Stephen Jackson took the hard and winding road to the NBA, and subsequently, its pinnacle. Raised by a single mother in Texas, he was deemed ineligible for the NCAA due to his low SAT scores. At that point, he was ready to give up on his basketball dreams had it not been for Mike Bibby’s mother. Virginia Bibby ensured the teenager weathered the challenging period. And, the 2003 NBA champion persevered with grit and hard work.
In 1996, Jackson was heartbroken when he learnt that he couldn’t join the University of Arizona to team up with his friend Mike. He found comfort in Mrs. Bibby, who helped Jackson get drafted by the Phoenix Suns in 1997. She remained a pillar of support for Jackson in the years that followed, including a hard period in his personal life.
The year was 2005. Jackson was going through another painful moment in his life. He had to call off his wedding from the altar. Mrs. Bibby, once again, came to the aid of the former All-American.
Jackson was on Club 520, elaborating on his relationship with the Bibby family, when he recalled the tumultuous cancelled wedding with Basketball Wives star Imani Showalter.
“My fiance at the time wouldn’t sign a prenup and I was hurt at the time. I was crying afterwards, I was hurt cause, you know, all this stuff, my family was there. It was just a lot on me,” the 14-season veteran shared.
“Mike’s mom came and wiped snot from my nose and my face with her bare hands. And told me I became a man. That’s when I knew she really loved me,” Jackson recollected.
Unfortunately, Mrs. Bibby could do little to help the NBA pro recover the money he had splurged on the wedding.
Stephen Jackson lost $400,000 on his wedding
The cancelled wedding became a much-discussed topic in Jackson’s life at the time. He firmly stood by the decision, and have explained on many occasions why the prenuptial agreement was a dealbreaker for him.
“I had been telling her two months before we was going to Texas, ‘Look, I’m telling you now. You need to sign this’…You’re not going to dictate how I take care of my mom and my sister and all that,” he explained in an interview once.
As per Jackson, Showalter promised him that she would sign it. But she stalled it till the wedding day and then refused to put the pen to paper. That’s when the NBA pro decided do what he thought was best for him and his family.
“So I called it off. You know, I ended up wasting like, close to $400,000 on the wedding. Just wasted,” Stack revealed.
Jackson married Renata Elizabeth White in 2009. But soon after the wedding, his wife attempted to sue Jackson for violating the terms of their prenuptial agreement. They divorced four years later.
In 2015, during Stack’s final NBA season, he met Tamara. The two tied the knot in 2021. There was no prenuptial agreement this time around.