NEWNow you can listen to Pak Gazette articles!
Former Chicago Bulls player Jaden Ivey maintained that the conduct he displayed in going against NBA Pride Month and anti-LGBTQ beliefs was not detrimental to the team.
The Bulls fired Ivey after he posted a social media rant calling NBA Pride Month “unfair.” Chicago said Ivey engaged in conduct detrimental to the team.
CLICK HERE FOR MORE SPORTS COVERAGE ON PakGazette.Com
Jaden Ivey #31 of the Chicago Bulls warms up before the game against the Denver Nuggets at the United Center on February 7, 2026 in Chicago, Illinois. (Jayden Mack/Getty Images)
“My conduct was not detrimental to the team,” he said in an appearance on the “PinPoint Podcast.” “That’s a lie. I was a good teammate to those around me. I was a good teammate on the court. I made the right plays. I did exactly what the coach asked me to do on a daily basis. Whatever was necessary, whatever was required of me, I was willing. Therefore, my conduct was not detrimental to the team.”
Ivey said he was only fired because he was preaching “the word of God.”
“It’s strictly because I spoke the truth of God’s word and I was preaching the Gospel,” he continued. “That’s why it was detrimental to the team. I witnessed the truth and things like that for many on my team.
“Everyone has their beliefs. Everyone believes in something. If someone can speak and curse and talk about injustice about anything, then I can tell the truth and that is because my God says to speak the truth to the lost, to those who do not know Jesus, to those who have not been born again.”
NBA PLAYER JADEN IVEY LOOKS ON SOCIAL MEDIA AFTER BEING QUIT AMID COMMENTS CRITICIZING PRIDE MONTH
Jaden Ivey of the Chicago Bulls in action during the game against the Brooklyn Nets at Barclays Center on February 9, 2026 in New York City. (Evan Bernstein/Getty Images)
Ivey also said on the podcast that he attempted suicide several times.
“I’m not ashamed to say it. I’m not ashamed to say it because God was merciful to keep me here,” he said. “I almost committed suicide. I had Oxy pills in my hands and my wife was telling me, ‘Don’t do it. Don’t do this. Don’t fall like that.’ And God was convincing me. And I didn’t know the truth. I didn’t do it by the grace of God. He kept me here.”
Ivey rejected the narrative that he is “crazy.”
“It’s really sad,” he said. “You don’t say to someone who goes to clubs, ‘Are you crazy?’ They don’t look at someone who smokes marijuana and ask, ‘Are you crazy?’ But to be the Christian proclaiming the truth, preaching the gospel, I’m considered crazy and I’m mentally ill and I’m a psychopath and I need help and I’m crazy because I love God.
Jaden Ivey of the Chicago Bulls reacts during the game against the Brooklyn Nets at Barclays Center on February 9, 2026 in New York City. (Evan Bernstein/Getty Images)
CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE Pak Gazette APP
“But I love God. I love my family, my children. I love them and I will lay down my life for them and I will pour out on them and I will do the will of God in the name of Jesus and I will do his will so that he may be glorified. Not my will, but his will be done.”
