Former Chicago Bulls player Jaden Ivey maintained that the conduct he showed in going against the NBA’s Pride Month and anti-LGBTQ beliefs was not detrimental to the team.
The Bulls waived Ivey after he posted a rant on social media calling the NBA’s Pride Month "unrighteousness." Chicago said Ivey committed conduct detrimental to the team.
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"My conduct was not detrimental to the team," he said in an appearance on the "PinPoint Podcast." "That is a lie. I was a good teammate to those around me. I was a good teammate on the floor. I made the right plays. I did exactly what the coach asked me to do on a daily basis. Whatever was needed, whatever was required of me to do, I was willing. So, my conduct was not detrimental to the team."
Ivey said he was only cut because he was preaching "the word of God."
"It is strictly because I spoke the truth of the word of God and was preaching the Gospel," he continued. "That’s why it was detrimental to the team. I witnessed to many on my team the truth and those things.
"Everyone has their beliefs. Everyone believes in something. If someone can speak and curse and speak about unrighteousness about whatever it may be, then I can speak the truth and that’s because my God says to speak the truth to the lost, to those who don’t know Jesus, to those who are not born again."
Ivey also said in the podcast he tried to die by suicide multiple times.
"I’m not ashamed to say it. I’m not ashamed to say it because God was merciful to keep me here," he said. "I almost committed suicide. I had Oxy pills in my hands, and my wife was telling me, ‘Don’t do it. Don’t do this. Don’t go down like this.’ And God was convicting me. And I didn’t know the truth. I didn’t do it by God’s grace. He kept me here."
Ivey pushed back on the narrative that he’s "crazy."
"It’s really sad," he said. "They don’t say to somebody who’s going to clubs, ‘Are you crazy?’ They don’t look to somebody that’s smoking weed, ‘Are you crazy?’ But to be the Christian proclaiming the truth, preaching the Gospel, I’m looked at as crazy and have a mental illness and I’m psycho and I need help and I’m crazy because I love God.
"But I love God. I love my family, my children. I love them and will give my life for them and pour into them, and I’m going to do the will of God in Jesus’ name and do his will that he may be glorified. Not my will be done, but his will be done."
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