Sixers

Tyrese Maxey is Saying All the Right Stuff About this Sixers Team Having No Egos

By Matt Schultz

Published: Aug 21st, 2026 · 3:44 PM EDT

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I felt pretty damn elated watching LeBron, Tyrese Maxey, and Jaylen Brown finally take the court together earlier this week, but I must admit, I got slightly nervous, too. “These are three very good basketball players,” I thought. “They’re gelling well in this clip, yes, but these are just drills. This is a practice. These short coaches aren’t actually trying to defend them. These aren’t real game situations. Maybe they’re all passing and cutting so well because that’s what this drill is. Maybe once they get on the court in a real game, the ball won’t be moving this well. Maybe Jaylen Brown will dribble the air out of the ball like he’s prone to do. Maybe LeBron will get frustrated and start spamming his lame-looking step-back three a bunch. Maybe Tyrese won’t demand the ball enough with all these loud voices in the locker room. Maybe once you throw Joel Embiid and V.J. Edgecombe into the mix, this team will just have too many guys who want to score, and they’ll resort to some terrible your-turn-my-turn basketball. Maybe ego will get in the way and ruin this whole thing…”

These are troubling thoughts. But thankfully, Tyrese is here to set my mind at ease: 

Tyrese Maxey to HoopsHype: "Nobody on this team can have an ego. We have two guys that have won regular-season MVPs, two guys that have won Finals MVPs (…) We're all pretty accomplished. So the ego has to drop and you have to do it collectively." pic.twitter.com/lXp1x6GkXP

— HoopsHype (@hoopshype) August 19, 2026

“I think it depends on what the situation is. You know what I’m saying? I think we have the ultimate confidence, a lot of different guys. I think people want to say V.J.’s our fifth option, but last year he took a lot of shots in the clutch, you know what I mean? And he made a lot of shots in the clutch. Uh. You know, there was a couple of times when I got doubled and Joel got doubled and we had to kick it out to V.J. and he had to make a shot. Um, you know, it’s gonna be different people. We’re gonna see how it goes and see how it flows and – I think the biggest thing is we can’t have anybody – nobody on this team can have an ego, you know what I’m saying? We have two guys that have won regular-season MVPs, two guys that have won Finals MVPs, multiple gold medal winners on this team, multiple 25-plus points per game, All-Stars, All-NBA. We’re all pretty accomplished. So the ego has to drop and you have to do it collectively.” 

Tyrese rules. What a guy. Not only is he abundantly aware of the concerns a bunch of Sixers fans have going into this new-look season, but he’s already actively working on fixing the problem before it even really becomes one. You can tell he’s given this some real thought, too. The stats and accolades he rattled off at the end of the clip was the giveaway there. He said it all so fast and confidently like he memorized it. Which is awesome. He’s taking it seriously. He knows this team is good. He also sees just how easily ego could throw this whole thing off the rails. And he’s getting way out ahead of it early and often.

That’s excellent stuff. That’s some good leadership. Maxey is the man.

Not that this is really news. When news broke about just how large a role he played in recruiting LeBron, I wrote about how he’s quickly skyrocketing up my list of all-time Philly athletes. Sean wrote a great zoomed-out piece on what a special player he is, and how crazy it is that he even became a Sixer in the first place. And now here we are once again, being reminded of how insanely lucky we are that this guy is on our favorite team. 

Because if we’re all being honest, there is absolutely disaster potential for this Sixers team. I personally don’t think that’ll be the case, but it’d be crazy to pretend like it’s not a possibility. Sometimes there are too many mouths to feed. That’s real. “There’s only one ball” is a phrase for a reason. And really, there’s no way to actually know if these guys can play together until we see it in a game.

But you gotta think it bodes well that Maxey’s in that locker room saying stuff like this. Really has me thinking this’ll all work out. Maxey’s there. He’s got this. For sure. I am positive this will all work. I will not regret writing this.