Jared McCain is extremely self-aware. The Philadelphia 76ers‘ first-round draft pick understands that NBA fans are going to troll him for being a little bit different and knows exactly how they will do so.
He is calling his shot!
McCain, a professional hooper by day, is a TikTok influencer by night. His social media persona is larger than life and he boasts more than three million followers on the platform. It is a big part of what makes him so popular in some scenes but so unpopular in others.
The haters love to hate on McCain for breaking the status quo. He started painting his nails in high school, which is something that feeble minds cannot comprehend. He often dances on camera like nobody is watching or picks up a microphone to serenade his fans after going extremely viral, which draws criticism from people who want him to shut up and dribble.
Even though we live in a society where personality is what sets us apart, McCain is public enemy No. 1 for a lot of folks who don’t even watch basketball. They would prefer that his entire identity is hoops.
McCain simply does not care what other people have to say and does what he wants anyway.
The former five-star recruit averaged 14.3 points on 46% shooting, 5.0 rebounds and 1.9 assists in 31.6 minutes per game with Duke last season. He will be a great role player for a Philadelphia 76ers team with legitimate hopes of winning the Eastern Conference and NBA Finals!
Regardless of how things go for McCain during his rookie season, the people that want him to fail will be louder than ever. They will to mock him online and he knows that.
Even Sixers fans are going to hold him accountable! Fortunately, his time with the Blue Devils helped him to learn how to ignore all of the negativity. There are a lot of parallels between the two fanbases.
In fact, McCain predicted exactly how people are going to troll him next year. He can see the memes already.
If you’re rooting against Jared McCain, you’re wrong! Basketball hasn’t had a player with this much personality in a long time and his positivity is refreshing. Having fun while being different is a good thing.