The NBA spent a decade telling you that everyone is welcome in their league.
Jaden Ivey just found out what that actually means.
The Bulls cut a 24-year-old Christian man for saying Pride Month was wrong – and fired him three hours after he said it.
Jaden Ivey on NBA Pride Night: What He Said Word for Word
On Monday morning, Ivey went live on Instagram and preached for over 40 minutes about his Christian faith.
The moment that ended his career in Chicago was this: "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.' So, how is it that one can't speak righteousness? Who are they to say that this man is crazy?"
That was it.
No slurs. No threats. No personal attacks on any individual.
Worth noting: Ivey had already been shut down for the season with a knee injury four days earlier.
Ivey also said in a separate video that Catholicism is a "false religion" – notable given that his mother, Niele Ivey, coaches women's basketball at Notre Dame.
You might disagree with that. A lot of Catholics do.
The NBA's standard doesn't change based on which belief offends you.
Calling a religion false gets you cut. Calling Pride Month unrighteous gets you cut.
The only speech that doesn't cost you your job is the speech Adam Silver already agrees with.
The Bulls dressed it up with the phrase "conduct detrimental to the team."
The NBA has a different standard for conduct that actually costs players money.
According to the Detroit News, nine NBA players have paid $616,000 in fines over 14 years for anti-gay slurs.
Fines. Not firings.
Jaden Ivey never used a slur. He cited his faith. The Bulls cut him anyway.
How Adam Silver Made NBA Pride Night Mandatory for Every Team
Adam Silver has been NBA commissioner since 2014, and Pride Month has been a league-wide priority ever since.
In 2016, Silver personally marched in the New York City Pride Parade – making the NBA the first major professional sports league to send a commissioner into the streets for a Pride event.
Since then, 29 of the league's 30 teams host annual Pride Night celebrations.
The message from the top has been clear for years: the NBA celebrates Pride, and players are expected to be part of that celebration.
What Silver has never answered is the obvious follow-up: what happens to Christian players who believe what their faith has always taught?
Now everybody knows.
Christian Athletes Have Been Punished for This Before
The Ivey situation didn't come out of nowhere – it's part of a decade-long pattern in professional sports.
In 2022, Tampa Bay Rays relief pitcher Jason Adam and several teammates declined to wear a Pride Night jersey patch, calling it "a faith-based decision." The backlash was ferocious.
NHL players faced similar pressure during Pride Night jersey controversies, with Russian players – who cited religious beliefs – becoming targets for progressive media pile-ons.
In every case, the lesson was the same: your faith is welcome in professional sports, as long as it doesn't conflict with what the league has already decided is righteous.
Jaden Ivey had the nerve to say out loud that he thought they had it backwards.
Bulls Coach Billy Donovan Explained the Firing and It Made No Sense
Bulls coach Billy Donovan stood in front of reporters Monday and offered this explanation: everyone in the organization comes from different backgrounds, and the standard is that they all work together and "accept each other."
Accept each other.
Donovan said that while his team was in the process of firing a man for his religious beliefs.
Political figure Matt Rinaldi said what everyone watching already knew: "The 'conduct detrimental to the team' was he is an outspoken Christian who criticized the NBA celebrating Pride Month."
https://twitter.com/WellsJorda89710/status/2038907982675628498?s=20
Ivey's next question – "Who are they to say that this man is crazy?" – turns out to have a very specific answer.
Adam Silver. Billy Donovan. And every team exec who decided that some beliefs belong on the billboard and others belong on the unemployment line.
The NBA built a league where LeBron can lecture America about politics from the postgame podium and players wear social justice messages on their jerseys.
Jaden Ivey opened his own Instagram – not the team's – and shared what he believes about sin and salvation.
He was cut three hours later.
That's the league Adam Silver built, and now you've seen it in real time.
Sources:
- Scott Thompson, "Bulls waive Jaden Ivey after he called NBA's Pride Month celebration 'unrighteousness,'" Fox News, March 30, 2026.
- "Bulls waive guard Jaden Ivey after anti-gay comments," ESPN, March 30, 2026.
- "Bulls waive Jaden Ivey after his anti-Pride remarks," Chicago Sun-Times, March 30, 2026.
- "Chicago Bulls Waive Jaden Ivey Hours After He Took An Opposing Stance To Pride Events With A Social Media Post," OutKick, March 30, 2026.
- "Bulls' Jaden Ivey Waiver Draws Reaction Beyond NBA From Political Figure, NFL Player," Heavy.com, March 30, 2026.
- "NBA continues commitment to inclusivity during Pride Month," NBA.com, June 2024.
- "Former Piston Jaden Ivey released by Bulls after anti-LGBTQ comments," Detroit News, March 30, 2026.