The Chicago Bulls waived guard Jaden Ivey on Monday, citing conduct detrimental to the team, hours after the 24-year-old posted an Instagram Live video criticizing the NBA’s support for Pride Month as “unrighteousness.”
Team officials had grown concerned about Ivey’s behavior in recent weeks, including turning postgame media sessions into religious sermons and making unsolicited personal inquiries to reporters, according to multiple accounts. The fifth overall pick in the 2022 draft had played just four games for Chicago after being acquired from the Detroit Pistons at the February trade deadline before a left knee injury sidelined him for the remainder of the season.
Media interactions crossed into personal territory: Reporters covering the Bulls described Ivey’s availability sessions as “sermons” in which he asked whether they had been “saved” and whether they had “fornicated before marriage.” The Chicago Sun-Times reported the questions created an uncomfortable dynamic after only limited interactions with the new teammate. Similar inquiries were reportedly directed at people inside the Bulls’ locker room.
Jaden Ivey reportedly used to ask Bulls reporters if they fornicated before marriage, per @JCowleyHoops pic.twitter.com/i6Rlb93YYe
— NBACentral (@TheDunkCentral) March 31, 2026
Pistons personnel had described Ivey as a “preacher” before the trade, but the extent of his public proselytizing surprised Chicago staff, according to league sources familiar with the situation.
Ivey told team officials God healed his knee On March 25, Ivey contacted the Bulls’ head of player performance and told him “God healed” his knee, insisting he was ready to return to the court. Days later, on March 26, the team shut him down for the season to continue rehabbing the injury. Ivey referenced the exchange in his post-waiver livestream, saying he had been cleared by his faith but not by the organization.
Public testimony included past struggles with addiction In the 34-minute Instagram Live on Monday and in an earlier Sports Spectrum podcast, Ivey openly discussed his life before converting to Christianity. He said he arrived in the NBA as “a fornicator, a pornography addict and I used to get drunk.” He described those behaviors as part of a pre-faith identity that included depression and, in earlier personal accounts, childhood trauma and marital strife that he said he overcame through faith.
Ivey also used social media to denounce Catholicism as a “false religion” and to tell some fans that “God does not hear your prayer if you are a sinner,” statements that drew mixed reactions online.
Bulls cite team standards Coach Billy Donovan addressed the decision before Monday’s game in San Antonio, saying the organization expects “a high level of respect for one another” and accountability to professional standards. Multiple teammates and coaches privately told reporters they hoped Ivey would receive support, with some expressing relief at his departure.
Ivey will receive the balance of his $10.1 million salary for the final year of his rookie-scale contract because it is fully guaranteed.
The episode marks the latest chapter for a player who arrived in the league with high expectations as a dynamic guard out of Purdue but whose public focus shifted sharply toward faith-based outreach in the past year. Ivey and his wife, Caitlyn, have three young children. He has not commented further on his basketball future since the waiver.
Flip the pages for photos of his wife, who isn’t texting him back.
