Tyrese Maxey named among NBA All-Star starters for first time in his career

Sixers guard Tyrese Maxey was named as one of the NBA All-Star starters on Monday afternoon, joining the top group of All-Stars for the first time in his six-year career. It’s the first major individual honor of the year for a player who is on pace for potential year-end awards consideration, and a deserved prize for the Sixers’ most consistent night-to-night performer.

Maxey’s numbers are up across the board this year — 30.3 points, 4.4 rebounds, 6.7 assists, 1.9 steals and 1.0 blocks per game are all career highs — and Maxey has improved his shooting significantly after a down year last season, knocking down 40.2 percent of his 9.1 attempts per game from deep. He is the only player in the Eastern Conference currently averaging 30 points per game or more, trailing only Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Luka Doncic on the NBA’s points per game leaderboard.

Alongside that jump in production came a renewed focus on leadership. At media day in late September, Maxey told assembled media that setting a nightly standard as a team was the main focus coming into the year, and he has worn that responsibility day in and day out, giving the Sixers a chance to win with or without his other veteran stars on the floor. Teammates have credited Maxey for being a loud and prominent voice in the locker room, a leader in offseason workouts, and a driver of the program each and every day.

The most impressive part of his season may be that as his offensive responsibility has grown larger, Maxey has strengthened his commitment on the defensive end, too, growing in stature as a defensive playmaker. As Maxey has put on weight and locked in on details in the film room, he has become a more difficult player to punish on and off-ball, making him a more dangerous 48-minute player than ever before.

“After every game, pretty much of the early games, he would text me,” Jared McCain told reporters. “He texted me when I went down to the G, just staying in my ear, ‘Just continue to be yourself. It’s going to come back.’ So he’s been a great mentor and somebody who I can go to for that and just kind of helping me get through this process of getting back to myself.”

“When he’s out there, I play for him,” Paul George added. “I do everything I can to make the game easier for him, He’s our guy. It’s inspiring. Me as a vet, it’s inspiring for a guy to consistently do it.”

Joining Maxey as starters from the Eastern Conference are Giannis Antetokounmpo, Cade Cunningham, Jaylen Brown, and Jalen Brunson. But there is (as usual) another new twist for this year’s All-Star Game: Adam Silver opted to turn this year’s game into a Team USA vs. Team World event, with 16 U.S. players expected to compete against a team of eight international players in a round-robin tournament. Three 12-minute games will be used to establish the two best teams, who will then play a fourth game in the championship round of the All-Star Game.

(Notably, there are already five international players among the starters, so Silver and Co. will only be able to add three more to the group to stick to their new format.)

Whether you’re in on the new style of All-Star or not, it’s a tremendous honor for Maxey.