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It started with the rook blowing up a play and being the first to dive on the floor. Down 1 with 10 seconds left against the Golden State Warriors, the 76ers’ highly touted first-round pick, VJ Edgecombe, scrambled to secure possession so that head coach Nick Nurse could call time. Thirty seconds later, he was inbounding the ball to his backcourt mate, Tyrese Maxey, who faded into a potential game-winning pull-up.
The shot was short, but there was VJ again, snagging the rock out of mid-air and laying it in for the lead. In a blink, the Warriors flung the ball up the court, setting things up for what seemed like a breakaway lay that would erase Philly’s last-second heroics. Except there was Tyrese, sending the shot off the backboard with a block to secure the win.
Those 10 seconds of play summed up a wave of excitement, confidence and belief that’s surging across South Philly, where one of the best young backcourts in the Eastern Conference is taking shape.
The signs were clear from the very start, when No. 0 and No. 77 set a League record for the most points—186 of ’em—ever scored by a starting backcourt through a team’s first three games. The season opener saw VJ set the 76ers record for a rookie debut with 34, while Tyrese poured in 40. In their win over the Knicks on January 3, “VJMaxx,” as social media has dubbed the duo, became the first pair of 76ers teammates to each record more than 25 points, four made threes and two blocks in the same game. They’re running pick-and-pops and dribble hand-offs for one another along the perimeter, forcing defenses to pick between two utterly lethal poisons. Like on December 30, when the Grizzlies sent two defenders at Tyrese, leaving VJ wide open for the game-winning three.
In his debut season, Edgecombe has already solidified his potential as a future All-Star and co-star of an East Coast juggernaut, averaging 16.1 points, 5.5 rebounds, 4.2 dimes and 1.6 steals a game. His commitment to hustle plays and his otherworldly athleticism to lock up the little things has endeared him to an entire city and fan base that’s gleefully soaking in the charisma and energy that flows from his mere presence and infectious smile.
Meanwhile, 25-year-old Maxey is posting career-highs across the board with 30.9 points, 6.8 assists and 4.5 boards per game, while shooting 47.7 percent from the field. Through just 35 games (as of press time), he’s already had 18 contests with at least 30 points, including a 54-piece against Milwaukee. In his sixth season, the game has drastically slowed down. An added layer of deceleration through the lane has opened up a world of mid-air opportunities for acrobatic lays at the cup and dishes to corner shooters or rollers.
With Edgecombe and Maxey on the floor together, defenses are left helpless. It didn’t take long for the League’s next great backcourt to assert its dominance. Less than half a season, to be exact.
And during a road trip up north to Toronto, Philly’s star duo sat down to discuss their growing connectivity and what’s in store for their future together.
SLAM: Tyrese, VJ has said he asks you a lot of questions. What are some of the questions he’s asked that gave you some insight into how he’s thinking about the game as a rookie?
TM: The questions that VJ was asking were all the right ones. You could tell early on that he was extremely mature for his age, and that’s what kind of surprised me the most. When I was 20 years old, I was having fun, laughing, smiling, being goofy. He does that as well, but on the court, he makes mature plays. He just wants to be better every single day, and you can see it. He’s been growing every single night out there on the court, and we’re blessed to have him. I was telling Joel [Embiid] the other day, we’re just thankful that he fell into our arms. And this organization should be very, very thankful for that.
SLAM: VJ, how have you been expanding on the advice that guys like Tyrese and the coaching staff have given you?
VJ: To be honest, it all started with my mind, for real. The game is slowing down a little bit. It’s actually slowing down a lot. I mean, obviously, I had this historic start. And then everyone was hoping that I was going to score 30 every night. I’m not Tyrese. But I had people like him around me just to help me every given night, every given day, just trying to get better. You can watch him work out, how he approaches his workouts. All his reps are the same, all at game speed. His speed is so crazy, bro.
SLAM: We heard some stories about the two of you playing 1s before the season started. Can you give us some insight into how those games came to be?
VJ: I'm gonna be so honest, right? I really won the spot, but then, I was really just trying to figure out how to guard him. So I just let him do what he gotta do. And I still haven’t figured out how to guard him yet. I know I’m not the only person, so y'all can understand where I’m coming from right now. I won the spot, which is all that matters. I won one spot. You won about five. But I won one. That’s all that matters.
TM: That’s all that matters. They can’t take it away from you. But yeah, I came into this season with a different mindset, a competitive mindset that I wanted to bring to the entire team. Not just me being happy and bubbly, but my competitive nature, my competitive spirit. So honestly, I just gave an open invitation. I told everybody I was going to work out at 6 a.m. And now I got my little brother VJ with his sleepy eyes, walking in at 5:58 for a 6:00 a.m. workout, ready to play, ready to work out and ready to play one-on-one. I keep telling everybody, that’s when I knew we got something special here. This kid is not joking around. He's here. He means business. He’s a competitor. He wants to win. And he wants to be the best possible version of himself. And when you have somebody like that, you know you’ve always got a chance.
