Jared McCain opens up about protecting his mental health with students at Level Up Philly: ‘It humbles you’

Since high school, Jared McCain has shared his life on TikTok for his fans. He didn’t expect just how many haters would also come his way.

On Wednesday, McCain, in partnership with Penn Medicine and the Sixers’ Assists for Safe Communities initiative, spoke with more than 40 students at Level Up Philly about protecting his own mental health.

“Putting myself in different positions helps me with my mental health, and helps me understand what people can go through,” McCain told The Inquirer. “Now, when I go through it, I understand what to do or what not to do. Being in the league is amazing, and now that I’m in, I guess, my real profession, it’s cool that I get to help out around the city, people around me, and people in my DMs, whoever it is, that I can just help out and try and direct them in the best way possible.”

Since entering the NBA in 2024, McCain has experienced the highs of a successful debut, and the lows of his season-ending meniscus tear and his season-opening finger injury this year.

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As he worked his way back into the lineup, McCain said there’s a huge mental aspect to his recovery that fans may not see. He relies on his friends and family, and also works with a psychologist to process and work through those struggles.

“The expectation is, you come back right away, first game and play exactly how you are. But for me, I was just trying to get out there and feel comfortable enough to jump again and jump off my left leg again,” McCain said. “You’ve done it a million times in training and to be prepared for a game, but it’s never going to replicate actually going and subbing into a game and going full speed.”

“That’s where I’ve got to get off social media sometimes, in the first few games. Even when I’m not playing the best right now, I know it’s going to come back to me, but I always just stay true to myself. I know it’s going to click and I know it’s going to come back as long as I continue to work hard.”

McCain doesn’t run his own Instagram anymore, and he’s never on X, which he believes is “the worst” platform. But he still loves TikTok, and tries to keep basketball off his For You page.

But he told the students at Level Up Philly that despite the hate he can get for his TikTok videos, he wants to keep it going to make a positive impact. Negative comments can often overshadow the positive comments, so McCain learned to refocus on the good he was doing instead of falling into the negative.

Level Up Philly is a youth community center in West Philadelphia that serves as a home base for hundreds of students across the city to work on homework, learn new skills, or hang out with friends.

Pastor Aaron Campbell, affectionately called “Unc” and even “Dad” by the students, is the executive director of the center. Level Up Philly supports students from 10 to 25 years old.

More than 40 students came to hear McCain, Campbell, and Penn Medicine emergency doctor Malik Sams talk about mental health. A number of students at Level Up Philly have witnessed gun violence, and Campbell said 15 students at Level Up have been killed in the last three years.

“There is arguably a human rights crisis in Philadelphia,” Campbell said. “We have seen a significant drop in homicides. We’ve seen solutions for the violence, but now there’s another element. The elephant in the room is the PTSD, the psychological impact, and that is also part of what I will call a human rights crisis in Philadelphia, so we have to talk about mental health.”

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Students eagerly shared their own stories and asked McCain questions, and Campbell loved that the collaboration between the Sixers and Level Up could help the students feel more empowered to speak up about their own mental health.

McCain said one of the biggest lessons he’s learned is not to judge, because everyone is going through something on their own that he might not see. Getting to meet the students at Level Up was yet another way for McCain to gain new perspective that he can take with him going forward.

“I was privileged, and I was able to grow up in an environment where a lot of this stuff didn’t happen that these kids go through,” McCain said. “To be able to hear stories of people, of what they’re going through, and people passing in their family, it definitely it humbles you, and you can understand more of what people go through on a day to day, and what they can be projecting at you when something happened at home. Just hearing it has helped me, and it can literally help me in my mental health struggles.”