Jared McCain says the moment he learned he was being traded to the Oklahoma City Thunder hit him hard, and he still remembers the emotion of that call.
“I was on the bus with the Sixers and we were heading to the airport in San Francisco. We just played Golden State,” McCain told Marc J. Spears of Andscape. “I texted my agent for a gym in L.A. and he called me, and I think he’s calling me about the gym. He is like, ‘They’re about to trade you.’ Then [then-Sixers president Daryl Morey] called me five minutes later and told me I was traded. It was pretty wild, and I started crying immediately.”
The guard was moved on Feb. 4, with Philadelphia receiving a 2026 first-round pick and three second-round picks in return. McCain said the first people around him understood how much the moment meant because the move changed more than his jersey.
“Those are my brothers and still are my brothers to this day,” McCain said. “It was definitely tough. They thought I was joking when I told them, and then I started crying. Then they were like, ‘Oh, this is serious.’”
Even after the trade, McCain said the transition carried a personal cost that went beyond basketball. “Then we got off the bus and they all came up to me and I still went on the plane with them to L.A. I still miss Philly to this day. I never was able to see my house again because we were on the road. It’s little things like that. I miss my routine, but I’m definitely blessed to be here.”
The move quickly became one of the more notable in-season shakeups of McCain’s young career. Before the deal, he had already shown scoring touch and shot-making ability in Philadelphia, averaging 6.6 points per game in 37 appearances for the Sixers during the 2025-26 season.
After the trade, McCain’s role grew in Oklahoma City, where he averaged 10.4 points in 30 games while shooting 46.2 percent from the field and 39.1 percent from 3-point range. He has also appeared in 10 playoff games for the Thunder, giving the team another scoring guard in a postseason rotation built around pace and spacing.
