Tyrese Maxey: ‘Nobody on this team can have an ego’

The Philadelphia 76ers have added a couple extremely high-profile names this offseason, somewhat understandably overshadowing the fact that Tyrese Maxey is coming off an All-NBA Third Team season. Still just 25 years old and with his 1 percent better mantra, it’s reasonable to expect Maxey to continue improving coming off that career-best campaign.

He recently conducted an interview with HoopsHype covering a wide variety of topics heading into this much-anticipated 2026-27 NBA season. I’ve excerpted a few key passages below with my reactions, but be sure to check out the entire Q&A.

“What parts of the game did you use as motivation to prove something?

I think the biggest things that I wanted to prove was my leadership, my playmaking abilities, and my defense. I think I’m good defensively and I can cause a lot of havoc, make a lot of disruptions. I’m able to block shots, get steals, and do those type of things, and hold my own one-on-one. And then just my leadership qualities. I’ve been trying to become a better leader every single day, try to encourage my teammates, and then playmaking, getting into the paint. I’ve done a really good job of drawing a lot of attention these last couple years, and now it’s just about getting to the paint, creating plays for everybody, creating shots for everybody.”

It’s revealing that leadership is the first thing Tyrese mentioned. You could clearly see the shift the last couple of years with the Sixers being “Joel Embiid’s team” to Maxey’s team. His stepping up as a leader and filling that vacuum was the biggest reason. I’m obviously curious how that adjusts with LeBron James and Jaylen Brown both entering the fold.

“What do you say to VJ Edgecombe after he called you out for lying about knowing beforehand of the LeBron-Sixers signing?

[Laughs] I had to say I love you so much and I’ll talk to you probably later on today. So just know that I love you, kid. And sometimes what you don’t know won’t hurt you. [Laughs]”

I just thought this was a fun anecdote. Even getting caught in a “lie”, Tyrese’s sparkling personality shines through. The vibes are high with the current roster.

“Do you…

Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/tyrese-maxey-nobody-team-ego-183410377.html

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Publish date : 2026-08-20 18:34:00

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