even signed to the NBA, reports the Boston Globe. His life growing up in Mobile, Alabama was not a pleasant one. It was an oft-told tale of being in a family without enough parental love, plus Caffey hanging out with people from the streets to gain his knowledge of the world.
Part of this meant hanging out with pimps and having one-night-stands with women. He carried this attitude into the NBA when signed by the Chicago Bulls in 1995. By this time, he already had children from various women in his life.
Playing in the Chicago Bulls was also a shock to the system for Caffey. He was suddenly thrust into a world where money was no object, including playing alongside the greatest basketball player in the history of the sport (psst … Michael somebody).
Things became even wilder for Caffey, resulting in more illegitimate children. Yet, this was not his lowest low in life. His worst came after being traded by the Bulls to the Golden State Warriors in 1998.
Caffey’s life crashed with the Milwaukee Bucks
Caffey’s years with the Golden State Warriors went well enough, if never resulting in an NBA title. His time there was long before the Steph Curry years hit.
The late ’90s and early 2000s were not the best years for Golden State, making Caffey become a bit of a nomad in the NBA. One can imagine his mental state going from enjoying championship rings with the Bulls in the mid-90s to eventually ending up in the Milwaukee Bucks by 2000.
If some might say this was a comedown, the correlation seems related to why Caffey started to spiral out of control himself. During his time with the Bucks, he was accused (along with two other Bucks players) of an assault outside a bar, according to the Chicago Sun-Times.
In 2001, Caffey also suffered a panic attack while playing. Back then, pinning panic attacks as a mental illness was still years away, placing Caffey on a true precipice of questioning his sanity.
Jason Caffey eventually went to therapy
After quitting basketball in 2003, he finally began to seek help for his problems. Not until he was in his 40s did he realize his loveless upbringing led to his issues with women. In turn, it led to mental illness and his anxiety.
Now, at age 46, Caffey is currently head coach of the ABA Mobile Bay Hurricanes, a job he has held for a decade. In his Boston Globe interview above, Caffey notes only in recent years has he finally learned how to respect women, something he wants to teach others following in his footsteps.
A book he wrote with Nadine Pierre-Louis called Richard and The Boyz: The Puberty Experience is his path to helping young men live more positive lives. He also works with a similar program called Doc N’ Jock where he speaks in person to men going through what he went through.
The even better news is Caffey managed to have good relationships with all those kids he had after child custody issues. Nowadays, the NBA seems to have moved away from players being that promiscuous, something Caffey should be given credit for in helping shape.
