Jaden Ivey, a talented young player who spent time with the Detroit Pistons and later the Chicago Bulls, is no longer in the NBA. After making several anti-LGBTQ comments during a livestream event, the Bulls waived Jaden Ivey in the wake of the controversy.
Jaden Ivey’s ordeal began via his social media accounts, with Yahoo! Sports highlighting the 24-year-old Indiana native’s comments regarding the NBA’s decision to celebrate Pride Month, which celebrates the LGBTQ community.
Some of Ivey’s comments are as follows, per Yahoo! Sports:
“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.’ “
Bulls head coach Billy Donovan shared a statment regarding Ivey’s comments and his subsequent release for “conduct detrimental to the team.”
“Just inside the Bulls, we have people from all different kinds of backgrounds,” Donovan said to the media. “And whether it’s coaches, from the top, it’s always been we’re all going to work well together, we’re going to accept each other. We’re going to be hard-working, we’re going to be respectful, and we’re going to be professional.”
Jaden Ivey has responded to the news of being waived, calling the team “liars.”
“They’re liars, bro. This is lying,” Ivey said on Instagram Live. “They’re lying saying my conduct is detrimental to the team. That’s a lie. Ask any one of them coaches in there, ‘Was I a good teammate?’ All I’m preaching about is Jesus Christ and they waived me. They say I’m crazy, right? I’m psycho.”
There haven’t been any new developments, but reactions online have since cropped up, and we have some of them listed below.
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Photo: Getty