76ers Guard Pump Fakes Hatred For Celtics Ahead Of Season?

Do the Boston Celtics have an under-the-radar enemy that unintentionally revealed his identity?

That looks to be the case.

Philadelphia 76ers guard Tyrese Maxey, at first, concealed an anonymous team that he’s always motivated to face during the season. The first indicator at identifying this team, as one would imagine, would be to check Maxey’s career scoring averages against specific teams, right?

Wrong. The 22-year-old ruled out the Denver Nuggets, Memphis Grizzles, Miami Heat, Milwaukee Bucks, Minnesota Timberwolves, Sacramento Kings and Toronto Raptors — Maxey’s best-performing opponents.

“I’m not gonna say any names but it’s, like, one team that I play against every time I’m like, ‘Listen before we go out here — tonight, I’m gonna cook tonight,'” Maxey told JJ Redick on “The Old Man and the Three” podcast. “… It bothers me every single time.”

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That process of elimination didn’t leave many teams left, but it left the Celtics and plenty of writing on the wall to go off of as well.

Maxey was selected with the 21st overall pick in the first round of the 2020 NBA Draft by the 76ers. That was seven spots behind former Celtics guard Aaron Nesmith, who was picked at No. 14 by Boston, giving Maxey a vengeful motive and vendetta against the organization.

Speculation? That would be fair if Maxey didn’t slip up on one word when further elaborating on the “mystery” team.

“Everybody wants to play when we play this team. When we play the Cel–,” Maxey explained, failing to contain that competitive spirit.

Case dismissed, hence, yet another Philadelphia enemy for Boston.

To further prove Maxey’s not-so-hidden animosity for the Celtics, the Kentucky product scored a combined 41 points in two preseason matchups versus Boston. Perhaps that’ll be the premonition of an improvement to Maxey’s 8.2-point career average against the Celtics.