Chicago Bulls Release Player Over Anti-Pride Month Comments | Mundo Clip 3-31-26

You had this story yesterday pop last night that really was this perfect storm of sports, politics, religion, faith, and in many ways, yes, the culture. So Jaden Ivy is a 24-year-old NBA player who was a member of the Chicago Bulls until they decided to cut him yesterday. Why? What happened? Well, Jaden Ivy went on his Instagram account and spoke out against the NBA's plans for Pride Night, and here's what he had to say. The world can proclaim LGBTQ. Right? They have, they have, they proclaim Pride Month and the NBA. 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. So that's just 30 seconds of a near-hour-long video that Jaden Ivy put on his Instagram page the other day that went viral. So the first thing that happened here is that the Chicago Bulls put out a statement yesterday at about five o'clock in the afternoon saying, quote, the Chicago Bulls announced today that the team has waived Guard Jaden Ivy due to conduct detrimental to the team. So that comes down at about five o'clock yesterday. So you can do a lot of things in the NBA and get away with it and keep your job. But calling Pride Month unrighteous and you know what, they will drop the hammer on you. It is a parody of a professional sports league is what the NBA is. And it's why it's dying on the vine. I mean, you've seen it now fall behind football, which it's been behind for a long time. And now I believe it's trailing Major League Baseball by a mile as well. I mean, Major League Baseball, we talked about it yesterday out of the game. Major League Baseball has now found itself back into the number two slot in American sports. It used to be number three, I would say. And Baseball was struggling up until a few years ago. They made some rules changes and things got better for the sport. They've leaned into specific popular players. They've largely stayed out of the political arena. The NBA has done the opposite of that and they've fallen by the wayside. So this guy gets the boot from the Chicago Bulls. Now, a couple of things. Do I agree with getting rid of this guy, Jaden Ivey because of what he said? No, I don't. I don't believe that they should have fired this guy for comments that he made on his personal Instagram. Hey, if he took the microphone like during warmups or during introductions and started doing that to the crowd, okay, you got a problem on your hands here, all right? But a guy doing it on his personal Instagram account and holding views that are shared by, you know, give or take 50% of America, especially given the NBA's track record, is not a good look for a sport that already is struggling with getting tens of millions of Americans to reengage with their league right now. I feel like this has to be more behind the scenes because he'd only played with the Bulls for like five games. I knew him as a Detroit Piston for the last few years. Now, there is a little nuance to this, Mark. I agree with you here, okay? This guy came to Chicago a few weeks ago and he was hurt, he hasn't really been playing, and he's done after this season. His contract expires at the end of this year. So there really was not a lot that was lost here by the Chicago Bulls. It was an easy way for them to just get rid of the guy. If he was Steph Curry, if he was LeBron James, and he said these things, he would still have a job. Athlete privilege is real, there's no doubt about it. If you are excellent at your craft, you can get away with saying more things than if you're not. If you're a part-time role-player who's always getting hurt, you're gonna get the boot. And that's the point you're making there, Mark. There is a little nuance to this. The problem for the NBA is that for people that already don't watch the sport because they think that the sport is too woke, they've given them another reason to be like, your sport is too woke and we don't wanna watch it. March Madness is doing record numbers this month. I almost said last month, but tomorrow's April 1st, not today. March Madness is doing record numbers. What does that mean? People do genuinely love the sport of basketball in this country. They wanna watch it, they wanna consume it, but they're not watching the NBA. The NBA's ratings continue to go down. The NBA has not been able to top viewership going back to the 1998 NBA finals when Michael Jordan was winning his second three-peat. They have not topped those ratings in 28 years now, despite the fact that the country has grown by tens of millions of people. So that's the problem for the NBA. There is more nuance than maybe social media wants to let you believe, but still, the problem for them is that it gave people that like to beat up the NBA reason to do it. Mike's and Alaytha on KCMO. Good morning, Mike. Yeah, they are so oblivious to the truth and to other things. When I heard this guy, I saw the post and I thought to myself, and I was actually gonna call you yesterday, but you were at the K all day because of the week and because of the No Kings Day. I think of AC Green with the Lakers back in the 80s and 90s. He wore his belief system and his blood for Christ on his sleeve and he had no problem. Everybody loved AC. He was a big player and all that, but he was not like Michael Jordan, but he was a factor, but our culture has fallen so far. And you obviously know the ownership of the Bulls, what their belief system is, because it's obviously not in Christ. But then I thought of the No Kings rally this weekend and I was thinking to myself, how ironic and how perfect. As we go into this week where we celebrate the one and only king of the universe, that they've got a No Kings rally because they don't believe in the real king either, but there's one king and it's this week. And all this stuff just leads to the fact that we have sort of become a split society where either love God or you don't, and it's sort of revealed in your behavior. But in this case, man, what a hell ironic, all these silly things coming down when we're basically celebrating the savior of the world. The one true king is out there and we celebrate him coming up this weekend. Yeah, right on the heels of the big No Kings rally. And last I checked, there were no kings on Friday, there were no kings on Saturday, and there were no kings on Sunday in this country because to your point, Mike, yes, there is one true king and it is not Donald Trump. I promise you that much. Amen, brother. Thank you very much there, Mike. Well said, my man. Well said. On the text line, Pete, something tells me that if this NBA player, Jaden Ivey, had ranted about Trump for an hour, nothing would have happened. Of course not, of course not, of course. It would have been just another day that ends in Y. That's all it would have been. No one would have even seen it or cared about it because it was on his personal Instagram. Hey there, I'm Paula Pan. I help people make the smartest money decisions possible. Do not ever worry about your salary. You need enough to make sure that you aren't in a bad financial position. Once you have that, your salary becomes moot. What matters from that point forward, upside gains. Any type of ownership stake or ownership potential, that's the money. Remember, you can afford anything, just not everything. Afford anything. Follow and listen on your favorite platform. Hi, I'm Josal C. I hosted the Stackin' Benchman's podcast. You know what, a lot of us get taxes wrong. Filing your taxes is basically data entry. There's been this trend of people going, oh it's so cool to file my taxes in August. It's so awesome. Don't worry, I have an extension. It'll be fine. I'll like totally do it later. Stop, do your friggin' taxes now. That was a really good fashion voice. Did you like it? You do that more frequently please. Yes, every show from now on. I don't feel like that. Stackin' Benchman's. Follow and listen on your favorite platform.