{"id":695172,"date":"2026-04-03T03:14:32","date_gmt":"2026-04-03T03:14:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/695172\/"},"modified":"2026-04-03T03:14:32","modified_gmt":"2026-04-03T03:14:32","slug":"useful-by-parker-molloy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/695172\/","title":{"rendered":"Useful – by Parker Molloy"},"content":{"rendered":"

If you don\u2019t follow the NBA, here\u2019s the short version of what happened this week: a 24-year-old basketball player named Jaden Ivey got cut from the Chicago Bulls, and the right-wing media machine turned him into a martyr overnight. The longer version is a lot sadder than that, and a lot more complicated than any of the people championing him want you to know.<\/p>\n

Ivey was the fifth overall pick in the 2022 NBA Draft. He spent his first few seasons with the Detroit Pistons, then got traded to the Bulls in early February. He played four games for Chicago, averaging 11.5 points<\/a>, before being shut down for the rest of the season last Thursday with a knee injury. He wasn\u2019t under contract for next year. So, at the point when all of this started, he was an injured player on an expiring deal sitting at home.<\/p>\n

And that\u2019s when he started going live on Instagram. Multiple lengthy streams<\/a> in the span of a few days, each running over 30 minutes. In one, he called the NBA\u2019s promotion of Pride Month \u201cunrighteous.\u201d In another, he called Catholicism \u201ca false religion\u201c and said it \u201cdoes not lead to salvation in Jesus Christ\u201d (a notable thing to say when your mother is the head women\u2019s basketball coach at Notre Dame, a Catholic university). He told the team that \u201cJesus healed my knee<\/a>\u201c and tried to fly himself to a game the Bulls had already ruled him out of. ESPN reported that team staff had been describing him as \u201cpreachy\u201d in the locker room for weeks before the rants even started.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Jaden Ivey of the Chicago Bulls during the game against the Brooklyn Nets at Barclays Center on February 09, 2026. (Photo by Evan Bernstein\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

On Monday, the Bulls waived him<\/a>. He immediately went live again, this time from an airplane, and called the organization<\/a> \u201cliars.\u201d He said Stephen Curry, one of the most openly Christian athletes in professional sports, \u201cdon\u2019t know Jesus.\u201d He said all of Curry\u2019s rings, LeBron\u2019s rings, Jordan\u2019s rings won\u2019t matter on Judgment Day. By Tuesday, he was on a podcast hosted by an evangelist with nearly 100,000 YouTube subscribers, where he disclosed that he\u2019d attempted suicide multiple times and had held oxycodone pills in his hands. He talked about being sexually abused<\/a> as a child. He said he\u2019d been abusive toward his wife. He said his wife had stopped communicating with him and that his family was calling him \u201cpsycho.\u201d<\/p>\n

That\u2019s the picture. A young man in obvious distress, disclosing the worst moments of his life on livestream after livestream, while the people closest to him sound the alarm.<\/p>\n

And here\u2019s how the conservative media covered it:<\/p>\n

Riley Gaines compared Ivey to Jesus<\/a>: \u201cWe live in a world that hates Christ and those who believe in Him, but that\u2019s to be expected. Just as He was persecuted, so will we be. Consider me a Jaden Ivey fan.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Sean Davis, co-founder of The Federalist, declared<\/a> that \u201cthe conduct they are claiming is detrimental is Christianity. They fired Jaden Ivey for being Christian.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Robby Starbuck posted<\/a> that \u201cEVERY single NBA player needs to speak up for [Ivey] now or their religious freedom could be next.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Alex Bruesewitz, an adviser to President Trump, said he hoped<\/a> Ivey sues the Bulls.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Colby Covington went on Tomi Lahren\u2019s OutKick show and called<\/a> the Bulls \u201ca disgusting organization.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ben Shapiro wrote a piece<\/a> for the Daily Wire headlined \u201cNBA Player Released For Expressing Traditional Christianity.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kevin Sorbo replied<\/a> to the Bulls\u2019 announcement on X: \u201cYou should be ashamed of yourselves.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Allie Beth Stuckey called it<\/a> persecution of \u201cbasic Christian doctrine.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The list goes on. Same day. Same framing. Fired for being Christian.<\/p>\n

You know what not a single one of them said? \u201cI hope he gets help.\u201d<\/p>\n

But his teammates did. Josh Giddey told reporters<\/a> in San Antonio: \u201cI do really hope he gets help. It\u2019s not going to be with the Bulls anymore, but wherever it is, I hope he gets it.\u201d Coach Billy Donovan said he worried about whether players were getting the resources they needed. Ivey\u2019s own wife posted on Instagram<\/a> that he \u201csays things for attention\u201d and told followers not to be \u201cdeceived.\u201d<\/p>\n

The people who actually know Jaden Ivey are worried about him. The people who\u2019ve never met him bought his jersey and booked him on a podcast.<\/p>\n

