Jaden Ivey, a former No. 5 overall pick by the Detroit Pistons in 2022 who was traded to the Chicago Bulls in early February 2026, faced backlash after he went live multiple times on Instagram, sharing extended discussions about his Christian faith, including criticism that the NBA’s Pride Month promotions celebrate “unrighteousness.”
On March 30, the Bulls waived him, citing “conduct detrimental to the team.”
Despite this being “the biggest story going on in sports,” ESPN has largely turned a blind eye to it, says “Fearless” host Jason Whitlock.
“I had my guys … give me a full report on how ESPN covered Jaden Ivey getting waived by the Chicago Bulls for speaking against the LGBTQ alphabet mafia, and ESPN bent over backwards ignoring this story,” Whitlock says.
He calls out the glaring double standards.
“If some lesbian woman had been kicked out of the WNBA for any reason, … ESPN would have endless segments and shows talking about it,” he says.
As a Christian with conservative views on gender and marriage, Ivey, Whitlock argues, “is poison for [ESPN].”
Despite claiming to be sports journalism, ESPN, he explains, “is not interested in the truth” but rather is dedicated to pushing the progressive LGBTQ+ agenda.
Stephen A. Smith, Whitlock argues, is a key component in this agenda-driven network.
“There’s a reason why they installed Stephen A. Smith — a pathological liar — at the top of ESPN. That’s what you do when you have no interest in exploring the truth,” he says.
ESPN is “supposed to be the ‘worldwide [leader] in sports,”’ he continues, and yet it’s intentionally ignoring “the biggest story going on in sports” because it doesn’t align with the pro-LGBTQ+ agenda.
Smith did “a small little one-on-one thing where he said nothing,” and “‘NBA Today’ with Malika Andrews — they didn’t have a full-blown discussion on it; they read a little news clip and just tried to move on,” Whitlock criticizes.
“They don’t want to have this discussion [about Jaden Ivey] because this discussion leads someplace ESPN, Disney, and Bob Iger don’t want this discussion to go.”
To hear more, watch the full episode above.
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