Being a dad is a special feeling.
No job is harder, but no job is more rewarding.
Surely Tyrese Maxey has applied his 1% better every day philosophy to fatherhood. The Sixers’ star guard became a dad to a baby girl this offseason. Baby Marvel — Tyrese loves Spider-Man and The Avengers movies — has already been in the gym, though the only dribbling she’s doing needs to be wiped away with a bib.
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While it’s impossible to top that, Maxey did something else incredible this offseason. He successfully recruited LeBron James, arguably the greatest basketball player who’s ever lived, to sign with the Sixers.
Not a bad offseason for No. 0.
It’s been a special few months for Maxey, but he has the chance to make his own heroic comic book ending this season.
Maxey had a career year in 2025-26. After what you could consider the first down year of his career in the Sixers’ nightmarish 2024-25 campaign, he averaged career highs with 28.3 points, 6.6 assists, 4.1 rebounds, 1.9 steals and 0.8 blocks per game last season. He was named an All-Star for the second time and given his first All-NBA nod (Third Team).
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With a Most Improved Player Award also on his mantle, Maxey has racked up an impressive list of individual accolades before the age of 26. Adjusting to yet another new role and leading his team to an NBA championship would put quite the punctuation mark on Maxey’s career before he even really enters his prime.
While Maxey came to the Sixers post-Process, he was far from immune to the organizational turmoil that’s plagued this team for over a decade.
During his rookie year, he watched from the bench as Ben Simmons made The Pass to Matisse Thybulle. After basically saving their season with a brilliant Game 6 down in Atlanta, Maxey played less than 15 minutes in Game 7 against the Hawks. For reference, Furkan Korkmaz started and played 18 minutes while George Hill (21 minutes) and Shake Milton (5 minutes) played minutes that easily could’ve gone to Maxey.
Alas, Doc Rivers.
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He took the ensuing Simmons holdout and the arrival of James Harden in stride. He took a massive leap as a shooter and fit whatever role the Sixers needed. The following season, he was part of a team that went ice cold against the Celtics in Game 6 in what could’ve been the Sixers’ first Eastern Conference Finals berth since 2001. Instead, they were embarrassed in Game 7 in Boston and another point guard holdout commenced as Harden famously called Daryl Morey a liar.
Maxey was undeterred, winning his MIP award in 2023-24 before another Embiid injury essentially derailed the season. We did get a glimpse of what Maxey can do in big playoff spots with his epic Game 5 performance at Madison Square Garden to force a Game 6 against the Knicks. If the Sixers found a way to win that series, Maxey’s efforts in that game would be talked about more (they should, anyway).
Even the way he closed Game 7 out against the Celtics last season with sensational finishes at the rim shows he’s a big game performer. That’s a trait that shouldn’t get lost in the shuffle when we have “who should take the last shot?” debates about these Sixers.
In his locker, Maxey has a figurine of the character Venom. For the uninitiated, Venom — sometimes a Spider-Man villain, other times somewhat of an anti-hero — is an alien symbiote who combines with a human host, enhancing the powers of both the symbiote and host.
Maxey has taken many forms as a Sixer.
Don’t bet against him figuring out how to get some of the NBA’s mightiest heroes to assemble.
