Guard Jayden Ivey, whose season was shut down on Thursday due to knee issues, had started taking to Instagram lives since the Bulls announced the news last week. Thrice, he used his platform to deliver inflammatory comments to his over 200,000 followers. While there was no hindrance to his free speech, the career side of things has just seen a setback. 

“The world proclaims LGBTQ, right?” Ivey said during the livestream. “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.’ They proclaim it on the billboards. They proclaim it on the streets. Unrighteousness.”

Hours after the lengthy Instagram livestream about religion and other topics that included anti-gay sentiments, the Chicago Bulls waived him for conduct detrimental to the team. But again, the decision didn’t come after an isolated incident.

It is, perhaps, the sum total of a week in which Ivey, whose mother, Niele, is the women’s basketball coach at Notre Dame, had increasingly used Instagram Live to speak at length about his religious views.

Across three separate broadcasts, some lasting close to an hour, he read scripture, responded directly to viewers, and addressed questions about faith and morality. In one exchange, after a fan wrote that Detroit missed him and offered prayers, Ivey replied that God does not hear the prayers of sinners. In another response posted beneath the same video, he described Catholicism as a “false religion” that does not lead to salvation in Jesus Christ, which led to immediate backlash.

To provide you further context, earlier this year, the Chicago team hosted its eighth annual Pride Night to support the LGBTQIA+ community and everyone’s right to be who they are. The 312 Crew performed in the United Center atrium alongside other fan engagements. They also gifted everyone merchandise and complimentary tickets to the Pride Night game. Understandably, the team wasn’t going to tolerate such behaviour against something it has been ardently supporting.

Before Monday night’s game against the San Antonio Spurs, head coach Billy Donovan addressed the organization’s decision to move on from Ivey and pointed to the expectations attached to representing the team.

“I think there’s a certain level of standards and expectations that are here,” Donovan said. “Everybody comes with their own personal experiences. But we have to all be professional. There has to be a high level of respect for one another, and we’ve got to help each other and be accountable to those standards.”

Within hours of being waived, Ivey returned to Instagram Live and disputed the team’s explanation for the move, saying his conduct had not affected his standing inside the locker room.

“They’re lying saying my conduct is detrimental to the team,” he said. “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.”

He added that he had continued reporting for rehab as required despite being ruled out for the season.

“I didn’t get myself waived,” Ivey said. “I was in the gym today. I was rehabbing, doing what was required of my job.”

While the controversy around his livestreams ultimately accelerated Chicago’s decision, Ivey’s availability had already become a concern in the weeks leading up to the move.

Jaden Ivey was forced to sit out for the remainder of the season due to a recurring injury

Chicago had acquired Ivey shortly before the February trade deadline in a deal that sent Kevin Huerter to the Detroit Pistons, hoping the former No. 5 overall pick could become part of its long-term backcourt rotation. Back then, there was a lot of excitement about the young guard starting afresh with a new team.  Instead, his time with the team never fully stabilized.

He appeared in just four games before the knee soreness returned and did not play again after Feb. 11. After weeks of struggling to return to full fitness, Ivey was shut down for the remainder of the 2025-26 season. Overall, he averaged 8.5 points in 37 games this season, including four for Chicago. The injury setbacks themselves dated back further.

Injuries have always been a major issue for him, and that’s why Detroit let him go. In his breakout third season with the Pistons, he suffered a broken fibula. He followed that up with minor offseason knee surgery, and on his return for the Pistons this season in the first 33 games, he never looked the same player, with his explosiveness taking a major hit.

Earlier in February, he experienced the first healthy scratch of his career when he did not play against Toronto. Speaking afterward, Ivey framed the moment as part of a broader personal shift tied to his faith rather than a setback on the court.

“I’m not the J.I. I used to be,” he told reporters that night. “The old J.I. is dead. I’m alive in Christ no matter what the basketball setting is.”

That shift had become increasingly visible during his short stay in Chicago. According to ESPN, some staff members inside the organization had already taken note of how frequently conversations around religion surfaced in team settings before the livestreams began drawing wider attention publicly.

Unfortunately, after being traded to the Bulls, he looked alright until he developed knee soreness there, too. Billy Donovan revealed that the young guard first felt the symptoms on February 19. Initially, he was expected to return in two weeks, and the Bulls were adamant that they had a plan around his return. They had upgraded him to questionable a week before ruling him out. However, Donovan said Ivey bumped his knees in practice, and the injury was severe enough to end his season.

The timing also leaves uncertainty around what comes next for the 24-year-old guard. Ivey had arrived in Chicago only weeks earlier at the trade deadline and never had the chance to establish a role before knee soreness ended his season. Now waived late in the year after appearing in just four games for the Bulls, his immediate future in the league depends on whether another team takes a chance on him following a season shaped as much by injuries as by the events of the past week.