Michael Jordan teammate declared bankruptcy after losing $34m paying child support to eight different women

Jason Caffey won two NBA championship alongside Michael Jordan in the 1990s, but the former Chicago Bulls player lost all his basketball earnings to child-support lawsuits.

Standing 6ft 8ins, the Alabama-born power forward was selected by the Bulls in the first round of the 1995 NBA draft.

And at the end of his rookie season, he helped the Chicago side to a fourth championship in six years, playing a bit-part role in a campaign that saw Jordan, Scottie Pippen, Dennis Rodman and co. eventually overcome the Seattle Supersonics in the 1996 NBA finals.

The following year, the Bulls repeated the trick, this time seeing off the Utah Jazz in the finals. And Caffey was more involved, featuring in 75 of the team's 82 regular-season fixtures and playing 17 games in the play-offs.

Caffey joined the Golden State Warriors midway through the following season and enjoyed the best statistical year of his career in the 1999-2000 campaign, averaging 12 points and 6.8 rebounds per game.

After three seasons with the Milwaukee Bucks, he retired in 2003, bringing to an end a career that had seen him earn $34,068,568.

But Caffey was a troubled figure, struggling with undiagnosed mental health issues even while he was in the NBA and later suffering bouts of depression.

He reportedly fathered 10 children by eight different women and struggled to meet his child-support obligations.

He racked up major debts and, according to CNN, spent time in jail for failure to pay his child-support bills, eventually filing for bankruptcy.

But Caffey has since turned his life around and in 2019 he wrote a book aiming to use his own experiences and missteps to educate young men.

And Caffey credits Jordan and his former Bulls colleagues for instilling a drive within him that helped him get his life back on track.

“It’s no secret I went through a major downfall, some decisions I made in life after my basketball career,” Caffey said in 2020.

“The teachings I learned from Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippen, Dennis Rodman – they’re the reason I’m still alive today and I’m still able to provide for myself.

"Had I not learned that ‘never say die’ mentality from those guys, there’s no telling where I might be.

"I thank the Lord for putting me in that position, with the best of the best.”