Blake Griffin had his line ready after Jared McCain lit up the Thunder on Thursday night: the Sixers, he said, did not sell high enough. The jab landed at a moment when Philadelphia was already staring at a 2-0 hole in its second-round series against the Knicks.
McCain scored 18 points on 7-of-11 shooting and 4-of-5 from three in 18 minutes during Oklahoma City’s win, a sharp reminder of why his name has lingered in the debate over Philadelphia’s deadline decision. The Sixers sent McCain away for a 2026 first-round pick and three second-rounders, and Daryl Morey later said he was “quite confident that we were selling high,” adding that only time would tell.
That time arrived quickly. Philadelphia’s current bench managed only 15 points total in Game 2 against New York, a number that gave Griffin’s joke its bite. “They didn’t sell high enough,” he said, then followed it with the longer version: “They didn’t sell high enough (long laugh break). Shoutout Philly.”
The trade discussion has become part basketball argument, part postgame punch line, with McCain’s performance on one side and the Sixers’ thin bench on the other. Philadelphia’s front office believed it had cashed out at the right moment. Griffin’s remark suggested the market may have kept climbing without them.
Griffin, who has also performed standup comedy at the Laugh Factory and appeared with Chet Holmgren in an Amazon commercial for the 2025 NBA Cup, has made a second act out of public punch lines. This one cut straight into a painful stretch for the Sixers, who now have no margin left in a series that is slipping fast.
