Jared McCain Has 5 Million TikTok Followers and Most of Them Have No Clue He Plays Basketball
Here's the wild part about OKC Thunder guard Jared McCain: he's become a household name, but not necessarily for the reasons NBA scouts care about. The guy dropped 15 points in a loss to the Nuggets, sure. But that same night, he was out at the Oklahoma City airport pulling in massive screams doing viral dances that have nothing to do with basketball.
The TikTok Takeover Is Real
McCain boasts more than 5 million followers on TikTok, which is more than both of his NBA teams so far (Thunder and Philadelphia 76ers) combined. He's amassed 223 million likes and counting. This isn't some side hustle he posts to between games. His dances often set trends on the app, turning low-key sounds into automatic hits. Crocs, Sally Hansen, and DoorDash are among the companies that have endorsed him on his page. His first sponsorship video came back in high school, when prep students in California became eligible for NIL deals.
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That early April morning at the airport perfectly captured McCain's split existence. Thunder fans waited behind a tall gated fence for the chance to high-five players coming back from a road trip. When McCain arrived, the noise peaked. He jumped up and down, slapped hands with fans, then stood atop a makeshift stage and went to work. Head snap to the left, left foot forward, arms flexed to the side. Then right back, hands swirling in a circle. He repeated it alternating feet while Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Jalen Williams, Aaron Wiggins, Jaylin Williams, and Isaiah Joe stood there loudly laughing and filming the whole thing.
McCain told ESPN the thing that blows his mind: "I think it's really cool that people come up to me and still don't know I play basketball. They only know me from TikTok. I think that's really cool. The fact that I have two different platforms like that, two different ways of knowing [me]."
He's building something genuine on both sides. The Thunder made the playoffs as the top seed. McCain is out here making moves that matter in two completely different worlds.
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