NBA player Jaden Ivey recently prompted headlines when he went live on Instagram to speak out against the league's Pride Month celebrations, calling them "unrighteousness."
The backlash was swift. Within days, the Chicago Bulls waived him. Now Ivey is taking his religious message to the streets – literally – and a debate is brewing over whether a professional athlete just lost his job over his faith.
Unrighteousness and Unemployment
Ivey, a former fifth overall draft pick, was acquired by the Bulls at February's trade deadline. He played only four games before the team shut him down with an injury – and it was while sidelined that he posted a series of videos on Instagram calling the NBA's LGBTQ+ Pride Month programming "unrighteousness."
The Bulls waived him shortly after, citing "conduct detrimental to the team." Ivey fired back, calling team officials "liars" and asking why, if his faith was the real issue, they wouldn't just say so. "All I'm preaching about is Jesus Christ," he said, "and they waived me."
However, the team has not publicly confirmed that Ivey's comments were the direct reason for showing him the door. His contract was expiring at season's end anyway, and he had barely played.
Whether the timing was a coincidence or a form of retaliation (or something in between) depends almost entirely on who you believe.
The Faith Community Responds
Evangelical voices have been vocal in Ivey's corner. Pastor Jordan Wells wrote on X that Ivey "didn't back down," comparing his willingness to lose his contract to choosing faith over worldly reward.
Pastor Josh Howerton of Lakepointe Church in Texas drew a parallel to the Book of Daniel – the idea of a believer ordered to bow to a foreign authority and refusing.
Such responses frame Ivey as a modern-day martyr figure, a man punished not for bad behavior but for proclaiming his beliefs.
Point Guard to Street Preacher?
Ivey himself seems to be leaning into that role. Less than a week after being waived, Ivey was spotted on the streets of Chicago preaching and citing scripture to passersby.
“And eat of the tree of life. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God,” Ivey is heard saying in the video:
Faithful or Hateful?
However, not everyone is sure that Ivey lost his job over his beliefs.
For one, professional sports teams operate under codes of conduct that all players agree to. Publicly condemning an official league initiative crosses a line any employer might enforce (and it’s not like this a new thing – the NBA has promoted Pride Month for years).
Whether one agrees with that or not, the argument goes, an employee calling those programs "unrighteous" on a platform with 200,000 followers is a different matter than expressing private religious beliefs.
This question of where personal faith ends and workplace conduct begins has been playing out well beyond the basketball court – from nurses fired for pushing religion on patients to new federal guidelines opening the door to proselytizing at work.
The Bigger Question
The controversy exposes two competing ideas: the right to express one's faith openly, and the right of any institution to set standards for how its members represent it publicly.
For many evangelical Christians, those two things are irreconcilable – the Gospel, by its nature, doesn't stay private. For others, a paycheck comes with professional obligations that don't disappear when you go online.
As debates over LGBTQ+ inclusion and religious expression continue to reshape institutions across American life, expect more controversies like this to come.
What do you think? Should professional athletes be held to conduct standards that limit public statements of faith? And does it matter whether Ivey was actually fired because of his beliefs, or only that he believes he was?
22 comments
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Dr. Zerpersande, NSC
So he’s a street preacher now? Hope he’s better at that than basketball.
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Rev. BH
Didn't know LGBTQ+ Pride was a religion. Yet I'm sure LGBTQ+ folks can believe in Christ or any other religious figure. And be nice.
Good luck with your forthcoming podcast, Jaden. We need more online religious influencers.
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ServantOfJudgement
The mass movement shares many of the trappings of a religion. Social pressure to obey, flags and symbols, programs and indoctrination for the youth, celebrations and festivals with their own rituals and so on. It even has a key component. The declaration of things good and evil from an unidentified source. It's evil to not let a child to change his gender. It's good to teach children in school about the LBGTQI2A++ movement. It's good to let drag queens to read books to children, it's evil not to.
I can identify a Christian, Muslim or lgbtqia++ at work just as easily as the next when the wear their religions symbology.
If we look at it impartially, there's not a difference at all from Islam, Buddhism or Christianity, only in the details of the mantra.
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Rev. Carol M Anaski-Figurski
Interesting article, if all faiths aren't welcome it is discrimination. He should be able to sue that. In addition if its LGBTQ it is still discrimination. It's his personal right to choose gender. Plus some science shows gender can be a gene inherited vs learned behavior. Either way what's it got to do with playing the sport of basketball? He might have bigger sports sponsorships like leed von martin or nasa & a bigger contract in basketball simply for being real. God loves LQBTQ all the same as anyone one else so. It's man made religion the choose to make it an unacceptable, where all is welcome. Blest Be Amen.
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PKBW
There should be no excuses to show off this. Sports, school, events etc. Needs to stop being thrown down our throats everywhere we go.
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Rolando Couce
GOD KNOWS WHAT WE DO IN THE DARK AND WE WILL ALL BE JUDGED ON THIS SO IT PEOPLE DO THINGS AND THINK NOBODIES IS WATCING WELL GOD IS WATCHING REMMEBER THAT
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Sir Lionheart
Oh no! Is he watching me in the shower then, or in my bedroom as I get dressed? If he is, I think he’s a very naughty deity and someone should pray to his dad and tell him. Does God have a mom and dad? I bet they are both long gone by now. I’d love to know his family genealogy. 🤷
🦁❤️
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Reverend Paula Copp
Leave your religion out of my business and we’ll be fine! How much is he giving to charity? How much to the poor? What has he done to help the downtrodden? Yeah, he can say whatever he’d like, but talk is cheap. What is this “man of faith” doing besides mouthing off at a population which has NOTHING to do with him? How very “christian” of him!
