Bulls waive Jaden Ivey after his anti-Pride remarks
SAN ANTONIO — The Bulls wanted to see more from Jaden Ivey than just the four games he gave them before his knee issues became a concern and he was shut down.
As of Monday, however, there was no longer anything the organization needed to see from him, including his presence on the roster.
The Bulls announced that Ivey was waived for conduct detrimental to the team after he went onto social media and went on a rant about the LGBTQ+ community, saying, “The world proclaims LGBTQ, right? 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.’ “
The Sun-Times reported earlier in the day that the franchise wasted no time once they saw the posts, reaching out to the NBA on the proper process for Ivey’s exit.
“There’s a certain level of expectations and standards that are here,” Bulls coach Billy Donovan said of the eventual decision being made official. “We have people from all walks of life working in the building and players from all different walks of life, so the first thing is everybody comes with their own personal experiences, right? 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.
“From ownership, Jerry and Michael (Reinsdorf) down to the front office, (executive vice president) Arturas (Karnisovas) and (general manager) Marc (Eversley), me as a coach, and even to the players, there’s a certain standard we want to all live by. We’re all responsible to that standard.”
A source within the organization reiterated that it wasn’t just his opinions on the LGBTQ+ community, but an accumulation of posts and comments that started last month for the No. 5 overall pick (2022 draft).
Acquired at the trade deadline from Detroit in the Kevin Huerter deal, there were some immediate red flags around Ivey when he held an impromptu postgame sermon in February about the “Old Jaden Ivey” being dead, especially now that “Christ was in his life.”
Over the last few weeks, he started taking to his social media account and preaching to people his beliefs, while condemning those that he felt weren’t “saved.” Monday was more than enough in being the final straw, as there was an ongoing opinion that Ivey’s behavior was somehow spiraling.
Donovan did say Ivey was good about always showing up for the rehab program to strengthen his knee, so there were no issues on that front. The coach was asked about the guard’s mental health, and responded, “I’m not a doctor, but I would say mental health is a real issue, and I’m not saying there are mental health issues (with Ivey), but I do know from my standpoint as a coach there is a lot these guys have (to deal with).”
If all of that wasn’t enough for the sinking Bulls season, however, there was also a basketball element to this. Ivey was a restricted free agent, and the Bulls initially had plans to invest in him.
There was noise out of Detroit that Ivey was not only very religious but a bit of a “preacher” in the locker room, so why was there not enough homework done on him by Karnisovas before the deal?
Donovan could only answer so much on that front.
“I think there was some hope that he would be a guy that would be here long term, quite honestly,” Donovan said. “That was the intention of doing the deal that got done, that was the impression that I got from the front office that this is what we wanted to do.
“Obviously it didn’t work out that way. Now we have to pivot and move to something else.”
It might have been a good day to tank, especially with the Bucks losing hours earlier, but Bulls coach Billy Donovan still is trying to win games and identify which of his players have that same mindset.
Just because the second-year player has appeared in 22 straight games doesn’t mean that he thinks he has earned any kind of spot for next season.
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