On November 4, 2025, Tyrese Maxey officially turned the big 2-5, celebrating the final year when he can be on his parents' insurance plan by leading his white hot Philadelphia 76ers against the Chicago Bulls in the pursuit of win No. 6 of the 2025-26 NBA season.

On paper, the results were pretty good for the surprise MVP candidate, putting up a point a minute, Joel Embiid-style, against a Bulls team without Colby White and Ayo Dosunmu on the way to what looked like a blowout victory.

But as the 76ers took their foot off the gas, Maxey and company saw their offense fall apart in a major way, with Philadelphia barely putting up a bucket down the stretch to get to a 111-110 lead with just 14 seconds left to play, Chicago ball. Nikola Vucavic nailed an open 3 with just over three seconds left to play, and the 76ers had one last chance to secure the victory, only for Quenton Grimes to miss a wide-open 3-pointer after being freed up by a textbook Joel Embiid screen to end regulation.

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Suddenly, Maxey's birthday party looked like that of Bo Callahan, or at least Molly Ringwald in 16 Candles, with the 76ers guard having to eat his cake on a silent flight as Philadelphia departed back east for night two of their back-to-back in Cleveland.

Unfortunately for the 76ers, one of the big trends of the 2025-26 season so far has been the team's inability to really blow out a squad that doesn't play regularly at the Barclays Center, with seemingly every other game coming down to the wire. Fortunately, their other major trend has been Maxey playing at an MVP level, averaging 33.7 points in 42.5 minutes of action a night as the new focal point of Nick Nurse's fast-paced, pass-happy offensive attack, so even if it may sting to take an L on his birthday, it's safe to assume the 25-year-old will get plenty more chances to celebrate before the playoffs begin.