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ServantOfJudgement
Sounds good. Don't put your basement on global display the entire month of june.
Thx.
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James Richard Munro
I think most of you are missing the point. Why in the picture, do we have a basketball player wearing a pervert wrist band? Does his contract say he should be promoting a perverted group? The wristband is way out of place. They should be fired just for that.
Pastor Jim
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Reverend Paula Copp
“Perverted”? Seriously? Yeah, no! The LGBTQ+ community is statistically less likely to be pedophilic than straight white men. Sorry Jim. Science and math win.
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Sir Lionheart
So…”less likely”, means at some level, “likely” then? I guess I’m not surprised. 🤷
Do you have any data for straight black men? I notice you conveniently left them out.
And for that matter, I notice there seems to be quite an uptake on very naughty straight female teachers in the news recently. I don’t know how many of those teachers were Science or Math educators. 🤭
🦁❤️
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Joseph Knopick
yes
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Daniel Todd Kamm
Well said Chris... and way less wordy than I am too! tk
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Daniel Todd Kamm
Mr. Ivey can believe what he wants and can say what he wants ... despite the complete lack of the "Golden Rule" at work in his case.
Constitutional guarantees aside, when one agrees to a position of employment, things change up a bit: he signed a contract whereby he agreed to abide by the rules, regulations and routines of his employer and the organization he chose to represent.
For which he was paid.
He wasn't playing, due to medical concerns. Which was a financial loss to the organization, and then while he had nothing better to do while on medical (but still being paid by the organization) he put something out there in social media that did not represent his employer or the organization he chose to represent.
That is a breach of contract.
I can believe what I want to believe, embrace or feel repelled by other things when I am at work, but my job requires a certain professionalism in order to serve... I do what I am required to do, following my profession's ethics , my employers requirements, and the requirements of the service environment in which I have been embedded for the last 14 years... and I have no problem, currently or in the past... I am about to retire, happily and contentedly in full knowledge that I have done the best I could towards my clients, agencies, agency partners etc. over the past 37 years.
It doesn't matter how many ministers and others come out to support Mr Ivey's views, or indeed his claims. He f*cked up, and in a big way.
I was taught: "don't cut your nose off despite your face;" and more specifically: "don't sh*t where you eat."
Ivey dude missed something in his readings of his professed beliefs and became a burden to his employers, organization and community.
Again, breach or contract.
Peace out tk
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Elizabeth Jane Erbe Wilcox
LOL! “Hey, Gezus, see my butt crack?!”
Yeah he’s a real “righteous” kinda guy. LOL!
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Chris
No, he wasn't "fired for his faith." He was fired for speaking against his organization. Most places will do so. If he were so faithful he wouldn't be playing games on the Sabbath. Sounds more like he got his feelings hurt because the NBA didn't cave to his "religious beliefs."
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Rev. Miche'al Yosef Dixon
I must agree with Chris on this one. The player signed a contract and failed to meet the terms of that contract grounds for not renewing the contract, not fired. He played "only four games" that's a breach in contract. Supporters would claim "but he was hurt" then 1) employers don't give a rat's butt about that. I know I've had contracts breached for less. 2) if he was hurt then he can't play and that's money lost. The only religion involved is worshipping Mamon. He didn't State his religious beliefs only criticism of the organization he worked for in a public forum. That's grounds for dismissal in any organization. If he criticize the military while in the military (in 1980s- 1990s) he'd be arrested and court-martial for treason.
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ServantOfJudgement
Chris, faith has nothing to do with working on a day the average atheist can't comprehend. If you'd really like to accurately critique a Christian over Sabbath, start in Genesis and pray for understanding. You do that, you'll realize exactly how ridiculous what you just said is.
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Dr. Zerpersande, NSC
Actually gut-chuckling over this nonsensical babble of a post.
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Chris
Oh, bless your little heart. You assumed I'm an atheist. How precious. I spent 4 1/2 yrs in theology school and several more years since then studying the bible. I'm well aware of what Genesis says. I'm well aware we're supposed to honor the Sabbath Day and keep it holy. I'm also well aware that basketball games are played on the Sabbath Day. And I fully understand that playing basketball is not honoring the Sabbath Day or keeping it holy. So when sportsball players start going on about how important their faith is, I call BS because if their faith were that important they wouldn't be violating any of the Commandments.
So you can take your holier than thou condemnation and keep it. You sound ridiculous.
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Why does this look familiar? Oh, right... Mortar Jesus.
Two stories, same fundamental tension. A person bound by an oath or a contract, expressing faith in a way that created institutional friction and real measurable impact on others.
The soldiers who left that poster behind were bound by their oath and their regulations. Jaden Ivey was bound by a contract he signed and a paycheck he accepted. Both regulations were clear, both were breached. The difference might be scale. The incoming unit that found the poster took it down, maybe had the immediate impact similar to a mortar round, all the folks in the room. Ivey took his breach to X and threw a brick up to 200,000 people.
What I think is particularly telling is that he wraps himself in scripture to justify his position, while the same tradition he's preaching about already teaches the lesson. Jesus asks for a coin... whose image is on it? Caesar's. Then render unto Caesar what is Caesar's, and to God what is God's.
The NBA's image was on the coin Jaden Ivey accepted. Your secular and your spiritual self carry real claims on you. That's not a weakness, not a loophole, not a persecution. That is a lesson. You don't get to selectively honor one obligation while invoking the other as cover... and if you forget? You get schooled by Caesar.
I don't see this as a persecution for his faith. It's cherry picking on the court|text he's playing|standing on.