Marc Jackson and Aaron McKie were Sixers teammates. Now their sons are thriving in the Catholic League.

Marc Jackson and Aaron McKie have known each other since they were teenagers, but that doesn’t mean they’ll sit together at their sons’ high school basketball games. When Roman Catholic plays St. Joseph’s Prep, the former 76ers teammates keep to themselves.

McKie likes the view from the rafters at Kelly Fieldhouse. Jackson likes to stand by the baseline with headphones in his ears. It’s nothing personal; they just prefer to watch in silence.

“Aaron hides in one corner,” Jackson said. “And I hide in the other.”

There is a lot to take in. Jackson’s son, Shareef, is a 6-foot-8 power forward for Roman, who committed to Lafayette College in July. McKie’s son, Jaron, is a 6-4 shooting guard for the Prep, who recently committed to Dayton.

» READ MORE: Sammy Jackson emerges for Roman Catholic with his brother Shareef sidelined

Both players are 18. Both have promising futures. And, like their fathers, they’ve been friends since their early teens. Now, they’re preparing for the next stage of their careers, armed with NBA-caliber wisdom — and each other’s support.

“I feel like people always bring up our dads,” Shareef said. “We both came up from legacy backgrounds. We were always at these big events. And a lot of times, we weren’t called ‘Shareef’ or ‘Jaron,’ but ‘Marc’s son’ or ‘Aaron’s son.’

“We know we have something to prove. We have to make our names known.”

Marc and Aaron met in the late 1980s. Marc lived at 11th and Girard, and Aaron lived at 10th and Susquehanna. They were coached by John Hardnett, who trained young players at Gustine Lake, a recreation center near Roxborough.

Jackson and McKie didn’t become close until a few years later, when Marc transferred from VCU to Temple (and sat out the 1994-95 season as a result). Aaron was on his way out — he was drafted by the Portland Trail Blazers out of Temple in 1994 — but they overlapped at summer workouts just before he left.

» READ MORE: St. Joe’s Prep shooting for ‘a taste of the Palestra’ with guard-heavy group

McKie gave the young center some advice.

“Be ready to work,” McKie told him. “Be ready to get up early in the morning and stand for an hour and a half, not playing no basketball. Be ready to get your a— chewed out.

“If you can handle those things, you’ll be fine.”

Jackson thrived under John Chaney’s rigorous coaching. Over his three-year college career, including two at Temple, he tallied 1,059 points and 632 rebounds. He helped lead the Owls to NCAA Tournament berths in 1996 and 1997.

He was drafted by the Warriors following his junior year. After playing in Europe for a few seasons, Jackson returned to Golden State in 2000, where he played until 2002. He was traded to the Minnesota Timberwolves at the deadline that year.

The Timberwolves traded him to the Sixers in 2003. Suddenly, the center was reunited with his childhood friend. At that point, McKie was one of Philadelphia’s most reliable bench players. He’d been voted Sixth Man of the Year in 2001, en route to an NBA Finals appearance.

They began to reflect on how far they’d come. Jackson was raised by his grandmother, Ida, and McKie was raised by his sister, Jackie, and his aunt, Rose. They did not have state-of-the-art facilities to train in or high-caliber camps to go to. They just had drive and a dream.

“When you grow up in a poverty-stricken environment, like Aaron and myself, you look at the pro teams, and say, ‘I would love to a part of that,’” Jackson said. “But you also ask yourself, ‘Can I be part of that? Am I going to make it to that point?’

“It starts giving you a driving force, especially when there is nothing else in your life. I would say for me, I had nothing else in my life to look forward to and to strive for. So it was very important to strive for that.”

Jackson was hooked when he realized his hometown team had a power forward with the same first name as him (Marc Iavaroni). From there, he became enamored with the Sixers of the mid-1980s: Julius Erving, Moses Malone, Maurice Cheeks, and Charles Barkley.

McKie became enamored with them, too. Every day, after he got home from school, he’d call a Sixers hotline, asking to speak with the players.

“I was thinking they’d hand them the phone,” McKie said. “No one picked up, but I did tell Maurice Cheeks and Dr. J that story.”

Decades after their summer workouts at Gustine Lake, McKie and Jackson were playing alongside — or being coached by — their idols. They were never too far removed from home. Chaney did not go to McKie and Jackson’s Sixers games in person, but he did watch them on TV.

