Tyrese Maxey is sitting contained in the 76ers apply facility on a January afternoon, giving his finest impression of Joel Embiid whereas telling us the actual story of when the MVP declared him as “The Franchise.” It was practically three years in the past, he says, again when Maxey was in his second yr within the NBA. He and Embiid had been beginning to get shut, and Embiid had posted an image of Maxey in his photograph dump on Instagram proper after the Sixers beat the Brooklyn Nets on December 30. Besides there was one small drawback.
“Hey man, you possibly can at the least tag me within the submit,” Maxey advised Embiid. “Like, you bought 1,000,000 followers.”
In accordance with Maxey, Embiid went to the media, presumably someday round when the Sixers beat the Celtics at residence on January 14, and allegedly requested them to “Discover me an image of me and Ty so I can submit it.” After the sport, he posted one other flick on the gram, with out telling Tyrese. The caption? “#0>>> THE FRANCHISE @tyresemaxey.”
SLAM 248 that includes Tyrese Maxey is accessible now.
The Course of has seen one thing in Maxey for the reason that starting. Maxey remembers throughout the Sixers matchup towards the Nuggets on January 9 his rookie yr, which was the primary sport he began, when Joel requested him if he might get 40 that night time. “I’m like, Me? Me, get 40? I not often play,” he tells us, trying again. “I had, like, 39 and I’m like, dang, he mentioned that and I knew I might most likely do it, however on the time, like, Man, That’s gonna be robust.” It was probably the most factors scored by a Sixers rookie since Allen Iverson in 1997.
This season, Embiid was the one who pushed him once more when the Sixers performed the Pacers on November 12. By the fourth, Maxey seemed up on the scoreboard and noticed that he already had 45 factors. That’s when Embiid let him know. “Joel [is like], You gotta get 50, you gotta get 50. I’m not likely attempting to press it, however he grabs the ball, like, Right here, that you must shoot once more.
“I all the time say this, man. Joel might be one of many first those that believed in me right here,” Maxey provides. “He actually believed in me from day one.”
Mad Max has come a good distance since his rookie yr. From coming off the bench to beginning full-time, he’s performed an instrumental position within the workforce’s success this season—they’re the No. 3 workforce within the East at press time. An hour or two earlier than his first-ever SLAM cowl shoot, the All-Star voting outcomes dropped and his identify was listed alongside a few of the finest within the L.
By the point the cameras begin rolling and we’ve bought No. 0 with us, he immediately instructions the room, and the digicam, all whereas having enjoyable with it. In between takes, he’s dancing and rapping alongside to Lil Wayne’s “A Milli.” With a giant smile on his face, he sings the refrain. “I’m ILL!”
The second is giving main primary character vibes. And identical to Weezy on the finish of that video, what’s so fireplace about Tyrese Maxey’s rise to stardom is that it’s to be continued…
Let’s return.
Maxey’s basketball profession, ranging from school, has been unconventional. And but, he’s by some means been capable of deal with the chaos—together with the Covid pandemic which minimize his lone season at Kentucky quick. Even after being chosen No. 21 within the 2020 NBA Draft, Maxey ended up having to report back to coaching camp late because of a constructive check, which left him questioning how that will look to his new teammates, particularly the vets. He questioned to himself, How are the vets gonna take a look at me? Are they gonna say something to me? Are they gonna mess with me or is that this gonna mess up my taking part in time?
That season, he began six video games in January however largely got here off the bench, excluding two video games in Might. After the Sixers misplaced to the Hawks in Sport 7 of the Japanese Convention Semifinals, information stories and criticism circulated about his teammate Ben Simmons. By February of the ’21-22 season, Simmons was traded to Brooklyn for James Harden. The brand new addition put Maxey again to taking pictures guard. He labored by it and went from averaging simply 8 factors as a rookie to 17.5 factors that yr.
However then, within the 2023 offseason, Harden requested a commerce. “Now I gotta be again on the ball,” he explains of the sudden positional change. “Then James leaves and I gotta return on the ball. It’s been lots however, you understand, it’s an ever- altering, adapting setting that we reside in.”
