Tyrese Maxey has risen to All-Star starter status.
The Sixers’ lead guard was named Monday as one of five starters from the Eastern Conference for the 2026 NBA All-Star Game.
Jalen Brunson, Cade Cunningham, Jaylen Brown and Giannis Antetokounmpo were the other four East selections. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Stephen Curry, Luka Doncic, Nikola Jokic and Victor Wembanyama made the cut in the Western Conference.
Starters were decided by a combination of fan voting (weighted at 50 percent), player voting (25 percent) and media panel voting (25 percent).
Maxey made his first All-Star Game in the 2023-24 season as a reserve. Though he averaged 26.3 points per game last year, his efficiency dipped and the Sixers slogged through a nightmare of a 24-58 season.
Both Maxey and the 22-18 Sixers have been much better through the first half of the 2025-26 season. As of Monday afternoon, the 25-year-old ranked first in the NBA in minutes per game (39.4), third in scoring average (30.3 points), fourth in made three-pointers per game (3.7) and fourth in steals per game (1.9).
“I must say I definitely missed him,” backcourt mate VJ Edgecombe said after Maxey missed two mid-December games with an illness. “He helps take some of the load off of everyone on the court. … I feel like we can be really scary, especially at the level Tyrese is playing at this year.
“He’s now at superstar level in my eyes. Some people might have different opinions, but in my eyes he’s at that superstar level. Of course the game’s going to be different without him on the floor. He just requires so much gravity.”
The 2026 All-Star Game will be on Feb. 15 at Intuit Dome and played with a new USA vs. World format. Reserves will be chosen by the league’s head coaches and announced at a later date.
