Sixers draft pick Jared McCain is a TikTok star. Here are some of our favorites.
McCain, the 16th overall pick in the NBA draft, has built up 2.8 million followers on TikTok.
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Jared McCain is the newest member of the Sixers, after they drafted him 16th overall on Wednesday. But McCain is more than just a basketball player. The former Duke guard has also built up 2.8 million followers on TikTok doing dances and trends with his friends and teammates.
McCain has been using the platform since he was a freshman in high school, and his videos regularly earn millions of views. The Sixers are already taking advantage of their new draft pick, having McCain re-do a dance video he posted pre-draft — this time in a Sixers cap.
@sixers GOT OUR GUY! welcome to Philly, @Jaredmccain24 🥹😁 #nbadraft #nba ♬ original sound - c
Will McCain keep up his TikTok career in the NBA? Some questioned whether his TikTok days were done once he started at Duke, but McCain kept posting with his new teammates.
“It was literally never a distraction,” Duke head coach Jon Scheyer told Sports Illustrated earlier this month. “Once you’re around him, you realize he’s one of the few, maybe ever, to be able to handle both [basketball and social media] and still be all the way into everything that it takes to be a successful basketball player.”
» READ MORE: Sixers thrilled to draft Jared McCain as crucial offseason kicks off: ‘He’s pretty special’
One of McCain’s most-viewed videos is from the locker room after the Blue Devils beat Houston to advance to the Elite Eight.
In another, he shows off his singing voice with a custom song.
@jaredmccain24 Post workout jingles @Aimee Carty ♬ original sound - Jaredmccain24
But many of McCain’s most popular videos are actually advertisements — part of his campaign with nail polish brand Sally Hansen. McCain has been painting his nails since the pandemic, but despite his on-court success, he still received significant online vitriol for doing so.
“One of the reasons I kept painting my nails is I had a game after I painted my nails and I ended up playing really well,” McCain said in one video. “You know, I’m not crazy superstitious but if I thought it looked nice and I thought it helped me play better? And so far, it’s worked.”
@jaredmccain24 Y’all have been asking. @Sally Hansen is the GOAT 🐐! There’s no better nail polish in the game 💅💅 #SallyHansenPartner ♬ original sound - Jaredmccain24
In another video, he challenged himself to shoot as many threes as possible in the 60 seconds he waited for his nails to dry. He made 12, proving correct his theory that nail polish helps him shoot better.
@jaredmccain24 60 seconds on the Sally Hansen Shot Clock! ⏰ Putting my shooting hack theory to the test with my @Sally Hansen ♬ original sound - Jaredmccain24
“At an early age, I was always told to just be myself,” McCain told Complex Magazine earlier this year. “I’m always just going to be myself. I never saw anything wrong with it. I understand girls do it. I understand men have started to do it a little more recently, but it was just something I saw. Some of these people that hate, I don’t know if they take care of their bodies. The hate is funny because it’s usually grown men most of the time, and it’s like you’re a grown man just hating on a kid.”
Now all that’s left is for McCain to get Joel Embiid to do a TikTok dance.