Caleb Martin has certainly made a name for himself in the 2023 NBA playoffs. You may have heard many times that Caleb went undrafted as the 6-6 swingman averaged 19.3 points per game on 60% from the field and 48.9% from three helped to eliminate the higher-seeded Boston Celtics. Caleb also contributed 6.4 rebounds and played great defense.

Now in large part because of Caleb’s play, the unsuspecting eighth-seeded Miami Heat are on their ways to the NBA Finals; only the second time an eight seed had made it the Finals. Martin played so well in the Eastern Conference Finals that it pushed his profile exponentially. So much so, that he was one short vote of winning the Eastern Conference Finals MVP over Jimmy Butler.

If the Heat can pull off another upset against the heavily-favored Denver Nuggets (according to betting sites in Spain), they’ll easily be the lowest seed ever to win an NBA championship.

Caleb and Cody Martin’s Mom and Dad

Caleb Martin hails from Mocksville, North Carolina. He and his twin brother Cody are both NBA players after having notable careers at Oak Hill Academy and two years at both North Carolina State University and University of Nevada. After their four years in college they entered the 2019  NBA Draft. While Caleb went undrafted, his twin brother Cody was chosen 36th overall in the second round. Caleb currently plays for the Heat while Cody is on the Charlotte Hornets roster, but hasn’t had the same opportunity as brother Caleb.

They wouldn’t be here without their mother. Caleb Martin’s parents are Chris Martin and Jenny Martin, but their mom essentially raised Caleb, Cody and their older brother Raheem by herself due to their father not being around.

Jenny raised her sons in Cooleemee, North Carolina, a small town that has fewer than 1000 people. Working three jobs, she’s been supportive throughout Caleb and Cody’s basketball journeys, providing guidance and encouragement as they pursued their dreams of playing in the NBA.

With Jenny supporting her sons, the Martin boys are both playing for the best basketball league in the world.

Bi-racial Background and Multicultural

Caleb Martin and his brother Cody Martin are biracial, with African American and Caucasian heritage coming from their father and mother respectively. We know this because this is what the Reno Gazette Journal had to say about the brothers’ race and parents.

(Jenny) is white. Cody and Caleb’s father is black. That made things in the South even more difficult. She woke up one morning to a burning cross in her yard. She was once chased by a menacing truck.

The Martin siblings’ racial background reflects the diverse and multicultural nature of their family, but that lineage wasn’t seen as a positive thing in the small town they grew up in. Martin recalled some terrible experiences being a single white mother of three mixed children in the South:

Bennett saw horrifying things while raising oldest son Raheem and twins Cody and Caleb. One Sunday morning she awoke to a cross smoldering in her front yard. That wasn’t an isolated incident of racial hatred she experienced in the 1990s as the white mother of three mixed-raced children in the South. “People would say things quite often,” Bennett recalled of the slurs. “One instance where my car had broken down and we were actually walking back to our home and someone tried to run us over. The stares, the looks, the whispers – direct and indirect comments. Those things happened a lot.”

Though we are establishing biologically that Caleb and Cody Martin are biracial, it is important to note that racial identity and ethnicity are personal and can be self-identified by individuals. While sources have confirm Cody and Caleb Martin’s biracial background, it is essential to respect individual experiences and self-identification in matters of race and ethnicity.