Tyrese Maxey’s sunny disposition has been valuable in the aftermath of a Christmas Eve house fire: ‘I’m just glad to be sitting here’

DALLAS — While recalling his scary Christmas Eve night, Tyrese Maxey immediately thought of his grandmother Deborah’s plate of dinner.

The 76ers’ point guard’s family was gathered at the table of his South Jersey home when his younger sister, Denasia, smelled smoke. Almost everybody left their plates inside when they evacuated. But in the haste to escape, Nana ran outside with hers still in hand.

“She said, ‘I dropped one of my wings and my salmon burger!’ ” Tyrese told The Inquirer Thursday morning. “That was the good laugh that we needed.”

That memory captures how Maxey’s family moves through life, which is embodied by the 21-year-old Tyrese who will return to his hometown for the second time as an NBA player Friday night when the Sixers take on the Mavericks. Maxey has already become known for his relentlessly positive personality paired with an intense work ethic. But that outlook has been especially valuable in recent months, considering how much has changed since he was last here to play a basketball game in April 2021.

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Maxey has elevated himself from sporadically used rookie to Rising Stars selection at All-Star Weekend and a Most Improved Player contender, averaging 16.9 points, 4.8 assists, and 3.6 rebounds per game while shooting 47% from the floor and 40.4% from three-point range. But he has also been navigating the aftermath of the house fire, a second case of COVID-19 that kept him isolated in a hotel suite and the demanding coaching that comes with being the youngest rotation player on a 31-20 Sixers team sitting in third place in the Eastern Conference standings entering Thursday.

“I’m just proud of how I’ve handled adversity, honestly,” Maxey said. “It’s been a lot going on these last couple months. … I just stick with it. I always tell everybody, every morning that I wake up, I feel blessed and I’m glad to be here.”

Maxey has publicly uttered some version of that mantra countless times as a Sixer. Yet that took on additional weight when the accidental fire — exact cause still unknown, he said — ignited in his garage, with his family inside celebrating the holiday.

Today, Maxey says, “I’m just glad to be sitting here talking to you about this.” His father, Tyrone, calls the fact that they all made it out safely a “faith valve” for the deeply religious family. But they have not dwelled on that night. They have moved on to the steps to get Maxey situated again in the area, while populating their family group text with jokes to keep things light, photos of Tyrese’s nieces getting their hair done to make him smile, and snippets of scripture to keep him inspired.

“I’m like, ‘Yeah, all your stuff got burned,’ ” Tyrese’s mother, Denyse, told The Inquirer. “But look on the bright side, now you get to go shopping. … Life is what it is. It’s just life, and you just have to take it for what it’s worth and keep moving. That’s just how we think as a family. We just adapt to everything that’s happened. We’re all together. We’re all safe. We’re all healthy.”

“We’re alive,” Tyrone interjects.

It had always been the plan for Denyse to assist her son with the daily logistics once he reached the NBA, from hiring a dog walker for his Cane Corso, Apollo, that on Wednesday celebrated his first birthday, to working with a CPA to making sure his dry cleaning is picked up. Since the fire, she has helped Tyrese deal with the insurance company, order new clothes to replace the items that were destroyed, and find a temporary apartment. They hope he will be in a more permanent place by the beginning of March.

“Whatever he needs to do so he can get up, go to the gym, work out stress-free,” Denyse said. “Whatever the coaching staff and the Sixers need for him to do to focus so they can get the win that night, that’s what his job is. Focus on your job, and we have a support system in place to make sure everything else is done.”

Maxey will arrive in Dallas — where he starred at nearby South Garland High School and became a five-star recruit — playing a much bigger on-court role than when he visited as a rookie. Tyrone, a longtime coach, is proud of how Tyrese has evolved into more of a playmaker while sharing the floor with superstar Joel Embiid. And his 33-point, eight-assist outburst in a thrilling overtime win over Memphis on Monday flashed that Maxey can be an offensive anchor when Embiid is out because of injury or rest. The following night, he was named a Rising Star, news he humbly never shared with his mom during multiple conversations that day.

Even after that Grizzlies win, however, Sixers coach Doc Rivers said he could not wait to show Maxey the film of when he missed an open teammate in transition, hoping that will help sharpen the point guard’s instincts. Teammates and coaches constantly encourage Maxey to use his lethal speed to get downhill and into the paint to finish at the basket or make plays for others. He is also starting to feel more confident speaking up alongside his veteran teammates.

“I’ve got guys like Joel Embiid, Tobias Harris who are known in this league,” Maxey said, “and they tell me that they trust me and they need me. So now I feel more comfortable that I have a little bit of respect from those guys to where I can say things and try to be helpful.”

Friday night, Maxey will step into the arena where, as a kid, he made a special trip to watch his favorite player, Dwyane Wade. Though it will be “a little emotional” to play legitimate NBA minutes in front of his loved ones, he will stick to his game-day routine and not “try to do anything special.”

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But before taking the floor with the Sixers, all Maxey wanted to do was spend time with his family. Denyse planned to make a home-cooked meal of spaghetti, salad, and garlic bread with sweet tea, a Southern beverage specialty that sometimes draws confused looks when Tyrese tries to order it in Philly or while on the road.

There, Tyrese will be able to share a proper plate of dinner with Nana.

“If you think about it,” Denyse said, “the average 21-year-old having to make some of the decisions that he had to make and experience some of the experiences he’s had to experience, it can be tough — just to be honest. So there are times I’ll just ask him, ‘Dude, how are you doing?’ and we’ll go into a more serious conversation.

“But at the end of the day, when it’s all said and done, we’re very happy for him, very proud of him, and going to do whatever we need to do to make sure he gets to where he wants to be in his career.”