Christian Athletes Unite Behind Jaden Ivey After the Bulls Cut Him for His Faith

On March 31, 2026, the Chicago Bulls issued a brief, clinical statement: guard Jaden Ivey had been waived “due to conduct detrimental to the team.” What was so “detrimental?” Ivey’s Biblical stance on marriage.

 

What the Bulls’ sanitized statement couldn’t contain was a much bigger story: a 24-year-old man, freshly cut from an NBA roster, went live on Instagram not to rage or spiral about his team’s decision, but to preach. “Not my will be done,” Ivey said. “But His will be done.”

 

Ivey’s decision is the epitome of what happens when a believer decides that the approval of the world is no longer worth more than the approval of God.

 

The Man Behind the Moment

 

Jaden Ivey was selected No. 5 overall in the 2022 NBA Draft and was once considered one of the league’s most electric young guards. He suffered a broken left fibula in January 2025, then underwent arthroscopic knee surgery, missing significant stretches of the season. It was during that extended period of injury and rehabilitation that Ivey says God got his full attention.

 

On the “PinPoint Podcast,” Ivey revealed just how dark that season had been: “I almost committed suicide. I had Oxy pills in my hands, and my wife was telling me, ‘Don’t do it. Don’t go down like this.’ And God was convicting me. I didn’t do it by God’s grace. He kept me here.”

 

That is the testimony behind the Instagram livestreams. So while some say he is a man who is unraveling, the reality is that he is awakening to the truth.

 

What A Loud World Needs

 

After being shut down for the rest of the season due to injury, Ivey began going live on Instagram frequently, posting at least three lengthy videos in which he spoke about his faith and called out the NBA for promoting Pride Month, saying it celebrated “unrighteousness.”

 

His words were unambiguous: “They proclaim Pride Month in the NBA. 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 in the streets. So how is it that one can’t speak righteousness? How are they to say that this man is crazy?”

 

He made these statements on his own personal social media accounts. They weren’t stated on the court, not in the locker room, not during any team-mandated event, but within hours, the Bulls announced they were waiving him.

 

The Cross Carries A Cost

 

The professional cost was only part of it: “Those who are around me, those who are my family members betraying me because of what I spoke. The truth. Betraying me. Saying that I’m losing my mind. Saying that I’m crazy. Those are my own household. All because of the Gospel,” Ivey said.

 

This is precisely where Scripture speaks with stunning clarity. In Matthew 19:29, Jesus declared: “And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or fields for my sake will receive a hundred times as much and will inherit eternal life.”

 

The promise isn’t that following Christ will cost you nothing. The promise is that what you gain will infinitely exceed what you lose.

 

Ivey pushed back on being labeled unstable: “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.”

 

There’s a long biblical tradition of God’s messengers being called mad. Jeremiah was thrown into a pit. Paul was called a fool. The details change. The pattern doesn’t.

 

A New Team Steps Up

 

Here’s where the story pivots from loss to something that looks very much like a miracle.

 

Jaden Ivey was no longer a Chicago Bull, but he was welcomed with open arms by a much larger team: Christian athletes across professional sports who rallied to his side.

 

New England Patriots running back TreVeyon Henderson was among the first to respond, posting Matthew 5:10: “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, For theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” He added words that cut to the heart of the moment: “The world calls us crazy, but God calls us Sons and Daughters.”

 

Lakers forward Jake LaRavia posted John 14:6 on his Instagram story: “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”

 

NFL players Juanyeh Thomas, Azareye’h Thomas, Blake Ferguson, and Damien Lewis also joined in support, with Juanyeh posting: “We are called as Christians to speak up and spread the Gospel… We are made in His image, and those who deny that or go against it will be denied on judgment day.”

 

One door closed may have closed, but a hundred more opened, not metaphorically, but in real time, as brothers and sisters in Christ surrounded this young man with the very community the world tried to strip from him.

 

The Pattern Has Always Been This Way

 

This isn’t a new phenomenon unique to the 21st century.

 

Ruth left her people and her gods for the God of Israel, and found Boaz, found family, and found herself in the very lineage of Jesus Christ.

 

Joseph was betrayed by his brothers and thrown into a pit and arose to become second only to Pharaoh.

 

Paul surrendered his prestige and pedigree as a Pharisee and found Timothy, Silas, Barnabas, and the entire first-century church.

 

The Matthew 19:29 promise isn’t poetry but a pattern filled with eternal promises. Every time a believer leaves something behind for the sake of Christ, God rebuilds what was lost and it’s multiplied beyond imagination.

 

Jaden Ivey may have lost a spot on a roster but he gained a platform that is reaching millions. He may have lost the validation of a franchise yet he gained the solidarity of believers across professional sports.

 

Kingdom Courage Is Contagious

 

One of the most under-appreciated dimensions of Christian boldness is what it does for the believers (and non-believers) watching.

 

TreVeyon Henderson may not have posted that Bible verse if Ivey hadn’t gone first. Dozens of Christian athletes may have calculated the cost and stayed silent, but courage is contagious in the Kingdom of God.

 

When one person refuses to be quiet, it gives the next person courage to speak. This is how the early church spread. There wasn’t some modern strategy, but by the audacity of ordinary people who refused to stop talking about Jesus even when everything was on the line.

 

The common thread running through every athlete who stood with Ivey was perseverance, the determination to hold fast when silence would have been easier. Their collective message: belief means little when it costs nothing, and righteousness is tested precisely when public pressure demands retreat.

 

You Are Never Alone in This

 

If you’re in a season where standing for your faith has cost you something real, a relationship, a career opportunity, a seat at a family table, Matthew 19:29 is for you, and Jaden Ivey’s story is your modern-day example.

 

The world may call you extreme, and some of the people you love most may step back, but in that silence, it can feel like you are utterly alone. You are not.

 

God’s promise in Matthew 19:29 is that He’s keeping count of everything laid down for His name, and He intends to return it with interest. His promise in Hebrews 13:5 is that He will never leave you nor forsake you, and His promise in Psalm 68:6 is that He sets the lonely in families.

 

The right people are coming. The right community is being assembled. The God who kept Jaden Ivey alive through addiction, depression, and despair, who showed up when the pills were in his hand, is the same God who is with you right now.

 

“I love God. I love my family, my children. I’m going to do the will of God in Jesus’ name — not my will be done, but His will be done,” Ivey said.

 

That isn’t the statement of a man who has lost his mind, that is the declaration of a man who has finally found himself.

 

Be bold and then watch who God sends to run with you.

 

“And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or fields for my sake will receive a hundred times as much and will inherit eternal life.” Matthew 19:29

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