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Former Chicago Bulls player Jaden Ivey has argued that his conduct in going against NBA Pride Month and anti-LGBTQ beliefs was not detrimental to the team.
The Bulls waived Ivey after he posted a rant on social media calling NBA Pride Month “an injustice.” Chicago said Ivey engaged in conduct detrimental to the team.
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Jaden Ivey #31 of the Chicago Bulls warms up before the game against the Denver Nuggets at the United Center on February 7, 2026 in Chicago, Illinois. (Jayden Mack/Getty Images)
“My conduct was not detrimental to the team,” he said during an appearance on the “PinPoint Podcast.” “That’s a lie. I was a good teammate to those around me. I was a good teammate on the field. I made the right plays. I did exactly what coach asked me to do every day. Whatever I was asked to do, I was willing to do. So my conduct was not detrimental to the team.”
Ivey said he was cut only because he preached “the word of God.”
“It’s strictly because I spoke the truth of God’s word and preached the Gospel,” he continued. “That’s why it was detrimental to the team. I’ve witnessed the truth and that kind of thing with many of my team members.
“Everyone has their beliefs. Everyone believes in something. If anyone can speak and curse and talk about injustice of any kind, then I can speak the truth and that’s because my God says to speak the truth to the lost, to those who don’t know Jesus, to those who are not born again.”
NBA PLAYER JADEN IVEY ENVIES HIMSELF ON SOCIAL MEDIA AFTER GIVING UP AMID COMMENTS CRITICIZING PRIDE MONTH
Jaden Ivey of the Chicago Bulls in action during the game against the Brooklyn Nets at Barclays Center on February 9, 2026 in New York. (Evan Bernstein/Getty Images)
Ivey also said in the podcast that he attempted suicide several times.
“I’m not ashamed to say it. I’m not ashamed to say it because God was merciful to keep me here,” he said. “I almost killed myself. I had Oxy pills in my hands and my wife was like, ‘Don’t do it. Don’t do that. Don’t go down like that.” And God was convicting me. And I didn’t know the truth. I didn’t do it by the grace of God. He kept me here.”
Ivey pushed back against the narrative that he was “crazy.”
“It’s really sad,” he said. “They don’t say to someone who goes to a club: ‘Are you crazy?’ They don’t look at someone smoking weed and ask, “Are you crazy?” » But as a Christian proclaiming the truth, preaching the Gospel, I am considered crazy and I have a mental illness and I am a psychopath and I need help and I am crazy because I love God.
Jaden Ivey of the Chicago Bulls reacts during the game against the Brooklyn Nets at Barclays Center on February 9, 2026 in New York. (Evan Bernstein/Getty Images)
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“But I love God. I love my family, my children. I love them and I will lay down my life for them and I will pour it out into them and I will do the will of God in the name of Jesus and do his will that he may be glorified. It is not my will that will be done, but his will.”