VJ: I’m going to be so honest, though, I really went there just to play some 1s. Because he said he was going to kill us, but I had to see if it was real or not. It was real.
SLAM: Tyrese, tell us about some things that VJ has put you and the team onto.
TM: NBA YoungBoy, TikTok. I don’t even do TikTok dances, and somehow our handshake turned into a TikTok dance. He shows me everything. It’s like the energy that he brings to this team is second to none. Like, he has Joel smiling! He has Trendon [Watford] smiling. Everybody’s smiling. Paul George. He keeps us hip. He comes up to me saying, “What’s up, mud?” I don’t even know where that came from. Nick Nurse calls him “Big Dog.” It’s hilarious. It’s who he is.
SLAM: Tyrese, you brought up the competitive mindset you wanted to instill in the team. As a vet in the League, how have you learned to extend your leadership skills this season?
TM: I think the biggest thing that I want people to see [about] how I lead is, I try to connect with everybody on my team, have a little personal relationship with everybody on my team. Just like [VJ]. After the game yesterday, I went up and spoke to his entire family. Just talked to them, try to remember their names and all that. Tell them I’m gonna try to come to the Bahamas this summer and bring some of my family members to go see where VJ’s from, see the island and everything like that. Then with Jared [McCain], I talk to his people and kind of get to know him. Me and Joel have our own personal relationship. Me and Paul, I play the game a little bit with him. Me and Trendon go way, way, way back. Jabari [Walker]. I could go down the line and give you everybody. That’s the leadership that I’ve brought. And then just leading by example. If people see me work hard and see me get in the gym early and see me try to be coachable and all those different things, then they don’t have an excuse. Like, me and Joel are kind of the head of the snake here. And if we’re doing it, if we're working, if we’re doing all the recovery things that we need to do to get our bodies healthy and stay on the court and try to win games, then, hey, everybody has to follow suit. And we've done a good job of that so far.
SLAM: You both had electric starts to the year and have continued to solidify this backcourt throughout the season. What was your mindset heading into the year?
VJ: For me, I came in just wanting to win. Whatever I got to do to win—I just want to win. If I got to go guard the best man every night, if I got to score, whatever. I just try to make Tyrese’s life easier, Joel’s life easier, P’s life easier, the whole team’s life easier, to be honest. I just want to win. That was my mentality coming in from day one. Just win, work hard, build good chemistry with the team so we could be unbreakable.
TM: Honestly, I felt the same way. Coming off of last season, we had a lot of injuries, didn't reach the expectations that we had for ourselves and that I had for myself. So I just wanted to make sure we had a bounceback year. I told myself and I told my teammates and the people around me, I never wanted to go through that again as long as I was in this age where I could kind of control it. I never wanted to go through it again. I don't plan on going through it again. So I just want to go out there and try to keep this culture up and try to win games. Like VJ said, whatever I can do with my overall game to get better every single day and help contribute to wins, that’s the only mindset that I have. And I think we've done that.
SLAM: VJ, it’s midway through your rookie season. What’s continuing to fuel and raise your confidence?
VJ: My teammates. That’s the main factor right there—just my teammates. Them trusting me to make plays down the stretch. Them telling me to be aggressive. Just little things, just words of reassurance. I mean, it’s great. My teammates, man, that's the only thing right there for real.
SLAM: The highlights at the beginning of the season centered on your scoring, but Sixers fans have seen how you can impact the game in a variety of ways. What areas of your game were you excited to showcase this season?
VJ: I feel like I can playmake really well. I’d say everyone would just be surprised by my athleticism, me jumping, me doing all that. I feel like I’m able to playmake now even better because now, the game’s slowing down for me. Now that I have superstar teammates, it’s also a plus.
SLAM: If this is what year one is looking like with you two in the backcourt, what can we expect in the future?
VJ: I can speak for what I’ve seen from Tyrese. Tyrese is going to be a superstar in this League. I’m saying it. And if you got a problem with it, let me know. Tyrese is going to be a superstar. The man is averaging 30—can really be 40, but we ain't going to go there. But you know, I’m saying it. Tyrese is going to be a superstar. And I’m just trying to get better every day. Trying to continue just getting better and better and better, so one day I can be an All-Star, one day I can be a superstar. Then we’ll be a superstar backcourt. A superstar backcourt that nobody would be able to mess with.
TM: What do y’all want me to say? He says it all, man. That’s the confidence. This is who he is, man. The confident kid that he is. And what he says goes. So I guess that’s what we're going to go with.
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