Jared McCain cried on a team bus in February when the 76ers traded him. On Friday night, in a hostile road arena in San Antonio, he scored a playoff career-high 24 points in 27 minutes. He still won’t say a bad word about Daryl Morey.

After a career night against the Spurs, McCain addressed the trade again and chose his words the same way he always does, carefully and without a scratch of edge in them. He said:

“It’s never to prove anybody wrong. I try to keep a positive outlook. I like proving my support system right. Daryl’s still the guy that drafted me, so I’ll always have love for him for that. He believed in me enough to take me at No. 16.”

He proved that people who believed in him were right. And he made clear he would remain thankful no matter how the trade is viewed by the public, by history, by anyone but him.

The backdrop makes the graciousness harder to explain, not easier. Morey traded McCain in February, partly to duck the luxury tax, partly because teams came to Philadelphia with what Morey called “aggressive offers” and received a first-round pick that landed at No. 22 and three second-rounders.

McCain, meanwhile, was traded to the defending champions, went on to average 10.4 points on 39.1% shooting from three in 30 regular-season games with OKC, scored in double figures in three of four wins over the Lakers, and then posted that playoff career-high in the Western Conference Finals.

Morey was fired last week. The Sixers watched the playoffs from home after being swept. McCain is still in it, still grateful, and still not saying what everyone else is saying on his behalf.

It was not the first time McCain had been asked to respond to Morey in public. When Blake Griffin joked on NBA Nightcap that Philadelphia hadn’t actually sold high enough, McCain’s full reply was two words: “Shoutout to Philly.”

The studio laughed. McCain moved on. He has been doing that version of the bit since February, when he first arrived in OKC, and a reporter immediately put Morey’s quote in front of him.

“I don’t think he meant any harm from it,” McCain said then. “I just kind of take it as: That’s his job. But obviously I’m gonna have confidence in myself.”

The trade and what it cost him

McCain said the trade hit him hard in the moment. He recalled being on the bus with the Sixers when the news came through, then learning minutes later that he was being moved to Oklahoma City, which left him crying immediately. He also said his teammates initially thought he was joking before realizing how serious it was, and that made the moment even tougher.

What makes that bus scene land harder is what McCain was carrying into that ride. He had not played a full, healthy NBA season. Not once.

A torn meniscus ended his rookie year after 23 games, when he had been averaging 15.3 points and was the Rookie of the Year favorite. Then a torn UCL in his thumb cost him the start of his second season before he had played a single game. Two catastrophic, consecutive injuries, neither contact-related.

By the time he worked his way back into the rotation, the Sixers were inconsistent with his minutes. Then he was gone.

Morey was not selling high on a healthy player at his ceiling. He was selling after the organization had never seen that ceiling from the floor.

That reaction added another layer to a deal that already had plenty of drama. Morey had previously described the move as “selling high” on McCain, a comment that sparked plenty of discussion around Philadelphia and beyond.

What Morey meant and what reporters noted at the time was not a slight at McCain’s talent but a statement about asset value: OKC had come to Philadelphia with an aggressive offer, and Morey believed a late first-round pick plus three second-rounders exceeded what an injury-limited McCain could return to the team in the near term.

“The only higher point would’ve been during his run last season,” Morey said. He even called McCain “a great future bet and a potential great player.”

But the financial dimension was also real moving McCain got the Sixers under the luxury tax line. Both things can be true, and both made the comment sting.

And as for the current trade? The trade has already started to look productive for Oklahoma City, where McCain has found a strong role and confidence. Finishing a game-best plus-28 alongside Alex Caruso and helping Oklahoma City take a 2-1 series lead in the Western Conference Finals.

That kind of impact only adds to the sting for Philadelphia fans, who watched the Sixers’ own bench combine for 15 points in 56 minutes during their elimination against the Knicks, a void created, in part, by the player scoring career-highs in the other conference.

For McCain, though, the message is simple: the past is part of the story, but it does not define the future. Daryl Morey, the man who drafted him, traded him, called it “selling high,” and was subsequently fired, is not part of McCain’s narrative anymore, except as a name he still says with gratitude.

He is focused on turning the trade into motivation without turning it into animosity. In the Western Conference Finals, with a career-high on the board and a championship defense very much alive, that has become the easiest thing in the world to believe.

And if you want to know more, keep following EssentiallySports.