Jared McCain is staying grounded while shouldering injury ‘haymakers’ for Sixers

Jared McCain put his hand on an opposing player rolling to the basket during a late-September workout and felt a pop in his right thumb.

Then when the 76ers’ guard attempted to hold or shoot the ball while on the sideline, that finger moved in the wrong direction.

“I was like, ‘Yeah, I’m cooked,’” McCain said Wednesday. “I went to the training room, and I immediately started crying.”

That thumb had a torn ligament that required surgery, further delaying McCain’s path back to the court following a knee procedure that prematurely squashed a terrific start to his rookie season. About three weeks later, McCain said Wednesday that he has come out of a “depressive state” while publicly discussing his latest injury for the first time. He expects to be reevaluated in about two weeks and then hopes to transition to a playing brace that allows him to dribble and pass with his right hand again.

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“The universe is throwing haymakers at me,” McCain said following practice. “But it’s all part of the process. I’ve just got to continue to trust that it happens for a reason. It sucks because I felt like I was right there, so close to being back, and then just another setback.

“But I’m always going to stay grounded, stay with gratitude.”

Tears also flowed when McCain received the MRI results for his thumb via a phone call while driving home. He immediately pulled over to call his mother, Jina. And his psychologist.

Since that procedure, however, McCain has remained an early arriver to the Sixers’ practice facility, coach Nick Nurse said. Even though McCain cannot use his right hand, he has been drilling left-handed layups and floaters. And doing “a bunch of running.”

“He’s continuing to have this ‘I’m-not-going-to-be-denied’ attitude,” Nurse said. “So he’s out there working on everything. … He’s conditioning as hard as he can. He’s totally engaged and involved. He’s over there dying to get back on the floor.”

McCain had been playing five-on-five during the Sixers’ informal September pickup games, a sign his knee was on a positive track. Whenever he returns to the court, he will officially join a dynamic young guard group. McCain had already established a dangerous tandem with star Tyrese Maxey — and logged minutes as a backup point guard who could shoot from beyond the arc, drive to the basket, and distribute to teammates — while averaging 15.3 points, 2.4 rebounds, and 2.6 assists in 23 games with eight starts before the mid-December knee surgery.

Since then, the Sixers have added Quentin Grimes, a trade-deadline acquisition who provided offensive punch, and VJ Edgecombe, who was drafted third overall in June. Their goal is to spearhead an offense aiming to push the pace and move the ball. Nurse recently said he is considering starting three guards and experimenting with four-guard looks.

McCain added Wednesday that, within such personnel groupings, he sees potential to “slip” out of screens to find space to launch three-pointers. He connected on 38.3% of his 5.8 long-range attempts per game last year and shot a blistering 41.4% during his one college season at Duke.

“I love to do that,” McCain said. “… Being able to just play off of guards is something I’ve done my whole life.”

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While sidelined during the Sixers’ preseason games, McCain still goes through his breath work while sitting on the bench to “try to stay in the present.” When Nurse draws up a play during a timeout, McCain envisions where he would get a shot or how he would be expected to read the defense.

“It’s easy to just get so lost when they’re playing stuff on the Jumbotron or whatever,” he said. “So I try to stay locked in and still try to notice myself. ‘What would I do here? What would I do different? What did I like from that play?’ Just try to stay engaged as much as possible.”

Eventually, McCain will be able to transfer that visualization into on-court work. And though the “freak, stupid little” incident that tore a thumb ligament initially caused frustrated tears, optimism about McCain’s recovery timeline has returned.

“He really, really is doing everything he possibly can to get out there,” Nurse said, “and we can’t wait to have him back.”