The Chicago Bulls waived shooting guard Jaden Ivey for “conduct detrimental to the team” on Monday after making anti-gay comments on social media.
Details on why the Chicago Bulls waived Jaden Ivy, and what he said on Instagram
The team made the decision after Ivey’s latest rant on Instagram. He was traded from the Detroit Pistons to the Bulls in February as part of a three-team deal, according to ESPN’s Sham Charania and NBA.com.
After nearly three months with the team, Ivey, 24, has been very outspoken about his religious beliefs and other topics, including the NBA’s Pride Month celebrations.
“The world can proclaim LGBTQ, right?” Ivey told viewers via livestream on Monday morning, according to The Athletic. “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 has a history of making targeted comments about LGBTQ people
This is Ivey’s third rant about the NBA’s support for the LGBTQIA people. On Jan. 10, he criticized the league for celebrating “Pride Night,” an annual-themed event the Bulls and other teams have held in recent years, according to Yahoo! Sports.
The NBA was the first major sports league to establish an employee resource team (ERT) for the LGBTQIA+ employees known as NBA Pride, per NBA.com.
“We want everyone to know they have a safe space in sports and for our fans to know they are welcome here”, Bonnie Thurston, the Director of Player Programs at the WNBA and Co-Chair of NBA Pride, said in 2024.
Ivey played four games with the Bulls before his season-ending injury to his left knee on Feb. 11. He averaged 8.2 points, 1.6 assists, and 2.2 rebounds in 16.8 minutes for the Pistons before the trade deal. He played only 30 games in the 2024-2025 season due to knee issues, Yahoo! Sports and ESPN reported.
He was drafted by the Pistons in 2022 and played only four seasons in the NBA.