Share<\/a><\/p>\n

Part of how this became a culture war flashpoint so quickly comes down to how the news broke. The Bulls\u2019 official statement was one sentence<\/a>: the team \u201chas waived guard Jaden Ivey due to conduct detrimental to the team.\u201d No specifics. But ESPN\u2019s Shams Charania broke it with more detail<\/a>: \u201cThe Chicago Bulls are waiving guard Jaden Ivey after his recent anti-LGBTQ comments amid several rants on religion and other topics.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

That tweet isn\u2019t wrong. But it gave the right the cleanest possible version of the story: man says anti-gay thing, gets fired. That\u2019s a culture war narrative. It\u2019s tidy. It fits on a bumper sticker. The actual story (weeks of escalating behavior, locker room friction, anti-Catholic rants, a player attacking fellow Christians by name, a team that had no contractual reason to keep him around) is messy and human and doesn\u2019t lend itself to fundraising emails.<\/p>\n

The Chicago Sun-Times reported<\/a>, citing a source within the organization, that \u201cit wasn\u2019t just Ivey\u2019s opinions on the LGBTQ issue but an accumulation of posts and comments that started last month.\u201d And the friction started even before the Instagram rants. Back on February 19, Ivey was benched for the first time in his career. Afterward, he told reporters: \u201cI\u2019m not the J.I. I used to be. The old J.I. is dead. I\u2019m alive in Christ no matter what the basketball setting is.\u201d That was over a month before any of the livestreams.<\/p>\n

And then there\u2019s the detail that really makes the \u201cpersecuted for being Christian\u201d framing fall apart: Ivey wasn\u2019t just criticizing the NBA\u2019s Pride celebrations. He was attacking other Christians. He called Steph Curry, who literally puts Bible verses on his sneakers<\/a>, a fraud. He called Catholicism a false religion. Billy Donovan, the Bulls\u2019 head coach and a lifelong, devout Catholic<\/a> who helped build a Catholic high school in Gainesville, had to sit there and process that from a player on his roster. The \u201cfired for being Christian\u201d story only works if you ignore that most of the people Ivey was going after are Christians, too.<\/p>\n

I grew up a Chicago sports fan. A child of the 90s. The Jordan-era Bulls were the center of my universe, and those teams included Dennis Rodman, who headbutted a referee, kicked a cameraman in the groin, disappeared to Las Vegas in the middle of the Finals, and once got fined $50,000<\/a> (the largest fine in NBA history at the time) for telling reporters during the 1997 Finals: \u201cIt\u2019s difficult to get in sync because of all the [expletive] Mormons out here. And you can quote me on that.\u201d Phil Jackson, his coach, tried to explain<\/a> that \u201cto Dennis, a Mormon may just be a nickname for people from Utah,\u201d like Hoosier is for people from Indiana. The Bulls didn\u2019t waive him. They won the championship. Because Dennis Rodman grabbed 15 rebounds a game and the Bulls needed him.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s the same organization that just waived Jaden Ivey for \u201cconduct detrimental to the team.\u201d<\/p>\n

The difference between Rodman and Ivey isn\u2019t what they said. It\u2019s what they produced. And that principle applies across the entire league.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Jaden Ivey of the Detroit Pistons reacts after suffering a broken left fibula in the fourth quarter while playing the Orlando Magic at Little Caesars Arena on January 01, 2025 in Detroit, Michigan. (Photo by Gregory Shamus\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Jonathan Isaac, a forward for the Orlando Magic, was one of the only NBA players to stand<\/a> during the national anthem when the entire league knelt in 2020 during the BLM protests in the bubble. He preaches at a church in Orlando. He spoke at Liberty University<\/a>. He co-wrote a Fox News editorial<\/a> against vaccine mandates. He published a book called \u201cWhy I Stand\u201d with Ben Shapiro\u2019s publishing company<\/a>. Shapiro called him \u201can amazing person with an incredible story.\u201d Isaac is one of the most openly conservative, openly Christian players in the NBA. He\u2019s still on the Magic. He\u2019s never been waived. He\u2019s never been disciplined for his beliefs. If the NBA fired people for being Christian, Jonathan Isaac would\u2019ve been gone years ago.<\/p>\n

And then there\u2019s what the league tolerates when the player is productive enough. Miles Bridges, a forward for the Charlotte Hornets, pleaded no contest to a felony domestic violence charge<\/a> after allegedly assaulting the mother of his children in front of them, with injuries allegedly including strangulation, a broken nose, a concussion, and multiple bruises. He was sentenced to three years of probation. He missed one season, served a 10-game suspension<\/a>, and came back. In July 2024, the Hornets signed him<\/a> to a three-year, $75 million contract.<\/p>\n