Maxey has talked earlier than about how he picked up some issues when taking part in alongside Harden, even shouting him out on NBA TV for the “little James Harden stepback” transfer he’s added to his bag. Nonetheless, he admits that it was robust for him final yr when he would begin some video games however then come off the bench. “That’s troublesome,” he admits. “Particularly whenever you wanna win, you wanna do no matter is finest for the workforce, however you additionally wanna play effectively for you [and] to assist your brothers win. It’s a tough job.”
After all of the narratives which have surrounded the Sixers through the years, largely crammed with drama and negativity from the media and followers, Maxey has developed a want to talk up for athletes and create his personal narrative on his podcast, “Maxey on the Mic.” “I simply kinda wanna be a voice for some athletes, as a result of athletes undergo lots, so far as simply social media, what folks say about them. Lots of people don’t understand it’s arduous. [There’s] strain on the market.”
He additionally leans on prayer and his household to assist him emotionally throughout these arduous moments. He confides in his uncle, Brandon, and his mother and father, each of whom he watched work extraordinarily arduous inside their very own careers rising up. Earlier than retiring, his father Tyrone coached for 20 years and can be robust on Maxey when he was youthful: “If I handed the ball and any person dropped it, he would yell at me first.” In the meantime his mom Denyse labored at Blue Cross Blue Defend and began from “the underside,” he says, after which labored her manner up on the firm. Denyse, he describes, can be a “robust, robust, robust mom,” however would all the time inform him, Management what you possibly can management and every thing is in God’s fingers.
It’s helped him each time he’s needed to cope with main change, together with adjusting from former head coach Doc Rivers, whom he says “tried to problem me early” by having him sit and watch the veteran gamers, to Nick Nurse. “Coach Nurse, his character is lots completely different,” Maxey says. “He’s an important dude. I really like him, and the best way he coaches is particular. The way in which he does issues, the best way he adjusts on the fly has been nice.”
His potential to adapt to no matter scenario he’s in is only one of his many tremendous powers. Maxey, an enormous Marvel fan, advised us earlier than he bought drafted that if he was an precise superhero, he’d name himself Maximus and would wish to have the power to max out all of his strengths. Now, 4 years later, he has a couple of issues so as to add, tremendous velocity being certainly one of them. “I’m like, effectively, I might be quicker, you understand what I imply?” he says. He’d additionally max out his vertical. “I simply suppose it’s cool when folks leap up and dunk and block pictures and stuff. I see so many individuals like Rayjon Tucker, that’s any person that involves thoughts…Ja Morant, after all. They do cool issues once they’re up within the air like that. I really feel like I’ve some kind of vertical potential, however not like them, leaping off two ft. It appears so loopy typically.”
Athletes are sometimes known as otherworldly, and whereas Maxey is undeniably gifted, very, very quick and has a sizzling hand like he’s Thanos with the Infinity Gauntlet, he’s additionally human. He sees an even bigger image in the kind of influence he’d wish to have. “I’d wanna max out me being constructive, like, me having a constructive impact on folks, as a result of the world is simply so [much] higher…That’s simply one thing I attempt to carry, not simply [to] this group, not simply this workforce, [but] my life and [the] individuals who I’ve impacted on the whole.
“We’re blessed to be right here, we’re blessed to be residing, we’re blessed to be strolling round in 2024. You realize, some folks can’t say the identical…I get to play the sport that I really like each single day and I’ve enjoyable whereas doing it with a smile on my face. And whereas I’m doing that, I’m on TV, children are watching and I’m attempting to encourage them to make their desires come true—not simply basketball desires, however life desires. I inform everyone that you are able to do no matter you set your thoughts to. Don’t let anyone let you know you possibly can’t, so long as you get one % higher at it, you understand what I imply?”
Life might be surprising, however on the finish of the day, it’s about controlling what you possibly can management. That’s been Maxey’s true energy, and it’s why in Yr 4, he isn’t in any respect shocked by his success thus far.
“I simply put loads of work in. It’s like, each shot that I’ve shot this season, I’ve achieved it earlier than 1,000,000 instances within the gymnasium. Reps over reps. I don’t should suppose, you understand what I’m saying?…I’m simply assured. I wanna assist us win, and I’m able now that I can have the ball in my fingers [where] I really feel like I’ve management over serving to us win video games.”
SLAM 248 IS OUT NOW!
Images by way of Getty Photos. Portraits by Alex Subers.