New England Patriots star TreVeyon Henderson is under fire for expressing his support for Jaden Ivey after the guard was waived by Chicago Bulls on Monday.
The Bulls waived the 24-year old, who was traded from the Detroit Pistons back in February, for what they said was “conduct detrimental to the team.”
The roster move comes after Ivey, who had recently been shut down for the season due to a knee injury, had taken to Instagram live and called out the NBA for celebrating Pride Month, which he called “unrighteousness.”
“The world can proclaim LGBTQ, right? They proclaim Pride Month, and the NBA, they proclaim it. They show it to the world. They say, ‘Come join us for Pride Month to celebrate unrighteousness.’ They proclaim it. They proclaim it on the billboards. They proclaim it on the streets. Unrighteousness.
So how is it that one can’t speak righteousness?”
Ivey has previously been outspoken about his Christian faith, celebrating his baptism in 2024 with an Instagram post proclaiming that he’s “nothing without Jesus.”
Speaking about the team’s decision to release Ivey, head coach Billy Donovan spoke about the organization’s standards and implied that the player failed to meet them with his comments:
“There’s a certain level of expectations and standards that are here. Everybody comes with their own personal experiences, right? But we have to all be professional, there has to be a high level of respect for one another, and we’ve got to help each other and be accountable to those standards.”
But afterwards, Ivey once again took to Instagram live to question the team’s claim that his conduct was “detrimental” to the team:
“They said my conduct is detrimental to the team, right? Why didn’t they just say, ‘We don’t agree with his stance on LGBTQ’? Why didn’t they say that? How is it conduct detrimental to the team? What did I do to the team? What did I do to the players? I did nothing but practice with them, play with them, pass the ball to them, good teammate to them. … Was never detrimental to them.
So why is it that the NBA and the Chicago Bulls say that I’m detrimental to the team? Because I believe in the truth? Because I know Jesus is the way, the truth and the life?”
And TreVeyon Henderson, the sophomore running back for the New England Patriots, came to Ivey’s defense with a lengthy string of social media posts:
As a result, some Patriots fans have gone so far as to call for Henderson to be released from the team:
Others also pointed out Henderson’s silence when his teammate Stefon Diggs was charged with domestic battery late last year, though it seems the same argument could be made for teams that don’t waive players accused of domestic violence for “conduct detrimental to the team too.”
When asked about Henderson’s support of Ivey, Patriots head coach Mike Vrabel expressed his support for Henderson:
“I love TreVeyon… He cares deeply about our team, he cares deeply about his faith, he cares deeply about his family, his wife, the people in our building. And so I want them to be able to express what they believe in their heart and in their mind, but also want to make sure that they’re educated, and we want to be inclusive.
We want to provide an environment for people to feel comfortable, but also to share their personal beliefs. And then also, we represent the team, and we represent the organization.”
Gotta think Henderson won’t be going anywhere…and we’ll have to wait and see whether Ivey ends up getting picked up by another team when he becomes a free agent this offseason.