Strangulation. Broken nose. Seventy-five million dollars.<\/p>\n

Ivey himself actually gets at something real when he talks about Anthony Edwards. In 2022, Edwards posted an Instagram video using a homophobic slur toward a group of men. The NBA fined him $40,000<\/a>. He deleted it, apologized, and that was that. He wasn\u2019t waived. He wasn\u2019t suspended. The Timberwolves are building their entire franchise around him. On the podcast, Ivey put it bluntly: Edwards wasn\u2019t cut \u201cbecause he\u2019s the best player on their team, right? They need him, right? He makes them money, right?\u201d<\/p>\n

And honestly? Ivey\u2019s right about that. There is a double standard. He\u2019s just wrong about what it is. It\u2019s not Christianity versus the LGBTQ community. It\u2019s stars versus everyone else. Edwards is a franchise player averaging nearly 30 points a game. Ivey was an injured reserve guard on an expiring deal averaging 8.5 for the season. Edwards apologized and moved on. Ivey escalated for days.<\/p>\n

The NBA doesn\u2019t cut players for being Christian. It doesn\u2019t cut players for being conservative. It doesn\u2019t even cut players for felony domestic violence, apparently, as long as you can score. It cuts players who aren\u2019t producing and who become a bigger problem than they\u2019re worth. Ivey was hurt, he was out for the year, he had no contract for next season, and he\u2019d become a daily headline for all the wrong reasons. You don\u2019t need a strong moral compass to make that decision. You need a calculator.<\/p>\n

Leave a comment<\/a><\/p>\n

So the \u201cfired for being Christian\u201d narrative doesn\u2019t hold up. But the people pushing it don\u2019t need it to hold up. They need it to be useful. And for about a week, Jaden Ivey is very useful.<\/p>\n

Think about what happened in the 48 hours after he was waived. His teammates said they hoped he\u2019d get help. His wife said he lies for attention. His family called him psycho. And within that same window, an evangelist with a YouTube channel booked him on a podcast, put a microphone in front of him, and let him talk for over an hour. On that podcast, Ivey disclosed that he\u2019d held oxycodone pills in his hands during a suicide attempt. He talked about being sexually abused as a child. He talked about abusing his wife. And the response from the host, and from the conservative media ecosystem that amplified the interview, wasn\u2019t to pause and ask if he was OK. It was to call it courage and keep the cameras rolling.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m not diagnosing Jaden Ivey. I don\u2019t know what he\u2019s going through, and I\u2019m not qualified to say. But his former teammates think something is wrong. His former coach thinks something is wrong. His wife thinks something is wrong. His own family thinks something is wrong. And if you watch those livestreams (I watched a couple of them), you don\u2019t come away thinking \u201cthis is a man bravely standing up for his convictions.\u201d You come away thinking \u201csomeone close to this person needs to take his phone away and sit with him.\u201d<\/p>\n

For those who would like to financially support The Present Age on a non-Substack platform, please be aware that I also publish these pieces to my Patreon.<\/p>\n

Parker’s Patreon<\/a><\/p>\n

Ben Shapiro is smart enough to see the difference between Jonathan Isaac writing a book about his faith and Jaden Ivey cycling through daily Instagram Live sessions attacking individual players, disclosing suicide attempts, and telling the world his wife won\u2019t text him back. Those are different things. Shapiro knows that. But \u201cman in crisis needs support\u201d doesn\u2019t generate the engagement that \u201cman fired for being Christian during Holy Week\u201d does. So here we are.<\/p>\n

Every \u201cstand strong, king\u201d reply in Ivey\u2019s comments is telling him that the people who love him are wrong. Every \u201cconsider me a fan\u201d is reinforcing the idea that he should keep going, keep streaming, keep disclosing, keep escalating. That the problem isn\u2019t what he\u2019s doing. The problem is the world not accepting it. And if you\u2019ve ever watched someone you care about spiral while strangers on the internet cheer them on \u2014\u00a0and I have been that spiraling person before \u2014 you know how dangerous that feedback loop is.<\/p>\n

In a week, maybe two, Riley Gaines and Ben Shapiro will have a new cause. Robby Starbuck will be running a new pressure campaign against some company\u2019s DEI policies or something like that. The podcast bookings will dry up. The jersey sales will slow down. And Jaden Ivey will still be a 24-year-old who told the world he almost killed himself, whose wife isn\u2019t speaking to him, whose family says he\u2019s losing his mind, and who spent the worst week of his life surrounded by strangers telling him that everyone who loves him is the enemy.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s not defending someone\u2019s faith.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"If you don\u2019t follow the NBA, here\u2019s the short version of what happened this week: a 24-year-old basketball…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":695173,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3771],"tags":[7,920,919,329,3824,6],"class_list":{"0":"post-695172","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-nba"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116338602156017202","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/695172","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=695172"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/695172\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/695173"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=695172"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=695172"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=695172"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}