The Chicago Bulls have waived guard Jaden Ivey after his criticism of the NBA for supporting the LGBTQ+ community.
Ivey, 24, made his comments in the latest of several online rants.
‘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 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 fifth pick of the 2022 NBA Draft, Ivey has battled knee issues and recently admitted to battling depression, struggling with alcohol and porn addiction, but said his faith helped him to face those problems.
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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.’
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.’
