Tyrese Maxey, a guard for the Philadelphia 76ers, has had an amazing week. The teenage guard made his magazine cover debut for a well-known hoops magazine publication and followed up his feature by receiving his first All-Star selection of his short career, despite missing a brief stretch of games because of an ankle sprain. The rookie guard’s performance against the Utah Jazz on Thursday was the icing on the cake. On November 12, Maxey defeated the Indiana Pacers by 11 points, recording a career-high scoring performance. In less than 40 minutes of play, Maxey scored 50 points by making 32 shots and hitting them with efficiency.
Hitting the 50-point mark in a single game might happen more often in today’s NBA, but it’s still an incredibly rare accomplishment. On that mid-November night, Maxey became just one of eight players to notch a 50-point game this season. Would he be able to do it again? That question was answered on Thursday in Utah. Coming off the announcement that Maxey was going to represent the 76ers in the All-Star game, the young guard proved the voters right on Thursday. With a 41-minute shift in his first game back after a three-game absence, Maxey knocked down 63 percent of his shots from the field to produce 51 points. Not only is he one of eight to score at least 50 points in a single game this year, but Maxey becomes one of four to do it multiple times.
RESEMBLING A LEGEND
It’s too early to put Maxey’s No. 0 in the rafters of the Wells Fargo Center, but it has to be pointed out that the 23-year-old guard is having a similar season at this age as a 76ers legend. Allen Iverson, the former No. 1 overall pick out of Georgetown, averaged 26.8 points and 4.6 assists with the Sixers at age 23. He accomplished those numbers while hitting on 41 percent of his field goals, 29 percent of his threes, and 75 percent of his free throws.