Jaden Ivey played four games for the Chicago Bulls after he was acquired in a blockbuster three-team trade involving the Detroit Pistons and Milwaukee Bucks.
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Then he went off the rails in a live video streamed on his Instagram account, condemning his new team for staging “Pride Night” on January 10 — a gesture of goodwill toward the LGBTQ community endorsed by most professional sports teams in 2026.
According to Shams Charania of ESPN, that was enough to make the Bulls want to cut their losses.
The Bulls are waiving Ivey, Charania reported March 30 — less than two months after they traded for the 24-year-old guard.
“They proclaim Pride Month in the NBA. They proclaim it. They show it to the world. They say, ‘Come join us for Pride Month,’ to celebrate unrighteousness,” Ivey said in an Instagram live. “They proclaim it. They proclaim it on the billboards. They proclaim it in the streets — unrighteousness. So how is it that one can’t speak righteousness? [Who] are they to say that, ‘Man, this man is crazy’?”
The NBA also proclaims its support for Pride Month online. It claims to be the first major sports league to establish an employee resource team (ERT) for the LGBTQ+ employees, known as NBA Pride.
“We want everyone to know they have a safe space in sports and for our fans to know they are welcome here”, Bonnie Thurston, the Director of Player Programs at the WNBA and Co-Chair of NBA Pride told the league’s website in 2024.
Ivey’s rant isn’t specific to the Bulls. It’s a stance that, in theory, could make him difficult for any NBA team to employ after making his anti-LGBTQ views known.
Ivey was averaging 8.2 points, 1.6 assists, and 2.2 rebounds in 16.8 minutes for the Detroit Pistons when he was sent to Chicago in a deal that sent Kevin Huerter and Dario Sarić to the Pistons, and also sent Mike Conley to Chicago.
The fifth overall pick in the 2022 NBA Draft out of Purdue, Ivey has averaged 14.8 points, 3.5 rebounds, and 4.0 assists over four NBA seasons (2022-26).
Ivey was on the injured list with a season-ending knee injury he suffered on Feb. 11.
