Conservatives erupted online in support of NBA star Jaden Ivey after the Chicago Bulls waived the shooting guard Monday following his public anti-LGBTQ outcry and comments about religion.
“They proclaim Pride Month in the NBA,” Ivey said on Instagram. “They proclaim it. They show it to the world. They say come, come, come join us for Pride, for Pride Month, to celebrate unrighteousness.”
“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?” he said.
The NBA player went on to claim that Satan wants to “to keep people in sin” and for people to “keep being gay” or “keep being a lesbian.”
“God did not make a man to be with a man. God did not make a girl to be with a girl,” Ivey said. “God made a man for the purpose of procreation, to have another child. How else? How can a woman? How can a woman bear a child with a woman?”
When the Chicago Bulls announced they were parting ways with Ivey, some conservative personalities claimed the basketball player was being punished for his Christian faith.
OutKick’s Riley Gaines, who transitioned to right-wing activism after tying for fifth place at the NCAA Women’s Championships with a trans swimmer, defended him online.
“We live in a world that hates Christ and those who believe in Him, but that’s to be expected. Just as He was persecuted, so will we be,” Gaines said on X. “Consider me a Jaden Ivey fan.”
“I hope Jaden Ivey sues the Bulls. He’s being waived because he’s a Christian,” Alex Bruesewitz, an adviser to President Donald Trump, said. “This is ridiculous.”
I hope Jaden Ivey sues the Bulls. He’s being waived because he’s a Christian.
This is ridiculous. https://t.co/arR8GpwIyB
— Alex Bruesewitz 🇺🇸 (@alexbruesewitz) March 31, 2026
MAGA-aligned UFC fighter Colby Covington appeared on right-wing podcaster Tomi Lahren’s show to call the Chicago Bulls a “disgusting organization.”
“This is his God-given right, his First Amendment right, to voice his opinion. I appreciate him standing up against the woke mob,” the fighter said. “I can’t believe the Chicago Bulls stooped to this low of a level.”
According to The New York Times, Ivey will still receive his full $10.1 million salary this season.
A source within Ivey’s former team told The Chicago Sun-Times, it wasn’t just the player’s opinions on the LGBTQ issue that got him waived, but rather an accumulation of posts and comments that started last month.
Following the controversy, sports commentator Stephen A. Smith, who occasionally gives political insight, says the Bulls are “perfectly within their rights” to waive the player.
“They have a right to be picky about who they want representing their brand and their product,” Smith said Tuesday.
