It's Summer of Tyrese
This year, we're lucky enough to get to choose Tyrese Maxey as our summer protagonist.
Andrew Unterberger is a famous writer who invented the nickname 'Sauce Castillo' and writes for The Rights To Ricky Sanchez, as part of the 'If Not, Pick Will Convey As Two Second-Rounders' section of the site. You can follow Andrew on Twitter @AUGetoffmygold and can also read him at Billboard.
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Every team's offseason demands a main character. (The true offseason, not that July rush of free agency and Summer League that really feels more like a post-postseason.) The fanbase needs someone to rally behind -- or against, depending -- someone to project all the lingering beliefs and doubts from the season that transpired and all the hopes and anxieties from the season yet to come onto. Sometimes, a player's ubiquitous presence in the warm-weather headlines makes the decision for us, other times, there's a vacuum of actual narrative work being done that allows us to decide for ourselves.
This year, we're lucky enough to get to choose Tyrese Maxey as our summer protagonist.
Of course, that's at least partly through process of elimination. Joel Embiid is laying low -- except when he's being hoisted into the air by his chosen mischpacha -- and allowing Drew Hanlen to lay the groundwork for his upcoming This Is Not an MVP Campaign MVP campaign. Like his good buddy Daryl Morey, James Harden put his summer work in early, and now seems content to just pop up in a scrimmage every now and then that serves as an inkblot test for fitting whatever your current Harden Agenda is. Tobias Harris is busy tying the knot; we're happy for him as long as he doesn't expect much extra in the way of gifts. Ben Simmons is still mucking things up from somewhere between 90 and 9000 miles away, but we have no real reason to care about either side of this particular dispute of his. Matisse... well, we'll catch up with Matisse during homeroom first day back.
There's not necessarily so much going on with Tyrese currently, either -- but there's just enough for us to know that we want more. We've got him getting run at something called the Rumph Classic on the La Salle campus, dropping 34 points and getting all of Sixers Twitter on Muscle Watch. We've got him cooking scrubs and trainers in workout videos, showing off moves that get us doing the Simmo the Savage "If he could ever do that consistently in the regular season against real competition..." dance. We've got teammates and coaches raving about him like he was single-handedly responsible for the final season of Better Call Saul. And we've got this photo.
I love this photo. I cannot get enough of this photo. It's an all-timer, one with a higher meme ceiling than any Sixers-related photo since that one of Joel with (probably not actually) Harry Styles, and we're going to be seeing it the rest of our online lives. And even though it's from Tobias' wedding, and with Tobias the clear focal point of the photo -- and even though Matisse is the best-dressed, and Georges has the best cool-guy pose -- Tyrese is the obvious star of the photo. It's that smile, that posture, that yes teacher I do know the answer but it's OK you don't have to call on me if you don't want to energy that's endeared him to every mother (and most fathers) up and down the Delaware Valley. It's unmistakable, and it's irresistible.
And the real joy of Tyrese right now is that that's still all there is: joy. Even with Joel in the early years, the joy had to be tempered with at least light caution and worry: Will he ever play a full season? Will the franchise eventually have to choose between him and Simmons? Will his career be one big missed opportunity? At no point in his career did Jo not have to bear pretty much the entire weight of the Process on his back; you could practically see it in the way he moved. But Tyrese moves like a man who's not burdened by those or any other expectations, because he isn't. He was the 21st pick. He got here when the Process was already considered over by most. In his second year, he's already exceeded the highest upside anyone outside of Sixers Twitter's most maniacal draftniks considered him likely to have for his entire career. There's no what if, there's no if only. There's just joy. Pure, uninhibited joy.
For now. It won't last forever; not with Tyrese, not with anyone. There's no player so giving with their greatness that fans don't eventually want more than what they're able to offer. There will come a time when Tyrese Maxey disappoints, where he comes up short athletically or personally in a manner we can't quite explain away, where even the Moms of the Process look at him like their 14-year-old who just stumbled home with Jagermeister on their breath and cigarette stink in their hoodie. Expectations shift, charm proves finite, narrative comes for us all. But not this summer. This summer, Tyrese is still the golden boy, the returning BMOC, the baddest dude with the biggest smile. He's Bad Bunny selling out three nights at El Choli. And we'll greet whatever content he gives us accordingly.
Of course, this is probably the time to mention that perhaps the biggest reason why Tyrese Maxey has found himself at the center of Sixers discourse recently is due to the possibility he might not actually be a Sixer for all that much longer. I have no idea how likely it would be that the Sixers would actually trade for Kevin Durant, but him telling some reporter that he wouldn't not welcome a trade to Philly is exactly the kind of offseason development I'd hoped we'd be able to avoid during this blessedly deadbeat summer. Would I trade Tyrese Maxey for Kevin Durant? Of course not, but I'm far beyond reason in such matters at this point; my trade math here mostly has to do with the chances of KD making me happy by winning us a championship simply being much lower than the chances of Tyrese Maxey making me happy simply by being Tyrese Maxey. I'll deal with the consequences and implications of such a deal if and when the time comes, until then I'm not interested in thinking or talking about them all that much.
At the very least, though, Maxey being at the center of such blockbuster talk just cements his ascent to main character status, and the fact that there are people out there besides me writing articles about why the Sixers shouldn't trade him for one of the 15 greatest players of all time is just another item for the top of his already staggering Sixers resume. It's still a good time to be Tyrese Maxey, and it's a good time to follow his exploits like a bunch of Deadheads packed in a van for the season. The Summer of Tyrese is the first time that I can remember that summer for the Sixers has actually felt like a vacation.