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Tyrese Maxey: "The best advice I got from James (Harden) is probably be myself, don't let anybody come in and make it to where I'm not being myself on the basketball court. He came in and I was like all right, well I didn't know how my role would change if I was gonna take a step back, but he made sure that didn't happen, that I stayed aggressive, that I stayed progressing, and he made sure of it. I would never change, I could change the way I play, but I'd never change my aggressiveness and who I think I am out there on the court because of him."
Tyrese Maxey: "I was going to class every single day. My biggest thing was I want to have a great freshman year. My mom was big on school, I'm big on academics, so I was going to class every single day. We played against Anthony Edwards, we knew he was going to be a number one pick. I had 19 points, 8 rebounds, 8 assists, 4 blocks, 2 steals. The next day we had class at 8 o'clock in the morning and I think it snowed."
Tyrese Maxey: "I grew up with both my grandmothers in the house, both of them, they both got up extremely early every single day. I used to sleep with my dad's mom in the bed with my dad's mom till I was six years old, six seven years old, and she wake up every single morning watch news, watch news, watch news, watch news. By the time I got to ten I went upstairs, so my dad's mom slept downstairs, my mom's mom slept upstairs. She never slept in her room, never slept in the bed, she only slept on the couch, she slept on the couch, I slept on the floor. She get up 4 o'clock in the morning, watch the news, watch I Love Lucy, watch all those black and white shows. So I had no choice but to get up. They were up every single morning and that's kinda who I became, someone who's a morning person up every single morning."
Tyrese Maxey: "Then as I transferred it to basketball life, it was a psychological thing for me. I'm getting up this early in the morning, I'm working out three times before other people even get up waking up. And when I get to the NBA season, that's why my confidence is so high. I'm so ready to play, I feel like I worked harder than the person in front of me. I got up early, I persevere, I did some that they couldn't do, and I deserve to be here, I deserve to perform at the highest level."
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Once the Sixers completed the trade for Brown, they reached out to LeBron James’ agent Rich Paul. Their initial pitch was also a simple one: James can play on a roster capable of winning at a high level. Over the coming days and weeks, Maxey, Embiid and Brown all took turns recruiting James, according to league sources. The Sixers believed they had more than talent to appeal to one of the greatest players ever to play the game: They also had fit.
What have you been working on the most? Dean Wade: Everything has been about decision-making, especially in the paint. Being able to read different defenses in terms of how they’re guarding the paint because of the personnel we have on our roster. Jaylen, LeBron, and Tyrese are all exceptional playmakers who draw attention. Defenders will have to hard hedge on screens, so it’s on me to make their jobs easy and create those advantageous 4-on-3 or 3-on-2 situations offensively. And of course, I am always working on my shooting and will be ready for all the opportunities these guys are able to create for me. I’ve been in the weight room a lot trying to get stronger without putting on much weight. I like to float around 230-235 lbs. Anything more than that is too much and will impact my movement laterally as a defender. I’ve also been focused on cutting down my overall body fat while getting stronger. My teammates will count on me to do a little bit of everything this year, so I need to make sure my body and mindset are right entering the preseason.
Law Murray: Covering LeBron James last season, he had an internal conflict going on with how much he had to defer to Austin Reaves (even Bron understood that Luka was the top dawg in any circumstance). Bron was very pleased with being able to still be the lead option in a postseason setting, particularly a winning one against the Rockets. But he's still on the other side of 40. I don't look at him like a traditional point guard, and he surely won't be guarding point guards. The ball is still going to be brought up primarily by Tyrese Maxey, but Maxey already is used to sharing the rock and being effective off of other ball-dominant players. He started his career with Ben Simmons and Joel Embiid. He worked with James Harden for two seasons. Even last year, VJ Edgecombe got touches as a rookie. So Maxey will be sharing playmaking duties with James, without James having to ever over-handle the basketball. It should help everyone in that offense, especially Jaylen Brown, get to a point where they are all efficient and get the ball in places where they can maximize damage. I don't think it happens overnight, but if they get enough games together in the regular season, then Philadelphia's offense has a vast ceiling in the spring.
Speaking exclusively with ScoopB.com on the red carpet Thursday night at The Harold & Carole Pump Foundation Gala at The Beverly Hilton, Hall of Fame point guard and NBA legend Earvin “Magic” Johnson shared his perspective on how the 20-time All-Star will mesh alongside Philadelphia’s core, which features Tyrese Maxey, Joel Embiid and newly acquired wing Jaylen Brown. When asked how James will navigate sharing the floor with high-usage offensive focal points in Philadelphia, Johnson dismissed any concerns regarding dynamic chemistry. “Well, it’s going to be easy when you’re a playmaker, you know,” Johnson told me. “He gets everybody involved in the game, he gets people easy buckets and shots.”
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Johnson emphasized that LeBron’s influence extends far beyond mere distribution on the stat sheet, highlighting his innate ability to unify elite talent. “When you think about Maxey, Embiid… all those guys, now Jaylen Brown,” Johnson noted. “One thing that he knows how to do is also bring everybody together.”
Shaquille O'Neal: It's not going to work in my opinion. You just said him, right. Tyrese Maxey just worked his ass off to become the man. Jaylen Brown comes out. So now for Tyrese Maxey, do you back off or do you say no, I'm still going to do what I do. Then Bron comes. Now we got Joel Embiid. Too many… it’s too many egos. Three or four people going to have to say, ‘All right, you go.’
Oh No He Didn't: Shaq on the new look Sixers: ‘Championship or bust. You got the great LeBron James. You got great Embiid. It was like 3, 4 years ago Charles and I would always say how he's the best big man. Joker has surpassed him, will be honest, making a name for himself. My question to Joel: does he want it back? And if he does, please show me. I know LeBron wants to get one last one. Jaylen is feeling slighted. Maxey is making a name for himself, definitely the team to watch. I don't wanna hear next year...this team was put together to win a championship now...they have all the pieces they need’
Dash Lovell: “Yeah, they’re going to figure it out directly. But individually, it’s about trying to develop what you need. When we talk about flying around and shooting, it’s basketball. It doesn’t matter who you play with. You’re going to have to make a catch-and-shoot jump shot. Now that he has guys like Bron, those guys are going to draw a lot of attention. Jaylen is also going to draw a lot of attention for those guys to get easy shots, too. It’s just basketball. Sometimes, we overcomplicate this and make it seem more difficult than it is. The part about basketball that starts becoming difficult is when you start overthinking how it’s going to connect. Just play the game. The game connects us by itself. As humans, for some reason, we start recreating what is natural about basketball. Since you have a younger Jaylen Brown, Tyrese Maxey and a young VJ Edgecombe, you don’t need ‘Bron to do so much right now. He can have those guys push him through half of the season until you get down to certain stretches where they can use ‘Bron and Joel a little bit more. I think they all want to win. They all understand that. I don’t think you have to recreate how you go about your summer. They all just have to be on the same page, and I think they will be. It’s not that complicated. They’re all excited about playing with each other and playing for each other. That says a lot. But we’re doing the typical same things to prepare. We’re understanding how people guard him and understanding what he wants to do in the post, based on the defender.
