Inside Sixers: VJ Edgecombe’s new mentor, Tyrese Maxey’s ‘tanking’ perspective, and more from All-Star Weekend

LOS ANGELES — VJ Edgecombe did not want to waste Tyrese Maxey’s time once he took his courtside seat for the Rising Stars event at NBA All-Star Weekend.

And Maxey wanted Edgecombe to answer his simple question.

“I said, ‘Listen, what you going to do? You going for MVP or not?’” Maxey recalled. “He said he was going to go for it, and that’s what he did. That’s just who VJ is. He plays every single game the same way.”

The 76ers guards were in sync during their time together in Los Angeles, mirroring how they have instantly become an electric duo during their first 54 games as NBA teammates. Their presence at All-Star Weekend — Maxey as a contender to wind up on MVP ballots, Edgecombe as one of the league’s top rookies — was warranted. Edgecombe winning MVP of the Rising Stars event, before Maxey helped spearhead Sunday’s championship-winning Team Stars, made the weekend a success.

» READ MORE: Tyrese Maxey’s All-Star Weekend showed he’s not merely a promising young star. Maxey has become one of the faces of the NBA.

Now, the two Sixers who both rank in the league’s top 10 in minutes logged must recharge for the regular season’s stretch run. The Sixers sit sixth in a competitive middle of the Eastern Conference. And with Paul George still serving a 25-game suspension and Joel Embiid’s health still a wild card — the former MVP center missed the final two games before the break with knee soreness — Maxey and Edgecombe are going to continue leading the charge.

Before the NBA season resumes, here are some other Philly basketball-related nuggets from All-Star Weekend.

Edgecombe may now have a new mentor in Hall of Famer Vince Carter, his fiery coach during the Rising Stars tournament.

Carter said Saturday morning that he already “[gravitates] to young talent that wants to be great, that’s willing to listen, that wants to learn. Because I was that guy.” And Kyle Lowry, a friend of Carter’s and Edgecombe’s teammate, had already requested that Carter spend additional time with the Sixers rookie. Yet Carter had an inkling that Edgecombe initially thought his motivational tactics were “just talk” — until that carried from conversations, to the practice court, to Friday’s games.

“Now that I think that he knows me, I mean what I say,” Carter said. “ … I’m going to turn my volume up and I’m going to get on your ass a little bit, and he appreciated that.”

So when Edgecombe scored 10 consecutive points — including the game-winning jumper — to secure their team’s first win of the night, it was no accident.

“Once it came down to [needing a] closer,” Carter said, “I pulled him aside and said, ‘This is what we’re going to do. I’m going to put you in position. Let’s go.’”

“Tanking” was the first topic addressed during NBA commissioner Adam Silver’s news conference, after the Utah Jazz and Indiana Pacers received fines of $500,000 and $100,000, respectively, for violating the player participation policy and “conduct detrimental to the league.” Both teams either rested or prematurely removed healthy key players to, presumably, increase their chances of losing the basketball game and improving their draft lottery odds.

» READ MORE: ‘It was all God’s plan’ Tyrese Maxey fell to the Sixers with the 21st pick in the 2020 draft, thanks to an unlikely path

“Are we seeing behavior that is worse this year than we’ve seen in recent memory? Yes, is my view,” Silver said Saturday afternoon. “Which was what led to those fines. And not just those fines, but to my statement that we’re going to be looking more closely at the totality of all the circumstances this season in terms of teams’ behavior, and very intentionally wanted teams to be on notice.”

Maxey has a unique perspective on the tanking conundrum, following a 2024-25 Sixers season that began with championship aspirations but abruptly face-planted into an injury-riddled disaster.

During his All-Star media day news conference, Maxey reiterated how much last season taught him about mentally handling constant losing for the first time in his life. He was eventually shut down for the season with a finger injury, and other rotation players were held out of down-the-stretch games. The Sixers were also fined $100,000 during that period.

But Maxey also could not deny that “the outcome was VJ Edgecombe,” after the Sixers landed the No. 3 overall pick in a dramatic draft lottery. Edgecombe became an immediate starter and impact player on both ends of the floor while averaging 14.9 points, 5.4 rebounds, 4.1 assists and 1.5 steals per game.

“He’s great, man,” Maxey said of Edgecombe. “Not just basketball-wise, but for our team personality-wise and culture-wise for our organization and things that we’re trying to turn around.”

The Sixers will play 10 of their final 28 games against opponents expected to be tanking, including two apiece against the Jazz and Pacers.

Jalen Brunson, the New York Knicks guard and former Villanova standout, has become an All-Star regular, earning a spot on the more veteran U.S. Team Stripes.

He was part of Kawhi Leonard’s monster 31-point outburst to beat Team World, understandably deploying the point-guard strategy of “feed him the ball, and get out of the way.” Brunson at one point in that game also got matched up against Knicks teammate Karl-Anthony Towns, which Brunson deadpanned meant, “No matter what shot I shot, the ball was going in.”

Yet Brunson’s highlight of the weekend was winning Saturday’s Shooting Stars contest alongside Towns and Knicks legend Allan Houston. Their designated passer for the event? Rick Brunson, Jalen’s father and a Knicks assistant coach.

» READ MORE: What makes Knicks star Jalen Brunson so special? ‘The magic is in the work.’

“Spending time with my family in an atmosphere like this, in a place like this,” Brunson said, “it really means the world to me.”

After a run to the Eastern Conference finals last spring, the Knicks season has been up-and-down. When asked which team is the biggest threat to New York in the conference, Brunson said one can “obviously” point to the two teams currently ahead of them in the East standings: the second-place Boston Celtics and first-place Detroit Pistons.

But Brunson also cautioned that “the East is better than what people think it is.”

“So you can’t really look ahead and you can’t really be focused on one or two teams,” Brunson said. “You have to prepare for everybody.”

Jalen Duren looked perfectly comfortable in the All-Star limelight, rocking sunglasses during Sunday’s postgame media session.

As a first-time All-Star, the Sharon Hill native and Roman Catholic product took in all the weekend’s extracurriculars — including “pictures, after pictures, after pictures, after pictures.” He also flashed what makes him an interior force for the East-leading Pistons, totaling six points and four rebounds in Team Stars’ dominant championship-game victory.

» READ MORE: Source: Guard Cam Payne rejoining Sixers for the rest of the season

The 22-year-old Duren also found value in observing how his fellow All-Stars carried themselves through the weekend.

“Being part of this group of guys, you’ve got to walk with a certain type of pride and responsibility,” he said. “I think my perspective changed a little bit of how I approach the game and the rest of my career.”

When asked about favorite parts of his first All-Star experience, Edgecombe enthusiastically mentioned the moment he wound up shaking hands with and sitting next to the legendary Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.

“That was fire,” Edgecombe said.

That reaction demonstrates the reverence Edgecombe has for the game’s history, a trait Sixers coach Nick Nurse has mentioned when speaking about the rookie’s beyond-his-years basketball IQ.

“Just [to] be in the same room as [Abdul-Jabbar] is a blessing,” Edgecombe said following the Rising Stars tournament. “Obviously, when we go on the floor, we try to honor everyone that came before us by playing hard, doing all the little things in the game. Grow it in the community off the floor. …

“Shout out to all the ‘OGs’ that came before me. Everyone. It’s all love from me.”