{"id":688823,"date":"2026-03-30T22:15:35","date_gmt":"2026-03-30T22:15:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/688823\/"},"modified":"2026-03-30T22:15:35","modified_gmt":"2026-03-30T22:15:35","slug":"chicago-bulls-waive-jaden-ivey-following-multiple-social-media-tirades","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/688823\/","title":{"rendered":"Chicago Bulls waive Jaden Ivey following multiple social media tirades"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Chicago Bulls are waiving Jaden Ivey after the guard made anti-LGBT statements in a series of lengthy religious tirades on Instagram, a source confirmed to the Tribune.<\/p>\n

Ivey spoke for more than three hours in total during three separate Instagram live sessions over the last week. Several hours later, the Bulls made the decision to waive the guard, who was in the final weeks of his contract. In a statement, the team referred to \u201cconduct detrimental to the team.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThey show it to the world,\u201d Ivey said during an Instagram Live session on Monday. \u201cThey say come join us for Pride Month to celebrate unrighteousness. They proclaim it. They proclaim it on the billboards. They proclaim it in the streets. Unrighteousness. So how it is that one can\u2019t speak righteousness? How are they to say that this man is crazy?\u201d<\/p>\n

ESPN was the first to report the team\u2019s decision to waive Ivey.<\/p>\n

The Bulls had announced Thursday that Ivey, 24, had been shut down for the season<\/a> due to a knee injury.<\/p>\n

The Bulls acquired Ivey at the trade deadline<\/a> in a three-team trade that involved sending Kevin Huerter to the Detroit Pistons. Although Ivey was coming to the end of a four-year $32.95 million contract, the Bulls front office hoped to be the first team in line for the guard\u2019s restricted free agency this summer.<\/p>\n

\"ChicagoChicago Bulls guard Jaden Ivey pulls down a rebound in the first half of a game against the Denver Nuggets at the United Center in Chicago on Feb. 7, 2026. (Chris Sweda\/Chicago Tribune)<\/p>\n

Ivey was an exciting prospect in his early years with the Pistons, but his career was derailed in January 2025 when he suffered a gruesome broken leg<\/a> in a game against the Orlando Magic. His rehabilitation lasted nearly a year and the guard still hadn\u2019t recovered his former explosivity when he was traded to the Bulls in February.<\/p>\n

The guard played extensive minutes in his first four games with the Bulls until Feb. 19, when he was held out of a game as a coach\u2019s decision while head coach Billy Donovan was away from the team following his father\u2019s funeral. After the game, Ivey explained that he was still dealing with knee pain in his left leg in between rambling diversions in which he referred to himself in the third person, stating the \u201cold J.I. was dead\u201d and repeatedly shifted basketball questions back to religious topics.<\/p>\n

This aspect of Ivey\u2019s locker room demeanor was well known in Detroit, where several sources said the guard became increasingly vocal about his faith over the years. Ivey and his wife, Caitlyn, were baptized in their backyard pool in June 2024. Staffers and media members became familiar with the guard\u2019s insistence on steering conversations back toward his evangelical Christian beliefs, even if those answers did not relate to the topic at hand.<\/p>\n

Over the last week, Ivey went live on Instagram on three separate occasions on March 26, 28 and 30. The video on March 28 extended over an hour. In the comments, Ivey argued with fans about the concept of sin.<\/p>\n

\u201cCatholicism is a false religion,\u201d Ivey wrote in one Instagram comment responding to a fan who asked if he went to confession.<\/p>\n

Throughout the latter two videos, Ivey spoke to the camera while driving his car and rambling through various evangelical talking points.<\/p>\n

Ivey is the son of Notre Dame women\u2019s coach Niele Ivey and former Notre Dame wide receiver Javin Hunter. He was born in South Bend, Ind., and played his college ball for Purdue before the Pistons drafted him in 2022.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Chicago Bulls are waiving Jaden Ivey after the guard made anti-LGBT statements in a series of lengthy…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":688824,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3771],"tags":[7,920,919,329,3824,1018,6,2828],"class_list":{"0":"post-688823","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-chicago-bulls","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-bulls","10":"tag-chicago","11":"tag-chicago-bulls","12":"tag-chicagobulls","13":"tag-jaden-ivey","14":"tag-nba","15":"tag-nba-trade-deadline"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116320439207876683","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/688823","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=688823"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/688823\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/688824"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=688823"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=688823"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=688823"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}