Tyrese Maxey’s rise to an All-Star from a 21st overall pick has been fantastic to watch. The undersized point guard has been one of the only bright spots for the Sixers over the last two seasons and his success is all down to his own work ethic and desire to be better. He also has the opportunity to work out with one of the greatest players of all time in LeBron James, thanks to his agent, Rich Paul, who represents both athletes.
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Maxey has actually worked out with James a lot, with the earliest recorded one being his pre-draft workout. He continues to do so almost every off-season, and the improvement to his game is apparent. But it was these workouts with James that were the topic of a little segment on The Deep 3 podcast, and Maxey revealed how he finds it awe-inspiring that James is still doing what he’s doing at the age of 40.
While talking about how surreal it felt to share a session with James, Maxey opened up and said, “This is gonna sound weird, but it’s like good, it’s like normal now, you know what I’m saying? Like I worked out with him my first time when I was like 19 years old, now like seeing him, just like a big brother, every single summer, it’s always fun.”
His tone is clear, if you’d told 19-year-old Tyrese that he would share a summer workout with the greatest player to play the game, he’d have laughed you out of the gym. But his game has taken him to a level where he can have that sibling-type relationship with James.
But when asked if he could see himself still working out at James’ age, Maxey laughed and recalled an anecdote from their training sessions. Chris Johnson, the trainer they share, has a ritual where he makes players make three dunks after practice. Going first, Maxey kept it quick and easy, just three straightforward dunks, nothing too flashy. James, however, was a completely different story.
In Maxey’s words, “I see Bron, and he like, ‘Throw it up, throw it up!’ I’m like, ‘Nah man, you don’t got it no more.'” He said he tried to throw James lobs close to the rim, so he wouldn’t have to exert himself too much, given his age, but the four-time champion refused them. “Nah, he want, he still want to cock it back, and I’m like, ‘Man, you crazy,'” he laughed.
James’ commitment to his almost signature dunk is admirable, but it has been the topic of a fair few jokes over the past season. Austin Reaves found himself on the receiving end of a few of those when James jokingly criticized a few of his lobs, implying he wasn’t as young as he used to be.
“That dumbass lob set me back three days,” he joked while Reaves was being interviewed.
