On Monday, the Chicago Bulls waived point guard Jaden Ivey for conduct detrimental to the team, following an Instagram live in which he condemned the NBA’s support of the LGBTQ+ community and its Pride Month celebrations.
It was one of several live streams the fourth-year guard has conducted, during which he expressed his religious beliefs, after he was shut down for the remainder of the season last week to recover from a knee injury.
“The world can proclaim LGBTQ, right?” Ivey asked his thousands of viewers on Monday morning. “They proclaim Pride Month. And the NBA, they proclaim it. They show the world. They say, ‘Come join us for Pride Month, to celebrate unrighteousness.’ They proclaim it on the billboards and in the streets.”
The Bulls’ decision to release Ivey and the subsequent reporting surrounding a turbulent situation sent the internet into a frenzy, with conversations about free speech and religious persecution at the forefront.
When you peel back the layers of this situation, it shouldn’t be such a divisive conversation.
Frankly, the headline should have read, “The Chicago Bulls have connected Jaden Ivey with mental health specialists who will work with him through a troubled time.”
But it didn’t, and the fact that it didn’t lays out the first truth of the matter: Ivey is expendable for Chicago.
They didn’t cut him because he’s expressing his beliefs, but if they had, it would have been well within their rights, as the First Amendment only protects individuals from government punishment. They cut him because he’s not good enough nor healthy enough to be causing PR nightmares.
To be clear, ethical codes in professional sports only exist for those who aren’t talented enough or don’t make the organization enough money.
The better you are, the more you can get away with.
There are players on rosters who’ve spewed racial slurs, homophobic rhetoric and committed domestic violence against their partners.
Those players got a slap on the wrist for their transgressions.
But they don’t average eight points per game on below-average efficiency. Their teams haven’t performed better with them off the court since they entered the league, and they haven’t struggled with injuries over the last two seasons.
Contrary to what a contingent of popular conservative influencers will tell you, Ivey wasn’t cut because he’s simply a Christian.
There are countless players who openly practice Christianity, such as Orlando Magic forward Jonathan Isaac, who is openly a devout Christian, has a faith-forward clothing brand and has spoken out against transgender athletes competing in cisgender sports.
But he’s not yelling at his phone on a random Monday and condemning Catholicism before lunch.
No, Ivey was cut because he was reportedly an unwelcome preacher in the locker room, who asked media members if they were saved and if they’d fornicated before marriage.
He weaponized Christianity, playing the role of judge, jury and executioner in Instagram comments, telling people who were praying for him that God won’t hear their prayers if they are sinners. He spoke out against other players, such as Golden State Warriors guard Stephen Curry, insinuating that they are fake Christians and that they didn’t know Jesus.
Ivey has used scripture to preach his gospel, but has ignored the teachings in the Bible that would discourage his behavior.
I’d tell Ivey to open his Bible to Romans chapter two, and take a look at verses 1-3 that say:
“You, therefore, have no excuse, you who pass judgment on someone else, for at whatever point you judge another, you are condemning yourself, because you who pass judgment do the same things. Now we know that God’s judgment against those who do such things is based on truth. So when you, a mere human being, pass judgment on them and yet do the same things, do you think you’ll escape God’s judgment?”
In shorter terms, I know you ain’t talking.
Condemning the NBA (which isn’t an exclusively Christian league) and the world for “forcing” queerness onto people and then, in turn, trying to force your religious beliefs onto others, questioning their righteousness and condemning Catholicism is not only hypocritical but ignorant.
The only reason pride nights or pride months are a thing is because people have historically used religion as a tool to discriminate and persecute members of the LGBTQ+ community.
There would be no need to have special nights or months to accept and celebrate queer people if they weren’t routinely dehumanized and told they were wrong for simply having relations with people they are inherently attracted to.
The same people who speak out against LGBTQ+ acceptance are the people whose actions created a need for its existence.
There are no excuses for Ivey’s actions and no room for hate in this world, but the more Ivey has spoken out, the clearer it’s become that he’s dealing with significant mental health issues, and that should be a bigger part of the story.
Yelling at his phone inside an airport and on a plane full of passengers, a number of incoherent sentences every few minutes, a stretched out V-neck and an inability to stay on topic during tirades were enough to raise eyebrows, but what’s gone under the radar is that Ivey has admitted to being sexually assaulted as a child, struggled with porn addiction, alcoholism, suicidal thoughts and been abusive toward his wife.
Ivey needs professional help, not people claiming his freedom of speech was infringed upon or using him as a martyr.
Let’s pray he gets it.
Because by Ivey’s own admission, the Pistons, the Bulls and the NBA are worldly things that won’t matter on Judgment Day — but his actions will.
