Sixers: 5 things we learned at media day

Sixers media day: Everyone has been in the gym

No one can question the Sixers’ work ethic. Tyrese Maxey is the long-reigning king of work ethic: Doc Rivers said he and the coaching staff had to kick the 21-year-old out of the gym on multiple occasions this summer. Maxey also said he took his first vacation ever, but that it was too much of “doing nothing” for his taste.

Rivers also spoke glowingly of Paul Reed and Matisse Thybulle in conjunction with Maxey, saying “nobody has outworked” those guys. Reed claimed to have improved his vertical by eight inches, and Thybulle went into detail about his efforts to improve as a shooter and open-court ball handler.

We have seen the tape of Harden in the gym, be it working out with Maxey and teammates (Harden evidently organized team activities and workouts near his house in LA) or dominating open runs. The Sixers fanbase knows well enough to not trust scrimmage footage, but again, no one can doubt that Harden has been focused on improving his conditioning and getting back to peak form.

Even Joel Embiid has been in the gym. The 7-footer joked that he spent all summer on the couch, but Georges Niang went on to say Embiid has been in the gym “like he’s trying to make the team.” Embiid has improved every year since he entered the league, and the MVP runner-up still has room to improve in 2022-23. We know he wants nothing more than to win, and he will do everything in his power to do so.