Philadelphia 76ers: Tyrese Maxey threw his own birthday party

Tyrese Maxey was born at the tail end of the year 2000.

He’s younger than Pokémon, never knew grunge, and probably only knows properties like The Transformers and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles from the movies contributed to the cultural oeuvre by the explosive auteur Michael Bay.

Does the thought of Gen Z players increasingly populating NBA rosters put a shiver in your rapidly aging bones? Well, I have bad news for you; Gen Z players are quite literally the future of the Association.

At 21 years old, a lot of opportunities have just opened up for Tyrese Maxey. He can now drink beer, drink wine, and even take down a White Claw or two, if he feels so inclined. Want to know what else the Philadelphia 76ers‘ point guard is old enough to do now? Drop 20 on the Detroit Pistons, a feat he accomplished at the tail end of his special day to close it out with a bang.

Tyrese Maxey gave the Philadelphia 76ers a gift on his birthday.

The Philadelphia 76ers have played nine games so far this season. They currently rank first in the East with a 7-2 record, are riding high on a five-game win streak, and have yet to play a single game with their league-best regular season starting five on the court together from a season prior.

In that nine-game run, Tyrese Maxey has scored double-digit points in all but one of them, averaged 14.6 points per game, and looked like the sort of poised, young, speedy point guard-sized point guard the Sixers haven’t employed in a very long time.

These numbers, as affected by a nine-game sample size as they may be, are better than Maxey’s numbers at Kentucky, and far exceed even a generous expectation that many had for his second season when the 2020-21 campaign came to a close.

Maxey is shooting 51.5 percent from the field, 34.7 percent from beyond the arc on 2.5 attempts per game, and has even worked his assist total up to 4.3, which is still less than six, but is still more than double his rookie season average of two.

And best of all? Maxey’s defense has been good enough to keep him on the court in crunch time.

Whether holding Trae Young to a tidy 3-9 shooting from the field with a block and a turnover, or his similarly good efforts against Lonzo Ball and even Damian Lillard, one wouldn’t call Maxey’s defense Simmons-esque, but it’s been darn good, positionally speaking, for a newly minted 21-year-old who measures in at 6-foot-2.

So naturally, with Maxey on a roll and the Detroit Pistons starting one of the greener point guards in the NBA in 2020 first-round pick Killian Hayes, did anyone really expect him not to show up and show out at the Little Caesars Arena in beautiful Detroit, Michigan?

If you fall into that tiny camp, I sure feel bad for you.

Playing down a number of players with Shake Milton earning a rare start, Maxey recorded 20 points on 8-12 shooting while logging his third game of the season with two or more made 3-pointers. He also led all players on either team in minutes played at 45, a clear indicator of Doc Rivers‘ trust in his young point guard.

Could you imagine a more slam dunk way for a hooper to spend their birthday (I’m so sorry)?

Does Tyrese Maxey know what a Furby is? Has he ever watched a black and white movie? Does he know that Ryan Gosling began his career in the Micky Mouse Club? Does Tyrese Maxey even know who Ryan Gosling is? We may never know, but we can safely surmise that one thing Tyrese Maxey is innately attuned to is how to win NBA games, as he’s been a huge contributor to the Philadelphia 76ers’ white hot start to the 2021-22 NBA season.