The Chicago Bulls released shooting guard Jaden Ivey on Monday for expressing his religious beliefs about NBA Pride Month and lesbians.
In a livestream video, Ivey, 24, criticized the NBA for celebrating Pride Month, which he called “unrighteousness”.
“The world proclaims LGBTQ, right? They proclaim Pride Month and the NBA does too. They show it to the world. They say, ‘Come join us for Pride Month, to celebrate unrighteousness,'” he said in one video.
Jaden Ivey calls out the NBA for celebrating Pride Month
“The world proclaims LGBTQ, right? They proclaim Pride Month—and the NBA does too. They show it to the world. They say, ‘Come join us for Pride Month, to celebrate unrighteousness.’”
(@esidery)
— NBACentral (@TheDunkCentral) March 30, 2026
In another video, Ivey questioned how lesbian couples can have babies.
“How can a woman bear a child with a woman? How? Unless they go to the doctor and they… it can’t happen physically. They have the same body part,” he said.
Dawg your mom is a women’s basketball coach pic.twitter.com/J5GlEgsIzq
— gio? (@Clapped_Dre) March 30, 2026
When an Instagram follower asked if he goes to confession, Ivey called Catholicism a “false religion” and said it “does not lead to salvation in Jesus Christ.”
Ivey expressed his deep Christian faith after he was sidelined by a knee injury recently.
“I’ve been dealing with knee soreness in my knee,” Ivey said. “I’m sure people can call it out that I’m not the same player I used to be. That’s why I’m not the J.I. I used to be. But the old J.I. is dead. I’m alive in Christ no matter what the basketball setting is.”
Ivey was the Detroit Pistons’ fifth overall pick out of Purdue in the 2022 NBA Draft. He was traded to the Bulls last month.
Ivey had a reputation for “preaching” in the locker room. He also spoke with teammates about their faith in God.
Ivey’s mother is Niele Ivey, head coach of the Notre Dame women’s basketball team and a former WNBA player for the Indiana Fever, Detroit Shock and Phoenix Mercury.
