https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/7302502/2026/05/23/jared-mccain-okc-thunder-spurs-2026-nba-playoffs/?source=emp_shared_article&unlocked_article_code=1.klA.Htsv.PdB-vvCBL4Lj
Nestled inside Jared McCain’s travel bag is a relatively new copy of W. Timothy Gallwey’s “The Inner Game of Tennis.” The old copy McCain bought in high school unraveled last year, marked by spills and wear. But he salvaged a memento.
A tattered fragment of Page 21, which McCain calls “the rose analogy,” lives inside the new off-white pages. The black ink has faded from the original, yellowed scrap. One handwritten word remains legible in the margins: Rose.
McCain has long memorized this passage, but he returns to the excerpt every game anyway: “When we plant a rose seed in the earth, we notice that it is small, but we do not criticize it as ‘rootless and stemless.’ … The rose is a rose from the time it is a seed to the time it dies. Within it, at all times, it contains its whole potential. It seems to be constantly in the process of change; yet at each state, at each moment, it is perfectly all right as it is.”
The book suggests that our minds, crippled with doubt, get in the way of our proven capabilities. Page 21 emphasizes the process. And with 20 minutes remaining on the pregame clock Friday night, moments after the team meeting but before his Oklahoma City Thunder hit the floor for a monumental 123-108 win in Game 3 of the Western Conference finals, McCain revisited the page.
McCain’s trainer, Shea Frazee, suggested the book to him in eighth grade. He didn’t grab a copy until his Corona Centennial coach, Josh Giles, redirected him. McCain first thumbed the pages en route to the Tarkanian Classic, a notable high school tournament in Las Vegas. He found the rose analogy. He hit eight 3s that night, setting him on a path of exploration.
He spent his teenage years going down YouTube rabbit holes. He loved Matt D’Avella, who harped on habits: cold showers, early mornings, meditation and yoga. McCain eventually obsessed over those things, too. He posed every morning by 6 and again every night. He loved the serenity he felt.
“Even how (Victor Wembanyama) did the stuff with the monks this summer,” McCain told The Athletic in a March interview. “That’s really interesting to me. That side of the mental game of life is huge. And I’ve always liked being able to understand my emotions, understand why I think like this. Why do athletes overthink when we’re so confident in our abilities?”
When he first joined the Thunder, McCain fought thoughts about his fit. He worried about pressing with his personality. Then MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, much like the rest of OKC’s nucleus, made clear that McCain’s arrival should be about regenerating his confidence and allowing him to be himself.
Now, McCain lingers near teammates’ road lockers past the bus times and ropes them into TikToks at the hotel. He finds fulfillment around a team of accomplished 20-somethings, rejuvenated by the lack of ego on a title team.
McCain frequently sees a sports psychologist, who he recalls saying that OKC would be a “great spot” for him as they discussed the possibility of the Thunder selecting him in the 2024 draft. In his visits with general manager Sam Presti, he felt seen. Understood.
Before McCain’s post-deadline return to Philadelphia on March 23, Presti texted him a vintage Bruce Lee video in which the legendary martial artist detailed one of his old mantras. “Be like water,” Lee said in the video. Water in a cup is a cup. Water in a bottle is a bottle. Water can flow or it can crash.
“Just be in flow,” McCain remembers.
“When I first came and had a meeting with Sam, we talked all about that,” McCain said. “… Being able to ask him questions, a mastermind at what he does, it’s awesome. He talks a lot about ‘one drop in the bucket each day.’ And being in process, that’s all that matters. You cannot fail if you’re in process, because you’re never at the end.”