March Madness is perhaps the highlight of every college basketball player's career. Where else can you experience the atmosphere that the tournament brings? Very few sporting events match the intensity of March Madness. Unfortunately, there's a whole batch of players who weren't able to play in the tournament, like Philadelphia 76ers star Tyrese Maxey.
With March Madness in full swing once again, Maxey took to X to express his thoughts about the tournament. The 76ers star lamented the fact that he wasn't able to play in the NCAA tournament.
“Every year during march madness I get sad I didn’t get to play in the tournament…”, Maxey wrote.
Maxey then followed it up by saying that things turned out great anyway, as he was drafted by the 76ers in part because he missed out on the March Madness tournament.
“Then I remember… I prolly woudn’t be a Sixer… so it worked out perfect!” he said.
Maxey was drafted by the 76ers with the 21st overall pick in the 2020 NBA Draft. The Kentucky product fell down the draft boards in large part due to the lack of game film on him. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the 2020 March Madness was cancelled completely. Not wanting to stay another year in college, Maxey decided to declare for the draft and take his chances there.
That decision worked out pretty well for Maxey. While it took some time for him to get his feet under him, the 76ers guard eventually blossomed into one of the best guards in the league. He was named to his second All-Star game this season and has been the lead player for the 76ers alongside Joel Embiid. This season, Maxey is averaging 29 points per game while making 37.1% of his three-point attempts, along with 4.1 rebounds and 6.7 assists per game.
Maxey, unfortunately, will be out for the next two weeks or so after suffering a finger injury last week. The Sixers sit at ninth place in the Eastern Conference right now, still currently in the Play-In Tournament but a long shot to make it to the playoffs outright.
