Sixers’ Jared McCain documents his trip to New York for thumb surgery on video
"I have high aspirations for my career and these are bumps in the road," McCain said in the video. His rookie season was cut short by a knee injury.
Jared McCain wasn’t slated to make the trip to Abu Dhabi after suffering a torn ligament in his right thumb.
But the guard still got a chance to check out some of the sights when he FaceTimed 76ers teammates Tyrese Maxey and Kyle Lowry after undergoing surgery. In an image that went viral, McCain can be seen still in his hospital gown.
That wasn’t the only way McCain documented his recovery. A TikTok star who also has nearly 300,000 YouTube subscribers, McCain posted a video on Sunday documenting his trip to New York to get corrective surgery.
“Today, I am getting another surgery,” McCain said in the video. “ … Not the best way to start the 2025-26 season, but it happens. The universe wants me to have this, to go through this, so you never, never, ever question the universe and God’s energies and what they give to you, because they only give it to you for you to learn from it and to grow from it and to be great from it. So, never question it but definitely [stinks] that I’ve got to get another surgery.”
McCain suffered a meniscus injury in his knee that ended his rookie season. The Sixers guard was considered the front-runner for Rookie of the Year when he went down with the injury in December.
”In the past eight months, I had two surgeries," McCain said. “So let’s go to New York and get a surgery done. We’ve got an appointment today to fit the brace that I’m going to wear after the surgery and then the actual surgery is tomorrow morning. I don’t even know what they’re really doing, I don’t even know what I tore, I don’t even know what’s going on. But we’re here.”
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If his video is any indication, McCain took the experience in stride. He called friends from the hospital bed and shared laughs with family in the car after being discharged.
“Some people asked me, they were like, ‘Why are you always hurt?’” McCain said. ”Guys, I don’t want to be hurt. I’m trying my best to be as healthy as possible. Stuff just happens, but thanks, you guys, for sticking along. I have high aspirations for my career and these are bumps in the road."