Philadelphia 76ers star Tyrese Maxey has become a household name in recent years due to his play on the court, and one of the surest signs he’s made it is that he recently had the opportunity to sit down with GQ to take part in the magazine’s “10 Essentials” series.
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Maxey clearly had fun describing the 10 things he can’t live without, covering everything from his sneakers, to his snacks, to his dogs Apollo and Ari. One of his essentials was his bracelets, which give some insight into how he’s become such a special player.
Maxey always wears three bracelets on his wrist, and he described the personal significance they have for him. The first says “One Percent Better,” which came from something his father used to tell him:
“The reason why he said it was like, ‘Hey listen, you wanna be as good as the top of the players in the league that you like? You gotta find ways to get one percent better every day.'”
Maxey joked that he would ask his dad, “What happens after the 100th day and I’m 100 percent better?” Beyond the humor though, he took the saying to heart, and he wears the bracelet every day as a reminder to keep improving, on and off the basketball court.
Obviously, it’s working. Maxey won last year’s Most Improved Player award and made his first All-Star team, scoring a career-high 25.9 points per game and carrying the Sixers to the playoffs despite the team being without star center Joel Embiid for more than half the season.
“One Percent Better” isn’t the only bracelet that Maxey wears that comes from one of his father’s sayings, as he also wears one with the letters LND.
Tyrese Maxey wears his mantras on his bracelets
As Maxey revealed, LND stands for “Leave No Doubt,” which is something else his father told him.
“This was in high school, I used to be upset because I felt like I was better than a lot of players that were ranked higher than me, and he said, ‘Listen, if you think you’re better than them, then you have to leave no doubt. Whoever you’re playing against, you have to leave no doubt that you’re the best player on the floor.'”
Maxey’s Sixers are struggling this year, though it’s been through little fault of his own. Embiid has only played seven games, and Paul George, who came over from the Clippers on a four-year, $212 million contract, has missed 10 games due to injury. As a result, the Sixers are an ugly 9-17 and only ahead of the Hornets, Raptors, and Wizards in the Eastern Conference, all three of which are considered “tanking teams” around the league.
Maxey’s third bracelet could prove to be the most important one for him this year. That one says LLMM, which stands for “Long live Mimi.” Mimi was Maxey’s grandmother who unfortunately passed away before he was drafted, so she never got the chance to see him in the NBA.
Maxey talked about how his grandmother “always taught me to be a positive person and bring light into people’s lives… now, every single time I step onto the court, every single time I meet somebody, I’m always trying to brighten their day.”
This is a lesson that could help him try to turn around what’s been a season to forget for the Sixers, especially if his star running mates are able to get healthy. The Sixers may be well below .500, but they could still be a dangerous team, and Maxey is a big part of that.
