The drama involving exiled NBA star Jaden Ivey has taken a dramatic twist after his wife called him out over his ‘lies’ – shortly after he was cut by the Chicago Bulls following public criticism of the NBA for supporting the LGBTQ+ community.
In a livestream on Monday, Ivey sparked chaos after taking aim at the NBA – before being swiftly axed by the Bulls due to conduct detrimental to the team.
‘The world can proclaim LGBTQ, right?’ Ivey told viewers in the livestream. ‘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 on the billboards. They proclaim it in the streets. Unrighteousness.’
Ivey’s Instagram account, which has more than 200,000 followers, has been increasingly used as a platform for his religious beliefs.
Amid the fallout from his dramatic Bulls axing, Ivey went on to claim that his wife, Caitlyn, had not been speaking to him. A claim which she now disputes.
Caitlyn Ivey, the wife of exiled NBA star Jaden, has called him out over his recent ‘lies’
Ivey sparked controversy at the start of the week after chastising the NBA for their support of the LGBTQ+ community while on an Instagram livestream. He was later axed by the Bulls
Taking to Instagram on Wednesday, she wrote: ‘We were communicating all morning of that day. People say things for attention, do not be deceived.’
She also shared a series of hateful messages which she received in her Instagram DM’s, where users labelled her a ‘s*** wife’ following Jaden’s claims.
‘These DM’s (and many more) over one lie spoke on my name,’ she wrote on her Story.
‘If you know me you know I have never abandoned that man through all the trials and I still haven’t now. There is obviously a lot more going on, so leave your conspiracies and guesses to yourselves.’
Ivey and his wife, Caitlyn, have three children together; three-year-old Noah, two-year-old Shiloh and one-year-old Isaiah.
They both attended Purdue University and got engaged in 2022, however it remains unclear as to when the couple officially tied the knot.
The couple’s lives were turned upside down at the start of the week after Ivey’s brash comments about the NBA’s support for the LGBTQ+ community.
He later doubled down on his claims in another livestream just days later, in the aftermath of his axing from the Bulls.
Caitlyn released a statement on Wednesday and insisted she is sticking by the ex-Bulls star
Jaden claimed that Caitlyn had been watching his livestream but ‘not even texting me’
‘They said your conduct is detrimental to the team,’ Ivey said in the self-shot Instagram clip as boarding announcements can be heard in the background.
‘I haven’t been with the team. I haven’t been with the team because I’ve been rehabbing [my knee injury]. So how’s my conduct detrimental to the team?’
He then seemingly dragged his wife into the situation after claiming that she was watching him on a livestream while ignoring him privately.
He said: ‘Those who are around me, those who are my family members betraying because of what I spoke. The truth. Betraying me. Saying that I’m losing my mind.
‘Saying that I’m crazy. These are my own family members, my blood. ‘Man, he’s psycho. He’s this, he’s that.’ Those are my own household.
‘That’s why my wife in here, and she not even texting me.’
In another video, Ivey went on to downplay the importance of the NBA in his life, saying he is prepared to move on without the league.
As Ivey explained, he felt he was a sinner when he entered the league in 2022 as the fifth-overall pick of that year’s NBA Draft.
‘Before I came to the Lord Jesus Christ, the NBA was everything to me,’ he said. ‘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, I felt good.
Ivey and his wife, Caitlyn, have three children together; three-year-old Noah, two-year-old Shiloh and one-year-old Isaiah
The Purdue product and son of Notre Dame women’s basketball coach Niele Ivey was traded by Detroit to Chicago earlier this year, but was shut down due to injury before being waived
‘Lord willing, he gives me an opportunity to play again.’
The Purdue product and son of Notre Dame women’s basketball coach Niele Ivey was traded by Detroit to Chicago earlier this year, but has only appeared in a handful of games for the Bulls before being shut down due to injury.
The Bulls cut Ivey citing conduct detrimental to the team, which could impact the remaining millions on the final year of his contract. He has earned $32 million in salary since his rookie season of 2022-23, according to Spotrac.com.
Bulls coach and former Providence College guard Billy Donovan addressed the team’s decision with reporters on Monday.
‘Everybody comes with their own personal experiences, but one is we’ve got to all be professional,’ Donovan said before Chicago’s game at 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.
‘Organizationally, there’s certain standards I think we want to have as an organization and live up to those each and every day.’
