The Chicago Bulls released guard Jaden Ivey on Monday, hours after he posted an Instagram video that railed against the NBA’s stance toward Pride Month and attitudes toward the gay community.
“They proclaim Pride Month in the NBA,” he said. “They proclaim it. They show it to the world. They say come join us for Pride, for Pride Month to celebrate unrighteousness. They proclaim it. They proclaim it on the billboards. They proclaim it in the streets. Unrighteousness. So how is it that one can’t speak righteousness?”
The Bulls had acquired Ivey, a former first-round pick of the Detroit Pistons, through a three-team deal before February’s trade deadline. He played just five games in Chicago before a knee injury ended his season.
In recent weeks, the Purdue product began posting more extensive videos about religion to his social media accounts.
The Bulls cited “conduct detrimental to the team” when they released Ivey on Monday.
“Everybody comes with their own personal experiences, but one is we’ve got to all be professional,” Bulls coach Billy Donovan said before Monday’s game in San Antonio. “I think there’s got to be a high level of respect for one another, and we’ve got to help each other and then be accountable to those standards.”
Ivey, in another Instagram video, disagreed with that assessment.
“They said my conduct was detrimental to the team, right? Why didn’t they just say, ’We disagree with his stance on LGBTQ?’” the 24-year-old said in a video recorded from an airplane on Monday evening. “What did I do to the team? What did I do to the players?”
In the same post, Ivey went on to criticize Golden State Warriors guard Steph Curry, who has been one of the league’s premier stars for more than a decade.
“That’s why you got Steph Curry and y’all believe he’s a Christian because he wrote [Philippians 4:13],” Ivey, who previously called Catholicism a “false religion,” said. “Y’all think he’s a Christian, but he’s cursing just like the world.”
Ivey, the son of Notre Dame women’s basketball coach Niele Ivey, told reporters when he arrived in Chicago, “I’m not the J.I. I used to be. The old J.I. is dead. I’m alive in Christ, no matter what the basketball setting is. … No matter how many DNPs, how many points I score, those things are a temporary thing. Jesus is eternal.”
Ivey was already slated to become a free agent this offseason. He’ll be free to join any NBA squad this summer.
In Monday evening’s post, Ivey mentioned that other teams may not bring him in because he is “too religious.” He also noted that the NBA championships won by players like LeBron James and Michael Jordan won’t “matter on judgment day.”
Donovan said, “I hope for him that he is OK. I’ve had conversations with Jaden and stuff, and he’s always been about rehabbing his knee and trying to get back on the court and trying to play. But … there are certain standards I think we want to have as an organization and try to live up to those each and every day.”
