Tyrese Maxey’s red-hot start to the NBA 2023-24 season earned him well deserved MVP chants from a passionate and knowledgeable Philadelphia crowd.
While his standout season did not measure up to MVP standards, it did, however, earn him some hardware. The NBA announced Tuesday that Maxey is the winner of the league’s Most Improved Player award.
The Philadelphia 76ers guard earned the honor over Houston Rockets big man Alperen Şengün and Chicago Bulls guard Coby White, who were also finalists thanks to their own dramatic improvement and outstanding campaigns.
Maxey garnered 51 out of a possible 100 first-place votes and led the voting points tally with 319 points. White was the runner up with 32 first-place votes and 305 points. Şengün rounded it out earning six first-place votes and 92 points.
“For somebody like myself who prides myself for just putting in a lot of work and outworking people — finding a way to get 1% better every single time I step into the gym, it feels good for that to come to light,” Maxey told TNT upon winning the award.
Maxey also talked about Monday’s controversial playoff loss to the New York Knicks at Madison Square Garden, a contest that saw the 76ers surrender a five-point lead in the final 32 seconds amid multiple questionable no-calls that the league office deemed incorrect on Tuesday. The loss put the 76ers behind the eight ball in an 0-2 playoff hole as the series shifts to the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia.
“We’ve got to let it go,” Maxey said. “We had our time to grieve about it. That’s the past. Like y’all have said, they protect the home court. We have to do the same. …
“It is what it is,” he continued of the NBA’s conclusion that officials missed late calls. “We’ve got to let it go. We can’t dwell on it now. If we dwell on it, in a couple of days, we’ll be down 0-3. We don’t want to be down 0-3. … We can’t leave the games in other peoples’ hands. We’ve got to go out there and take it.”
Maxey, 23 years-of-age, got off to a roaring start, setting the tone in the season’s opening games while filling the massive void left by a then-holdout James Harden. Through the first three games of the season, Maxey did everything, averaging 30.3 points, 6.7 rebounds and 6.3 assists per game while shooting 56% from 3-point range. The 76ers then traded Harden to the Los Angeles Clippers, leaving the Philadelphia backcourt in Maxey’s more than capable hands.
Embed from Getty ImagesHe responded by posting the first 50-point game of his career to cap an 8-1 76ers start. In February, he earned the first All-Star nod of his four-year NBA career. When the 82-game marathon of a season was over, he had averaged 25.9 points, 6.2 assists and 3.7 rebounds per game while shooting 45% from the field and 37.3% from downtown.
Maxey was always on the radar. He averaged 20.3 points, 3.5 assists and 2.9 rebounds per game last season. The season prior to that earned him Most Improved Player votes after he went into the lab and more than doubled his rookie scoring average (8 points per game) with 17.5 points per game. But 2023-24 season saw Maxey improve to another level as he ranked in the top 20 in the league in both points and assists per game.
He did so as Robin behind reigning MVP Joel Embiid’s Batman, though he frequently found himself as the go-to guy with Embiid sidelined by injury. The 76ers earned the No. 7 seed in the playoffs, thanks in large part to Maxey’s play keeping the team competitive and above water while Embiid missed 43 of Philadelphia’s regular-season games.
The Most Improved Player was the first of the league’s season-long awards to be handed out over the next couple of weeks, and the first of four to be awarded this week. The league’s Sixth Man of the Year award will be announced on Wednesday, followed by the Clutch Player of the Year on Thursday and Coach of the Year on Sunday.
