{"id":689657,"date":"2026-05-23T15:03:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-23T15:03:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/689657\/"},"modified":"2026-05-23T15:03:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-23T15:03:08","slug":"jared-mccain-doesnt-blame-ex-76ers-gm-daryl-morey-for-trading-him-to-thunder","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/689657\/","title":{"rendered":"Jared McCain Doesn’t Blame Ex-76ers GM Daryl Morey For Trading Him To Thunder"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Oklahoma City Thunder<\/a> came on the road and stole Game 3 of their Western Conference Finals series against the San Antonio Spurs<\/a> with a commanding 123-108 win<\/a> after a rough start that saw them in a 15-point hole without even scoring a point in the first quarter.<\/p>\n

Jared McCain<\/a> was a pivotal second option tonight with the scoring leader Shai Gilgeous-Alexander<\/a> (26 points, 12 assists, two rebounds, 6-17 FG, 35.3 FG%) as he dropped 24 points, four rebounds, and one assist while coming off the bench and shooting 10-21 from the field (47.6 FG%).<\/p>\n

Following the game, McCain spoke to the media and addressed whether his solid performance from the bench was fueled by wanting to prove Daryl Morey<\/a>, the former 76ers general manager, wrong about having \u2018sold high\u2019<\/a> on McCain.<\/p>\n

\u201cOh, I talk about this a lot. I think [my performance is] never to prove anybody wrong. Like a lot of my stuff, I try to keep a positive outlook, and uh, I like proving my support system right. The people who really believe in me, I like proving them right.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd so no matter what it is, like you know, I got traded. I\u2019m always trying to keep a positive outlook. And no matter what, like Daryl\u2019s still the guy that drafted me. And so I always have love for him for that,\u201d McCain said<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe trusted me, believed in me enough to take me at the 16th spot. So I\u2019m forever grateful for that, no matter what. So it\u2019s never about proving anybody wrong for me. It\u2019s always proving somebody right, proving the people who believe in me right.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a recent conversation with NBA insider Marc J. Spears, the 22-year-old Thunder guard opened up about his trade from the 76ers to join the defending champions midseason.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was on the bus with the Sixers, and we were heading to the airport in San Francisco. We just played Golden State,\u201d McCain said<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cI texted my agent for a gym in L.A., and he called me, and I think he\u2019s calling me about the gym. He is like, \u2018They\u2019re about to trade you.\u2019 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThose are my brothers and still are my brothers to this day. It was definitely tough. They thought I was joking when I told them, and then I started crying. Then they were like, \u2018Oh, this is serious.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThen 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 was never able to see my house again because we were on the road. It\u2019s little things like that. I miss my routine, but I\u2019m definitely blessed to be here.\u201d<\/p>\n

Daryl Morey recently parted ways<\/a> with the 76ers, and amid the reporting for the reason behind his departure, sources claimed<\/a> that players like Joel Embiid<\/a> and Tyrese Maxey<\/a> were very unhappy with the front office for trading McCain.<\/p>\n

Even after tonight\u2019s surprising contributions off the bench, Tyrese Maxey took to social media with a delighted response<\/a> to McCain\u2019s 24-point game. So the biggest what-if now remains: what if the 76ers never traded him to the Thunder?<\/p>\n

It is still too early to determine if Daryl Morey was right or wrong, since we are too early in McCain\u2019s career to know if he can replicate this performance when all the pressure of being a starter potentially comes on his shoulders.<\/p>\n

Moreover, we still don\u2019t know what the 76ers would do with the assets they received in the trade for MCain. It will be interesting to see how things turn out for both sides.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Oklahoma City Thunder came on the road and stole Game 3 of their Western Conference Finals series…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":689658,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[557],"tags":[64,63,590,85],"class_list":["post-689657","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-nba","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/689657","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=689657"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/689657\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/689658"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=689657"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=689657"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=689657"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}