PHILADELPHIA — Given everything, including how the Phillies were managed in the playoffs, Philadelphia has endured much worse sports years than the soon-to-fade 2023.
That acknowledged as a side-entrance variety of compliment, the last 12 months did include a Super Bowl, an MVP, an NLCS, plentiful star-level players and ownership willing to inside-out pockets to acquire talent.
Could have been worse. At least no one was willing to postpone winning in order to draft Jahlil Okafor.
So before it fades into the mist as another parade-free waste of parking-lot fees, here is the top 10 list of sports figures who made 2023 captivating on or around Pattison Ave. For the record, the individual who decided Craig Kimbrel deserved his own cockamamie light show finished dead last.
1. Jalen Hurts: While there is no printed rule for choosing the essential Philadelphia Sports Figure of the Year, having an MVP candidacy and leading a team to within a possession of a Super Bowl championship works. And while the Eagles’ quarterback finished the year performing as something less than the highest-paid footballer ever, as he was for a moment earlier this year, he still has the Eagles likely to finish 13-4 and contend in more games that end in Roman numerals.
2. Joel Embiid: Don’t remember who first declared in print six years ago that the center was the most talented player, skill for skill, ever to play for the Sixers — wait a minute, it was right here — but by 2023 there was no disputing Embiid was the best player in the NBA. Finishing as the leading scorer for a second consecutive season, Embiid was named the 2022-23 MVP, then went on a statistical rampage of historic proportion to help the 2023-2024 Sixers win 21 of their first 30 games.
3. Howie Roseman: After stitching together the Eagles’ second Super Bowl team in six years, the most effective personnel director in the NFL chased the achievement with a Draft Night for the ages, winding up with the player said to be the best in the draft in Jalen Carter and a linebacker he wanted in Nolan Smith, while rolling some capital to Detroit for D’Andre Swift to upgrade the running game.
4. Bryce Harper: It is one thing for a player to blabber about how hard he wants to play in order for a city to enjoy a championship. It’s another to insist on coming back from complicated elbow surgery in such record time that hair-combing still brings pain, then learn another position, then bang clutch, late-inning hit after clutch, late-inning hit to push a team into the postseason.
5: Tyrese Maxey: In addition to his continued rise to All-Star-level backcourt play, the 21st overall pick in the 2020 draft came to embody the reality that it takes scouting instincts — not lost games — to add franchise-changing talent. Nightly displaying breathless joy for his job, he’s made himself into a reliable three-point shooter and is maturing into a winning point guard.
6: Nick Sirianni: Only four coaches have led the Eagles to a Super Bowl, and he did so by winning 14 games in just his second season largely by committing to and benefiting from the development of Hurts as an MVP candidate. And even if he did take it one Sixers throwback jersey too far, he did exhibit an appreciation for the city and its sports history.
7: Dan Hilferty: After too many years of lost leadership and cheap, rarely to be delivered promises, Comcast-Spectacor finally turned to a proven business leader with a life-long grip on what works in Philadelphia to restore relevance to the Flyers. That, he did by trusting the institutional knowledge of Keith Jones and Daniel Briere while promising to rebuild without tanking. By December, the Flyers already had their image cleansed. To boot, the Saint Joseph’s grad breathed life into the wheezing Big 5 with a one-day, Wells Fargo Center tournament successful beyond expectation.
8. Jaron Ennis: At 26, he scored impressive victories over Karen Chukhadzhian and Roiman Villa — who were a combined 47-2 — to finish the year as the IBF welterweight champion. At 31-0-0, the North Philadelphia product was named Philadelphia’s Most Outstanding Pro Athlete by the Philadelphia Sports Writers Association.
9: Jim Curtin: As he has through his nine-plus seasons in charge, he did more with less and managed the Union into its sixth consecutive postseason, reached the semifinals of the CONCACAF Champions League and finished third in Leagues Cup play.
10: Zack Wheeler: He struck out 212 batters in 32 games, earned a Gold Glove and allowed six earned runs over three postseason starts, reinforcing his status as one of baseball’s more reliable and dominating starting pitchers.
Next up, 2024. Nick Nurse and John Tortorella already have their hats in the ring. Hats are never the problem, though. Rings are.
Contact Jack McCaffery at jmccaffery@delcotimes.com.
