Jaden Ivey has issued a rambling 34-minute response to his abrupt release from the Chicago Bulls over his anti-LGBTQ+ comments.
The injured 24-year-old NBA guard recorded himself boarding an airplane after being released for what the Bulls called ‘conduct detrimental to the team’ on Monday. Earlier in the day, Ivey recorded a similarly rambling video chastising the NBA for supporting the LGBTQ+ community.
‘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 also predicted he would go unsigned as an NBA free agent: ‘They gonna cancel me, bro, I’m telling you. They don’t want this… God is faithful.’
Unprompted, Ivey turned his frustration to Golden State Warriors star Stephen Curry, whom he said has ‘not surrendered.’
Jaden Ivey has issued rambling 34-minute response to his abrupt release from the Bulls
Ivey’s knee problems sidelined him after his trade to the Bulls, who have since released him
‘And y’all believe he’s a Christian?’ Ivey asked. ‘This stuff is not gonna matter on Judgment Day, all them rings he got, all them rings LeBron [James] got, all the rings Michael Jordan got.’
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.’
Curry has a bible verse tattooed on his wrist, but Ivey doesn’t consider him a Christian
The video came to a bizarre conclusion when the flight crew politely asked Ivey to put away his phone. The NBA free agent agreed without any protest before sharing a few more words with his followers about Paul the Apostle.
‘Paul killed Christians,’ Ivey said, adding: ‘The people he killed, they’re dead, but God saved him, so why can’t he saved you from your sin?’
The Bulls waived Ivey earlier in the day after his criticism of the NBA for supporting the LGBTQ+ community.
‘The world can proclaim LGBTQ, right?’ Ivey told viewers via livestream on Monday. ‘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.
The son of Notre Dame’s women’s basketball coach, Niele Ivey, took aim at the Catholic faith
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.’
Ivey’s online behavior became erratic in recent weeks, even in the face of online support
The fifth pick of the 2022 NBA Draft, Ivey has faced knee issues and recently admitted to battling depression as well as alcohol and porn addiction, but said his faith helped him to face those problems.
Ivey’s livestream comments aren’t the only troubling statements he’s put on social media.
Despite having a mom working at Notre Dame, one of the country’s premier Catholic colleges, Ivey slammed the religion on Instagram.
‘Catholicism is a false religion,’ he wrote. ‘And is not the true Doctrine of Christ. It does not lead to salvation in Jesus Christ.’
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
Ivey is pictured alongside his wife Caitlyn before his trade from the Pistons to the Bulls
When one fan told Ivey they ‘appreciate’ him ‘speaking up for God,’ Ivey told the person they are ‘not righteous.’
Another fan simply wrote, ‘sending prayers’ and ‘Detroit misses you,’ only to be told ‘God does not hear your prayer if you are a sinner.’
And then there were his increasingly bizarre answers to reporters. Last month, Ivey told assembled media in the Bulls locker room that the old version of himself was dead.
‘I’m not the same player I used to be,’ he said. ‘That’s why. 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.’
Ivey and his wife, Caitlyn, have three children together. The youngest, a son named Isaiah Edward Ivey, recently turned one-year-old.
