Sixers star Tyrese Maxey may pop up as All-Star starter

Tyrese Maxey averages 30.9 points and leads the NBA in minutes per game for the surprising Philadelphia 76ers. The Sixers are pushing for his All-Star selection using his favorite snack: Popcorn.

Wednesday is the last day of voting for next month's All-Star Game in Los Angeles. Maxey was third in the Eastern Conference in the second batch of returns and looks likely to make his first All-Star start, after being selected as a reserve in 2024. To encourage voters, the team is giving media members popcorn and faux movie tickets to vote for Maxey and Joel Embiid.

Tyrese Maxey has become the Sixers' franchise player

Embiid is a former MVP and scoring champion, but it's been Maxey carrying the team this season as the big man makes his way back from injuries that cost him most of the 2025-26 season. In 20 games, Embiid is averaging 23.6 points, 7.1 rebounds and 1.2 blocks per game, well down from his peak numbers of 30+ points and 10+ rebounds per game.

The Sixers haven't been appreciably different when Embiid is in the lineup. They're 12-8 when he plays and 10-8 when he sits, though they score 1.7 more points per game with him. Meanwhile Maxey plays the most minutes and takes the most field-goal attempts in the NBA, while shooting 48 percent overall, 40.9 percent from three-point range and shooting 6.5 free throws per game, making 87.6 percent of them.

It's not that Embiid isn't still a good player, but he's no longer the center of the franchise. Maxey already won Most Improved Player in the 2023-24 season, but he's improved even more this season. He's shooting more often, but logging more assists and scoring more efficiently. At the same time, Maxey has become an above-average defender, already tying his career-high in blocked shots in just 36 games while getting 1.9 steals per game.

Tyrese Maxey and Steph Curry are both fueled by popcorn

Using Maxey's favorite food as the All-Star marketing vehicle is a sign that the Sixers are all-in on their 25-year-old guard. Sixers staffers generally leave a box of popcorn in Maxey's locker after games. When he's in Chicago, an attendant brings him a trash bag full of popcorn. Maxey loves it because it was a snack his mother gave him most often, saying it "had good fiber in it."

Maybe fiber leads to great outside shooting. Steph Curry, the NBA's all-time three-point leader, is famously obsessed with popcorn. Curry will enjoy the snack "before the game, at halftime and after," a contrast to many health-conscious players in the modern NBA. A trash bag full of popcorn wouldn't be unusual at Curry's locker either.

But the once place Curry is least fond of popcorn is Philadelphia's Wells Fargo Center, according to an ESPN interview in 2018. While he listed Philly's popcorn only 11th-worst in his amended rankings one year later, the Process-ed snack received only 14 of a possible 25 points, with Curry lauding the popcorn's freshness and crunchiness but giving it mediocre scores for saltiness, butter and presentation.

That may be how Maxey and the Sixers go to another level. If Maxey can be an All-Star starter with subpar popcorn, imagine what he can do if the arena can bring their popcorn up to a top-10 level. Philadelphia needs both Maxey and Embiid to shine if they want to compete this year, but they may also need an assist from Orville Redenbacher.