Goodbye, Jared
Spike writes another fond farewell, this time to his short-lived favorite Sixer.
The first Corner Three of the post-McCain era. Can’t say I’m thrilled about it.
Going to forgo the format I started last week and just write about McCain, and maybe get back to the format next week. We’ll see how it works out. I haven’t written regularly in a while.
I’m not going to redo the “pay the tax” evisceration of the team and Josh Harris that I did on 94WIP and then did again with Mike on last night’s Ricky. Instead, I’m just going to write a bit about my current former favorite Sixer, Jared McCain.
I do not watch college basketball. So, as you probably know, I just figure out whether I like players by watching them on YouTube. Sometimes before we pick them, sometimes after we pick them. I never thought much of McCain when I watched him after we picked him and I checked out the videos. I thought even less of him after Summer League, when I’m sure I proclaimed him a bust. Then, in the pre-season, my priors were confirmed again, this guy isn’t any good.
There is joy in being wrong, especially when you don’t think a guy is any good and he ends up good. Kelly Oubre is a gift in that way. Jared McCain sort of broke the mold. McCain went from a guy that I was sure couldn’t play to my favorite player on the team. Untradeable (LOL). A higher ceiling than Maxey. These are all things I genuinely thought after seeing Maxey play last year.
It wasn’t so much that McCain was good, it was that he was good in a way I’ve never seen on the Sixers. The reason it was so difficult to find a comp for McCain other than Steph Curry was that he actually kind of played like Steph Curry. It was fun to watch him, and it was fun to really believe. His personality was kind of fun as well. Not because of the TikTok videos and nail painting, but because of the TikTok videos and nail painting combined with the fact that he was kind of a motherfucker out there. He was always just about 25% more confident than you’d expect.
Then he, as Sixers do, got hurt. He tore his meniscus, just one of the many curses of the 24-25 season and didn’t play again that year. Then, just before this season, he tore something in his thumb. When he came back, not only was he not quite right physically, his spot on the court was taken by VJ, or Maxey, or Grimes. You’d see last year’s McCain in fits and starts, but never for an extended period (until recently, over the last week, you know, right before they fucking traded him).
Doing my job, doing the podcast, being a fan for me is weird. Since I have to talk about it so much, I’m almost thinking about what I think more than I’m hoping or celebrating or disappointed. But watching McCain, rooting for him to come back, made me feel like a fan again. I am a Sixers fan but I will be watching Jared McCain in the NBA Finals and hoping he makes Daryl eat shit.
Still can’t believe they traded him to duck the tax.
Stuff to Read
Noticing that the Sixers have trouble defensive rebounding is not something you need to look at a box score or get a calculator out to know. You can just feel it. It’s like every team has a Josh Hart just waiting there to get the rebound and kick it out to an open shooter. And then do it again if he needs to. Our own Beckett Sanderson wrote a nerd-out numbers look at how bad it is and how they might be able to turn it around in Enter Statman.
Nobody is more exasperated by the Sixers than AU this year. I actually kind of feel bad making him write about the team and occasionally talk to me on the pod about the team. That said, an exasperated AU is the best AU. Is exasperated even the right word? In any case, after Paul George got suspended AU wrote a really apt “WHHHHYYYYY USSSSSS” post about it.
Sixers Adam, who I think mostly writes for me and Mike, put together a nice little list of potential buyout candidates.
Jared McCain bid farewell to Philly on Instagram.
We’re working on a Duck The Tax shirt. Hoping to have it for you soon. Been a while since an awesome Abbie shirt.
Seahawks -4.5 and then Darnold is elite.