NBA player Jaden Ivey went on a social media tirade after being waived from the Chicago Bulls on Monday. The Bulls claimed Ivey was waived for “conduct detrimental to the team” after he made comments critical of pride month, citing his Christian faith.
In a series of Instagram live posts, Ivey gave his thoughts on being waived by the Bulls.
“They’re liars, bro. This is lying,” Ivey said in one Instagram live. “They’re lying saying my conduct is detrimental to the team. That’s a lie. Ask any one of them coaches in there, ‘Was I a good teammate?’ All I’m preaching about is Jesus Christ and they waived me. They say I’m crazy, right? I’m psycho.
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“They gonna try to stop me but I’m not, I’m going to keep speaking the truth. That’s why everybody around me turning their back on me because of my faith. I didn’t get myself waived. I was in the gym today, I was rehabbing, lifting, and doing what was required of me in my job… I could’ve quit on my own self but they kicked me out.”
Ivey later spoke about his addiction to pornography and how Christianity helped him overcome it.
“Before I came to the Lord Jesus Christ, the NBA was everything to me,” Ivey said in one livestream. “I didn’t know God. I didn’t know Jesus when I came to the NBA. I was a fornicator, I was a pornography addict and I used to get drunk. That’s all I knew. And after a win, and after all those points, I felt good… I felt like I had everything set out for me.”
Ivey also appeared to criticize Steph Curry and LeBron James, questioning their devotion to Christianity.
“That’s why you got Steph Curry… he don’t know Jesus, and I pray he comes to the truth, that him and his family be saved in Jesus’ name… ” Ivey said. “All them rings he got, all them rings LeBron got, all them rings Michael Jordan got, all them people in the Hall of Fame who don’t know Jesus Christ — No. It’s not gonna matter on Judgment Day if you don’t know Jesus and your name is not written in the book of life.”
Ivey’s video calling out the league was posted on Monday morning, as he said it was “unrighteousness” that the NBA would celebrate pride month.
“The world can proclaim LGBTQ, right?” Ivey said in that video. “They proclaim pride month and the NBA. They proclaim it. They show it to the world. They say, ‘Come join us for pride month to celebrate unrighteousness.’ They proclaim it. They proclaim it on the billboards. They proclaim in the streets. Unrighteousness. So, how is it that one can’t speak righteousness? Who are they to say that this man is crazy?”
Ivey also said in a different video that Catholicism was a “false religion,” which comes as a potential issue for Ivey’s mother.
Ivey was the fifth overall pick of the 2022 NBA Draft by the Pistons, who hoped he would be a key piece in their rebuild. He was solid to start his career, making the 2022-23 NBA All-Rookie team after averaging 16.3 points, 3.9 rebounds and 5.2 assists per game, while shooting 41.6% from the field.
Ivey was traded to the Bulls as part of a three-team deal involving his previous Detroit Pistons and the Minnesota Timberwolves.
He posted a career-high 17.6 points per game during the 2024-25 campaign, as the Purdue product looked to be hitting his stride.
However, Ivey saw a regression in his production this year, primarily playing off the bench for the Pistons before the trade.
Ivey played just four games with the Bulls, averaging 11.5 points and 4.8 rebounds per game before his release.
Fox News Digital’s Scott Thompson contributed to this report.
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