Sixers rookie Jared McCain has returned to on-court work, and can’t wait to ‘put on my shoes and just sprint’

Jared McCain walked into the Wells Fargo Center’s interview room Sunday with his arms full of laundry, the result of the final clean-out of his locker.

“Need some loops for the summer,” McCain said with a smile, referring to the device players use to keep their items organized, yet separated from those of teammates through washes during the season.

The 76ers’ rookie guard is officially back to work, following a debut season that largely can be viewed through a “what could have been?” lens. McCain was an early bright spot in a horrendous Sixers season — and an NBA Rookie of the Year front-runner — before a mid-December meniscus tear in his left knee required surgery. Yet McCain has returned to limited on-court drills and now heads into his first professional offseason with a simple goal: to get fully healthy.

“That’s all I want,” McCain said following the Sixers’ season finale. “That’s all I’m praying for. All I’m wishing for. … I know I can obviously help this team do a lot of things, and I just want to get back out there and get a feel for the game and just play basketball again. Run up and down the court.

“I can’t wait to just [be in a place] where I can put on my shoes and just sprint.”

McCain’s latest sign of physical progress: He said he can now jump with no pain. Recent workouts, though, mostly have consisted of further developing his ballhandling and playmaking, which he said assistant coach Rico Hines calls “basketball yoga.” For example, Hines might hold up a number that corresponds to a specific read or pass, McCain said, which he must quickly recognize and execute in his next repetition.

“He’s a really, really good creator,” Hines recently told The Inquirer. “He has a great imagination.”

The Sixers hope McCain can combine those sharpened skills with his long-range shooting and crafty drives to the basket, which helped him average 15.3 points on 38.6% from three-point range in 23 games before his knee injury. That included eight outings in which he scored at least 20 points and six in which he totaled at least four assists.

While absorbing months of games from the bench, McCain said he paid close attention to the point guards’ pace in the pick-and-roll and how they built chemistry with the big men. He added that veteran Kyle Lowry would “pull me aside just at random times, just to coach me” and that he enjoyed sitting next to former MVP center Joel Embiid, who also went through a meniscus surgery and recovery last year.

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Doctors have not given McCain a precise, step-by-step recovery timeline, an effort to avoid disappointment if reality doesn’t align with expectations. The 21-year-old guard who loves to journal and set goals is now willing to embrace that his evolution during the next several months could be more unpredictable and marked by intangible wins.

“Whatever the universe needs me to go through, that’s what I’m going to go through,” McCain said. “Whatever happens is going to happen. So I’m going to learn from my mistakes, learn from everything, and just get back out there [and] feel comfortable playing basketball again.”

Nick Nurse said that the way McCain has “attacked his rehab” has only enhanced the coach’s confidence that McCain can share a backcourt with star Tyrese Maxey, the lineup the Sixers had shifted to during McCain’s offensive outburst just before his injury. McCain also had become the de facto backup point guard, a role that trade-deadline splash — and restricted free agent — Quentin Grimes held down the stretch of the season. Lowry and Jared Butler, who also arrived at the trade deadline and has a team option in his contract for next season, are other future ballhandling possibilities.

And McCain — whose jovial personality shines while documenting his life to 4.7 million TikTok followers — has kept up with the off-court endeavors he began while waiting to return to basketball activities. He had an 80-day streak of learning Spanish on the Duolingo app as of Sunday, “even if it’s one lesson a day.” And though it was tougher to schedule piano lessons after returning to traveling with the Sixers, he has still made it a partial party trick if he spots the instrument at an event.

“I’ll play one part of [a song] and then leave,” McCain said. “It’ll make it look like I know how to play.”

McCain also spent his downtime reading Ryan Holiday’s book, The Obstacle Is the Way: The Timeless Art of Turning Trials into Triumph, which McCain believes can help him use this adversity to create future advantages on and off the court. He also has vowed to live by the Latin phrase “amor fati,” which means “love of fate.”

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Because even though his knee injury upended McCain’s stellar NBA start, he has healed enough to return to the court.

“Love everything that comes, even the negative,” McCain said. “… I just try to take that every single day. Live with gratitude. I’m huge on that.

“I know I’ll be fine. I know I’ll get back to where I was — even better. Just got to be patient and be present.”