Jaden Ivey was having a career year. In his third NBA season, the young Detroit Pistons star was averaging 17.6 points, 4.1 rebounds and 4.0 assists per game. On top of that, he was a key cog on a resurgent Pistons team that’s in the playoff hunt after years of rebuilding.
That all changed when Ivey suffered a broken fibula in a New Year’s Day game against the Orlando Magic. What followed were “some of the toughest days I’ve had in my lifetime as far as pain goes,” he said on the Sports Spectrum Podcast shortly after the injury.
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His surgery went well, he’s expected to make a full recovery, and there’s still a chance he could return this season. But that will depend on his progress as well as whether Detroit is in playoff contention.
While Ivey would never prefer to be sidelined, the entire experience has allowed him to reflect on his faith and the truths he’s proclaimed boldly from his platform as a professional athlete: that the Lord is good and where he finds his peace.
James 1, which commands believers to consider it pure joy when going through trials of any kind, has remained at the front of Ivey’s mind. He even posted a passage on Instagram a couple days following the injury.
Just a week or so before going down, Ivey had a thought that while he was having a great year, he knew an injury could come at any moment and end his season. And if that happened, he was confident his identity would still be in Christ. He didn’t know the moment to display that conviction would come so soon, but he welcomed it.
“It’s sad, but without Christ, there’s no peace,” he said on the podcast. “If your heart is in the wrong place, if your identity is only in basketball, you don’t have peace. Even before when it happened, I’m just like, ‘I have peace because I know Jesus is with me no matter what, no matter what I go through, no matter the trial.’ And that’s the peace that surpasses all understanding (Philippians 4:7).”
“I know this situation is going to help me grow even closer to Him, and I already feel it,” he added.
Ivey also shared on the podcast about what he considered a tough childhood and adolescence — trauma, abuse, a pornography addiction and giving into temptations of the world, like drinking alcohol and partying. Some of these patterns were still present in adulthood, and even though he was aware of it and the dichotomy of these things against his faith, he didn’t always feel strong enough to fight them off.
Ivey felt Satan tempting him back into some of those behaviors shortly after he scored 25 points and hit a game-winning shot on Nov. 25 against the Toronto Raptors. He wasn’t reading his Bible as often and could feel his heart shifting back toward “the cares of this world” and things he knew God had set him free from.
“The day after I hit the game-winner against the Raptors, I sat in the car and I literally had a heart-to-heart with God,” he said. “And I’m like, ‘Lord, I know I can’t do this without You. I know I see it.’ I had no peace during that time for like two months.”
He decided to surrender it all to God.
“I said, ‘God, I surrender. I surrender fully. I need You. I need Your peace. I need Your love.’ And He’s there. That’s just the Father He is,” Ivey said.
The 22-year-old posted on Aug. 19 that he had been baptized over the summer, saying he was “NOTHING WITHOUT JESUS” in the caption and referencing James 1:17 and 2 Corinthians 5:17. Through his experience and testimony, Ivey hopes people see that God’s character never changes regardless of the circumstances.
“Sometimes we ask God why is He doing this? We get in our own minds and our own thoughts,” he said. “But His thoughts are not our thoughts. He’s in control and He has the plan. He knows the outcome. He knows it because it’s greater. He knows the plan that He has for our lives.”
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