Roger Grossman
News Now Warsaw
Last week, Jaden Ivey was released by the Bulls for what the team described as conduct “detrimental to the team.”
It was the result of Ivey posting a video on social media criticizing the NBA and his own team for their “Pride Night” and “Pride Month” promotions.
Here’s what he said: “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.’ They proclaim it on the billboards. They proclaim it on the streets. Unrighteousness.”
For that, the Bulls deemed that he could no longer be on their team.
There are several different angles that I want to take in discussing this issue.
First, a series of questions.
Did he threaten a teammate who is known as gay? No.
Did he “out” a teammate who was not publicly known as gay? No.
Did he physically assault anyone because they are known as gay? No.
What did he do wrong then? He spoke his mind. He has an opinion on a subject that most people have an opinion on, and he shared it.
In a world where everyone seems to have an opinion on everything, and they have plenty of places to share it, Jaden Ivey did that and it cost him his job with the Bulls.
This is the NBA — the same league that had an accusation of domestic violence against a player on the LA Lakers in 2021 and that player missed no games for it.
As a matter of fact, an ESPN article on the matter claims no one from the NBA Legal Department even talked to the victim before clearing the player to continue playing.
The player’s name is Jaxson Hayes, and he pleaded “no contest” to misdemeanor charges of false imprisonment and resisting law enforcement.
He was not fined or suspended by either the league or his team at the time, the New Orleans Pelicans.
So, it’s ok to beat your wife or girlfriend, but it’s unthinkable to share your opinion?
Noooo … it’s ok to beat your wife or girlfriend, but it’s unthinkable to share your opinion if it doesn’t agree with the corporation’s social agenda.
See the difference?
Another angle to this story is that Jaden Ivey was just traded to the Bulls from Detroit, and he really was not doing very well in Chicago.
Overall, he’s been a pretty big disappointment since joining the NBA after a terrific run at Purdue.
Which, with a record of 29-47 and roughly half a dozen games to go, meant Ivey was expendable. He wasn’t coming back to the Bulls next season anyway, and so the front office just looked at the video as an easy way to jettison him from their roster now.
In other words, Ivey opened the door of the airplane for the Bulls and they pushed him out.
All of those people in the front office who spoke after his banishment said they hoped that Ivey “would get the help he needs” and they were “worried about him.”
Obviously, they weren’t worried about him enough to actually help him while he was part of them. They kicked him out and told him to go get help from someone else.
Of course, another angle here is that the current climate of freedom of speech in America is this: “You have freedom to say whatever you want, as long as I/we agree with it.”
For those of you scoring at home, that’s not really freedom of speech, but those are the ground rules we are playing by in 2026.
The better rule of thumb for free speech today is “know your audience.”
And the final angle to consider here is that the NBA is a private organization and the Bulls are a privately owned franchise, and they can pretty much do whatever they want in this situation. Remembering that I am not a lawyer (but have watched enough Law & Order episodes to pass the New York State Bar Association exam), I think that if the Bulls really believe he was harming them and their employees, it would be hard to make a lawsuit stick that says otherwise.
Did he, in fact, get ‘fired’ by the Bulls for his religious beliefs? Yes…yes he did. Which would be illegal. But the Bulls’ legal team would counter that claim with the previously mentioned angles and say they were going to let him go in a few weeks anyway.
Jaden Ivey lost his job for speaking truth.
Those of us with similar convictions will be forced to choose one of two paths: to keep quiet and keep working or speak up and take on the risk.
Time to ask yourself, “What would my boss do if I said something like that?”
Then ask yourself, “Should I do it anyway because it’s the right thing to do?”’
