Tyrese Maxey Wants Sixers' Rising Star Back Healthy

Tyrese Maxey talked about Jared McCain's recent set back.

Mar 14, 2025; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA; Philadelphia 76ers guard Tyrese Maxey looks on after the game against the Indiana Pacers at Wells Fargo Center. Mandatory Credit: Kyle Ross-Imagn Images | Kyle Ross-Imagn Images

Just as the Philadelphia 76ers were getting ready to start their preseason slate of fixtures, the team announced that their second-year guard, Jared McCain, suffered from a UCL tear in his right thumb.

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The injury comes just as the former Duke star was set to return from the meniscus tear that he suffered in December 2024, which ended his rookie campaign, one in which he was averaging 15.3 points per game on an efficient 46 percent shooting from the field.

One player who knows a thing or two about rebounding after injuries would be McCain's backcourt partner, Tyrese Maxey, who has had his own battles with the injury bug over the course of his career.

What'd Tyrese Maxey have to say about McCain's latest setback?

Dec 4, 2024; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA; Philadelphia 76ers guard Jared McCain (20) dribbles past Orlando Magic guard Anthony Black (0) during the fourth quarter at Wells Fargo Center. Mandatory Credit: Bill Streicher-Imagn Images | Bill Streicher-Imagn Images

The former All-Star spoke about McCain's injury at Sixers' Media Day on Friday, explaining that he's spoken with him and has full faith in the 21-year-old making a full comeback, given the effort that he's shown coming back from his previous injury.

"Yeah, I definitely talked to him. I feel for him, he's coming back from his knee meniscus injury, and he's worked his tail off to get where he is today," Maxey said. "But think about Jared is he's a positive person. He works extremely hard, so he'll be back extremely soon, and I know he'll get 100% healthy."

Maxey's praise for McCain didn't just stop in his work effort and mindset in his injury recovery, but also in what he brings to the court, highlighting his ability to shoot, facilitate the ball on the offensive end, as well as his efforts on the defensive end of the court.

"The time that I played with him in the back court was great. I mean, Jared does a lot of things that a lot of teams really would like, I'm saying like, he shoots the ball well, he passes the ball pretty well. He competes on defense; he's going to do all those different things. He's a great teammate we needed, we want to get back healthy, and can't wait to have him back out there."

In the 16 games that Maxey and McCain took the court together, they averaged 34.7 points and 6.9 assists per game.

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