Tyrese Maxey continues generational season, drops third straight game with 35-points in thrilling win over Warriors
Tyrese Maxey is the epitome of Philadelphia. He was the 21st overall pick in the 2020 COVID Draft. He was undersized, supposedly “couldn’t shoot,” and completely undervalued. He was never supposed to be this good.
While the NBA slept, Maxey was working harder than anyone in his craft. Through pure work ethic and sheer force of will, he turned himself into a legitimate franchise cornerstone. His rise feels both impossible and inevitable, and last night was another moment where you sit back and think, “This guy might actually be generational.”
The Sixers nearly collapsed again, blowing a 24 point lead before VJ Edgecombe and Maxey delivered in the final seconds to escape with a 99 to 98 win over the Warriors.
Maxey dropped 35 in the victory, marking his third straight 35 point game and his ninth of the season. It is early December and he has already shattered his career high in 35 point performances. Tyrese Maxey is doing franchise player things at 24 years old.
Tyrese Maxey is doing franchise player things at 24 years old.
- 35 points
- 3 rebounds
- 2 assists
- 2 steals
- 1 block
- 40 minutes
This is not normal development. This is a superstar demanding to be taken seriously.
Maxey owned the game for long stretches. He hit difficult shots, got downhill whenever he wanted, and played the kind of basketball that makes an entire arena hold its breath. With Joel Embiid out for the fourth quarter and Golden State storming back, Maxey simply refused to let the Sixers fold.
This is an MVP resume by any definition. The idea that Tyrese Maxey is still sitting at sixth on the MVP ladder feels like a clerical error that someone should have to explain. And Sixers fans know plenty about national incompetence on award ballots from the Embiid years.
Here is the historical company Maxey joined last night. There is no angle where this is normal.
Sixers with three straight 35 point games
- Wilt Chamberlain
- Julius Erving
- Charles Barkley
- Allen Iverson
- Joel Embiid
- Tyrese Maxey
Maxey also has at least 20 points and one made three pointer in all 20 games he has played this season. That ties the second longest streak to open a season in NBA history, behind only James Harden, the man Maxey modeled his step-back after.
This is what all pro development looks like. This is what it looks like when a player lives in the gym, loves the work, and surrounds himself with people who keep him grounded and hungry.
He is my favorite Sixer to watch since the early Ben Simmons days and before that, Allen Iverson.
Which is why it was so irritating earlier this week to hear national media suddenly act like they just discovered Tyrese Maxey is the face of the franchise.
It felt like a last-second drive-by at Joel Embiid on the way out the door, a final narrative pivot before the conversation shifts toward Maxey. Ramona Shelburne dropping her pointless quote about Maxey being the new face of the Sixers was exhausting and unnecessary.
This fanbase already knew and none of it takes anything away from Embiid.
Embiid was the first one on the court celebrating Maxey last night. He is the same guy who called Maxey the future of the franchise years ago. He was right then, and he could not be happier now. These two have been in each other’s corners since day one.
Tyrese Maxey is not the future anymore. He is the present and he is playing like one of the best basketball players on the planet.
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