Jaden Ivey #

Introduction #

Jaden Ivey, a 24-year-old NBA guard who was the fifth overall pick in the 2022 NBA Draft, was waived by the Chicago Bulls on March 30, 2026, after anti-LGBTQ comments and remarks about religion he made in videos on his Instagram account. The Bulls had acquired Ivey in a trade with the Detroit Pistons only weeks earlier, on February 3, 2026, and he had appeared in just four games for Chicago before being shut down with a knee injury.

Background Information #

Ivey was born February 13, 2002, in South Bend, Indiana, and grew up playing football, basketball, and soccer and practicing karate, focusing on basketball from his freshman year of high school. He played three seasons at Marian High School in Mishawaka, Indiana, before transferring to La Lumiere School in La Porte, Indiana, for his senior year; a consensus four-star recruit, he committed to Purdue over offers from Butler and Notre Dame.

At Purdue, Ivey earned Big Ten All-Freshman honors in 2021, when he averaged 11.1 points per game, and first-team All-Big Ten and consensus second-team All-America recognition as a sophomore, when he averaged 17.3 points, 4.9 rebounds, and 3.1 assists. He declared for the 2022 NBA Draft on March 31, 2022, forgoing his remaining college eligibility, and was selected fifth overall by the Detroit Pistons, earning NBA All-Rookie Second Team honors in 2023. He also helped the U.S. national under-19 team win gold at the 2021 FIBA Under-19 World Cup, where he was named to the all-tournament team.

Ivey is the son of Notre Dame women’s basketball head coach Niele Ivey; his father, Javin Hunter, played in the NFL, as did his grandfather, James Hunter. Ivey, who is a Christian, has spoken this season about dealing with depression and had recently started posting lengthy videos expressing his thoughts about religion on Instagram.

The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation #

Ivey’s time in Detroit was marked by injuries: he suffered a broken left fibula on January 1, 2025, in a collision with Cole Anthony that required surgery and ended his season, and underwent arthroscopic knee surgery during the 2025 preseason. Knee issues limited him to just 30 games in 2024-25 and kept him out for several games this season, and he made 33 appearances for Detroit in 2025-26, averaging 8.2 points, 2.2 rebounds, and 1.6 assists.

The Bulls acquired Ivey on February 3, 2026, as part of a three-team trade that also included the Minnesota Timberwolves. He appeared in four games for Chicago, averaging 11.5 points, 4.8 rebounds, and 4.0 assists, before being ruled out for the remainder of the season on March 26 with a left knee injury.

On March 30, 2026, Ivey posted and live-streamed on Instagram, making critical comments about the NBA’s involvement in Pride Month activities and negative remarks about religion, including calling Catholicism a “false religion,” according to Wikipedia. In one of the videos, he said: “They proclaim Pride Month in the NBA. They proclaim it. They show it to the world. They say come join us for Pride, for Pride Month to celebrate unrighteousness. … So how is it that one can’t speak righteousness?” The posts came in the wake of several social media videos that lasted nearly an hour and an increase in evangelism in the Bulls locker room that agitated some team staff members. The Bulls waived Ivey that same day for “conduct detrimental to the team,” according to Wikipedia.

Public Reaction and Consequences #

The Bulls framed the decision around organizational standards. Coach Billy Donovan, speaking before Chicago’s game at San Antonio, said the team has employees from “all different walks of life” and that Ivey’s comments did not reflect the values of the organization: “Everybody comes with their own personal experiences, but one is we’ve got to all be professional. 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.” Donovan added: “I don’t want to get into what he put out there, but certainly, I hope for him he’s okay,” noting that Ivey had always been focused on rehabbing his knee and getting back on the court. In a separate video, Ivey had asked, “How is it when the gospel is preached that people hate it? … And they think it’s strange when someone preaches the gospel, the true gospel?”

Ivey responded in a livestream hours after being waived. “They’re liars, bro. This is lying. … All I’m preaching about is Jesus Christ and they waived me. They say I’m crazy, right? I’m psycho,” he said.

According to Joe Cowley of the Chicago Sun-Times, Ivey’s penchant for evangelizing teammates, coaches, and reporters likely led the Bulls to question whether he was capable of acting “like a normal person around his brothers, his 14 other brothers.” Cowley believed Ivey was waived not merely for expressing anti-gay sentiments, but for a larger pattern of behavior that “doesn’t go down in an NBA locker room.”

Current Status #

As of the reporting in late March and early April 2026, Ivey was listed as a free agent following his waiver. He had responded to the Bulls publicly via livestream, and shortly after his departure he was spotted street preaching his faith, including on Good Friday.

Impact on Their Career/Life #

The waiver ended Ivey’s brief tenure with the Bulls after just four games and left his NBA future uncertain. The episode highlighted the friction between personal religious expression and professional expectations in a team setting, with Donovan emphasizing “certain standards we want to have as an organization and try to live up to those each and every day.”

For a player who spent much of the past two seasons rehabbing injuries — the broken fibula in January 2025, the knee surgery before this season, and the left knee injury that ended his Bulls tenure — the “conduct detrimental to the team” designation attached a new kind of setback to a career already interrupted by health problems. His status as the son of a prominent college coach and a former top-five pick made the episode especially visible, with even the team’s own coach saying he hoped Ivey was “okay.” Whether Ivey will find another NBA home remains to be seen; his public response indicated he saw the waiver as a consequence of his preaching, telling his livestream audience that “all I’m preaching about is Jesus Christ and they waived me.”