And he had critiques.

“He would always call us after the games,” McKie said. “He’d say, ‘I saw the game last night. You can’t do this; you can’t do that.’ It wasn’t always good feedback, I’ll tell you that.

“Even when you thought you had a good game, it was — ‘Take care of the ball. Son, you had too many turnovers last night. Why’d you do this? Why’d you do that?’ You see the call coming in, it’s like, ‘Aw, man.’”

Added Jackson: “He could not live with turnovers.”

» READ MORE: Roman Catholic’s PCL championship meant the world to Sixers analyst Marc Jackson and his sons

McKie and Jackson stayed in Philadelphia through the 2004-05 season and played their final NBA season in 2006-07. Jackson moved to Tampa, Fla., after his playing career but decided to move back home in 2016. He wanted to coach an AAU team in the area and needed players, so he called McKie.

Jaron and Shareef ended up playing on Jackson’s team from fourth to eighth grade. They’d play together on the New Jersey Scholars in the Elite Youth Basketball League from ninth grade to 10th grade.

“They’re good kids, they’re good friends, and the best is yet to come,” McKie said.

Jackson did not show his son, or his honorary son, any preferential treatment. When Jaron first met his AAU coach, he was scared of him.

“It was just because he would yell all the time,” Jaron said. “But I got to know him and how good of a guy he is, so I wasn’t really scared after that.”

Aaron called it tough love. Marc, who is a Sixers analyst for NBC Sports Philadelphia, worked Jaron and Shareef twice as hard as everyone else. The boys quickly became friends and realized that they could help each other succeed.

For Shareef, that help came in the form of motivation. He described himself as a “pretty lazy child” growing up. Unlike his father, he had every resource he needed, and more, but wasn’t taking full advantage of them.

That stopped once he started working with Jaron.

“My dad always talks about how he grew up in a household with no running water,” Shareef said. “Thanks to him, I didn’t have to grow up like that. I had better basketball training, school training.

“Jaron also came from a household where he had everything and was incredibly lucky, but I watched him not take that for granted, and train, and get better — and that pushed me. He showed me that basketball can change my life.”

Jaron would arrive at AAU practices and games early just to get his shot up. He’d stand in front of the rim for at least 30 minutes, at most an hour. Shareef didn’t understand why — until he watched Jaron score 25 points and hit five back-to-back three-pointers in an EYBL semifinal game their freshman year.

“That was the moment it clicked for me,” Shareef said. “This was one of our biggest tournaments, and his work was really paying off. It was paying off basketball-wise, and it’s going to pay off in life — with scholarships, NIL. You can go far with this.”

» READ MORE: Jaron McKie is building a name in Philly — and adding to the reputation of his famous family

Shareef began to follow Jaron’s lead. The younger McKie helped him with his shooting form, teaching the younger Jackson how to position his feet properly and push up in one big, fluid motion. Jackson, who was a skilled passer, helped McKie with off-ball cutting.

“Shareef has always had good vision,” McKie said. “So knowing when he had the ball, especially when he had it in the middle, just to cut from anywhere.”

Both made first-team All-Catholic last year. McKie made first-team All-Catholic in 2022-23, and Jackson made third-team. Jackson helped lead Roman Catholic to a PCL Championship in 2023-24. Marc, who won two PCL titles for Roman in the 1990s, wore Shareef’s jersey on NBC Sports Philadelphia a few days later.

“I’m so proud, because I didn’t put much pressure on my son to be a great basketball player,” Marc said. “It’s just great to see his hard work is paying off.”

There are high expectations this season for both programs, and they’ll face each other for the first time this year at 7 p.m. on Jan. 8.

Shareef and Jaron are hoping that Roman Catholic and St. Joe’s Prep will meet at the Palestra for the PCL semifinals or final. They’ve never squared off in a Final Four, and in their minds, it would be the perfect send-off before they enter their college careers.

But if that happens, don’t expect their fathers to sit together — even in upcoming years, as the elder Jackson and McKie have other sons in the Catholic League. Sammy Jackson, a junior, also plays for Roman, while freshman twins Julian and Justin McKie compete for the Prep.

“I try to keep my emotions in check, but I’m a proud dad,” McKie said. “Just watching my son play the game that I love and he loves.”