It’s not uncommon to stumble across Jared McCain singing Drake.
McCain, who finished last season as one of the Oklahoma City Thunder’s best and most important players after being acquired in a midseason trade with the Philadelphia 76ers, has always loudly and proudly displayed his fandom of Gen Z’s most prolific hitmaker. On the surface, McCain’s connection to Drake isn’t anything out of the ordinary. What person born after the year 2000 doesn’t love Drake? But for McCain, his connection to the Canadian rapper goes beyond the viral karaoke sessions or the TikToks — he internalizes the words, feels them, and lets them shape his mindset.
“I’m a big R&B guy,” McCain said. “I almost put myself in a sad, breakup mood to listen to those songs. So when I’m in that mood and I’m listening to… ‘What if I go broke and I got no more racks to spend on you,’ that puts me in that mode to go out to the court and be my best self.”
McCain’s verse of choice comes from Drake and Loe Shimmy’s “I’m Spent.” It’s a track that dives into the thought of what would happen to the partner of a person with fame and riches if they suddenly vanished. Would that person stay, or would they go? McCain lets the longing, agonizing energy of the song seep into his mindset and provide him with an artificial feeling of desperation that leads to improved performance, at least in this example.
McCain also claimed “Weston Road Flows,” one of Drake’s many well-known songs, as his go-to pregame hype song in an interview before last season. It’s a song chronicling Drake’s rise, from his youth to becoming what many would argue to be the biggest star in the history of the hip-hop genre.
“Weston Road Flows, my confidence level gettin’ settled,” Drake rapped on the 2016 track. “Don’t get hyped for the moment then start to backpedal. Don’t let your newfound fame fool you.”
The song, one of Drake’s most profound, came out when McCain was 12. NBA dreams had surely started, but were seven years from becoming a reality. He was a talented sixth-grader working his way onto radars, which eventually would land him at Duke, where he starred for the Blue Devils for one season before being drafted by the Philadelphia 76ers.
After an injury-shortened rookie season that began with a bang that momentarily placed him as the betting favorite to win Rookie of the Year came to an end, McCain seemed to be the future backcourt running mate of Tyrese Maxey. But circumstances changed. Philly landed the third pick and drafted VJ Edgecombe. McCain got reinjured during training camp. The front office and rigid coaching staff of the 76ers lost faith, eventually sending McCain down to the Delaware Blue Coats for a stop in the G League.
After that, even worse — they traded him. Less than one full season after being considered a linchpin of future Philadelphia teams, McCain was traded to the Thunder for nothing but draft picks. Not only did former 76ers General Manager Daryl Morey deal McCain, he doubled down, saying he was “confident we’re selling high” on a second-year player coming off multiple surgeries that hadn’t had a chance to get back on the court with consistent playing time.
Well, since then, Morey has been fired and has yet to find a home. McCain emerged as a major part of why the Thunder found itself one game from the NBA Finals despite series-ending injuries to both Jalen Williams and Ajay Mitchell, the team’s second and third-best on-ball creators. In that series, McCain had two 20-point games and a 12-point game, all while providing OKC with a bench spark plug that it hasn’t had in terms of aggressiveness since James Harden was traded.
In short, OKC and its fans are both feeling lucky to have been able to add McCain for the minuscule price of one first-rounder, which became Labaron Philon, and three second-rounders that haven’t been used yet.
“He just oozes confidence…,” OKC star Shai Gilgeous-Alexander said. “I think with him, it’s just the more opportunity, the more he’ll show and the better he’ll get the more reps he gets under his belt. And I don’t think that will change. He’s who he is, and we’re lucky to have a guy like that.”
With the departures of Aaron Wiggins, Lu Dort and Isaiah Joe, McCain’s opportunities will naturally increase. Those three were three of the most willing shooters on the team, and in the case of Joe, the clear and obvious best shooter on the team. Now, McCain’s high-volume shooting will be more than the found money it was for OKC during most of his time on the team last season; it’ll be necessary, just as it was against San Antonio last year.
If he can perform anywhere near the level he was at in the Western Conference Finals with consistency for the Thunder this season, they’ll have been on the receiving end of a “sell high” of a perennial Sixth Man of the Year candidate, and based on how he’s performed in the big moments he’s had so far in his career, OKC should feel good about its chances.
“That dude is like, a gamer,” Kenrich Williams said. “When the lights are the brightest, he shows up in a major way. Ultra, ultra confident player. (He’s) Something that you need in this league.”
Based on all the information we have, the Oklahoma City Thunder acquiring Jared McCain seems to have either been luck or another example of shrewd general management from Sam Presti. Typically, transactions are one of those two things. But in this case, it may have been fate.
After years of praising Drake as much as he reasonably could, McCain finds himself teammates with one of Drizzy’s closest NBA friends in Gilgeous-Alexander. So much so that McCain was given the opportunity of a lifetime this summer when he sang Drake’s newest hit “National Treasure” at SGA’s birthday party in Toronto with his favorite artist right by his side.
“It was really cool,” McCain said. “Me and my friends were out there too. Definitely an awesome time. I wouldn’t consider us friends or anything, but I think if I saw Drake? I think we’d say what’s up.”
Between his play in last season’s playoffs, his certain-to-increase role on a title contender and his unlikely karaoke appearance with his all-time favorite artist, McCain’s fortunes seem to be matching up with his positive attitude for the first time in his NBA career, and it’s all happening with the Oklahoma City Thunder.
Who would’ve thought that a year ago? I guess we should’ve all been paying attention when McCain declared his love for Weston Road Flows. After all, as Drake says in McCain’s go-to pregame song, “It’s rainin’ money, Oklahoma City Thunder.”
Maybe it was meant to be.
Great story!