“Me and James are still close. He’s like a big brother,” Maxey said. “As soon as he came in here, he embraced me. He taught me a lot. All he’s done here is elevate my game.”
The Sixers acquired Harden from the Brooklyn Nets in 2021-22. Philadelphia lost to the Miami Heat in the 2022 Eastern Conference Semifinals and fell to the Boston Celtics in the 2023 semifinals. Harden is averaging 21.0 points, 6.4 rebounds and 10.6 assists in 79 games with the Sixers.
Maxey is one of the top young players in the NBA. He averaged 20.3 points, 2.9 rebounds and 3.5 assists last season while shooting 48.1% from the field, 43.4% from beyond the arc and 84.5% from the free-throw line.
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This pairs well with his comments on JJ Reddicks podcast;
“He didn’t make it weird at all,” Maxey said on ‘The Old Man and the Three’ Podcast. “He came in and was very like… Just not what I expected. I’m going to be honest, just not what I expected. He was very receptive. He worked hard, he did all the drills. He was talking to even young guys that he didn’t know. Think about; James Harden, MVP, scoring champ, two-time assist leader, he’s sitting there talking to guys like Ricky Council like, ‘Hey, when you’re in help, you should do this,’ And I’m like, this is not what I was picturing.”
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These two have a great bromance and Harden clearly loved mentoring him. too bad Daryl Morey a whole bitch
If you watched the Sixers play after the all-star break in after Harden got there, you could see all the things Maxey learned from him day 1. Harden was pressing on him to be more aggressive, that he could go out there and put up 30 and how that would actually help out guys like him and Embiid more. I swear Maxey was not this good at hitting the 3 until playing with Harden and felt like he was doing the step back on like day 3 of playing with him. There’s no doubt Harden made him into a better player and props for Maxey for wanting to learn and taking playing with Harden seriously, knowing any knowledge would up his game. Harden was def on his best behavior when he got to Philly and Maxey took full advantage of the “wiseman of the game passing on knowledge” persona Harden was putting on.
That being said, it did feel like last year they kind of got in the way of each other. Not personally, but just basketball wise. Although that could also be up to Doc. The fact that they had to put Maxey on the bench because there just wasn’t enough shots for Harden/Embiid/Maxey to take in a starting lineup was just wild to me. And it doesn’t look like Harden would really work in Nurse’s scheme. I still think Harden will play and I think he won’t be traded until the deadline, but this new Sixers are just so fun to watch and I hope we don’t go back to what it was before.
Harden seems like he was absolutely beloved by some and the others just tolerated him. It’s a shame a guy like Maxey, who clearly loves the dude and appreciates the time he got with him, has to talk about the ugly business of the Sixers.