Siegrist goes third | Sports Daily Newsletter

Over the years, a host of women’s college basketball players from the main universities connected to Philadelphia have declared for the WNBA draft, but Maddy Siegrist made history by being picked third, the highest ever City 6 (Temple, Villanova, St. Joseph’s, Penn, Drexel, La Salle) player chosen at that event for the women’s pro basketball league.

The Dallas Wings took Siegrist and helped her reach another milestone in the same year she bid farewell to her college career.

Siegrist’s performance in the NCAA tournament may have pushed her up the draft order, perhaps from a top 5 to a top 3 spot, but all season long, she had been consistently impressive.

Now she gets to prove herself on the next level.

— Andrea Canales, Inquirer Sports Staff, @phillysport, sports.daily@inquirer.com.

❓How many points do you predict Siegrist will average in her rookie WNBA season? Email us back for a chance to be featured in the newsletter.

unCovering the Birds with Jeff McLaneEp 3: Chip Kelly - Part I: The Rise

There was no sexier NFL head coaching hire than the Eagles landing Chip Kelly . He was deemed an innovator, offensive mastermind, sports science guru, and after leading the Birds to the playoffs for the first time in 3 years, he seemed worthy of the hype. In the first installment of a two-part retrospective looking back on Kelly’s brief rollercoaster tenure with the Eagles, Inquirer beat reporter Jeff McLane examines the factors that fueled Kelly’s meteoric rise in the NFL and questions whether the popular narrative surrounding his Eagles legacy is fair.

Listen wherever you get your podcasts or go to Inquirer.com/podcasts

The 76ers have a long playoff history of entering the NBA playoffs with grand ambitions and an exciting fanbase. Both typically subside around the second round, where the Sixers’ season has ended every year of Joel Embiid’s career. But this year has a bit of a different feel, and the primary reason for that is Embiid himself. The Inquirer’s Keith Pompey explains how the big man elevated his game — and the Sixers.

Next: The Sixers start their playoff run against the Brooklyn Nets at 1 p.m. Saturday at the Wells Fargo Center.

KPI: Opens, clicks, meter stops and conversions.

The first significant milepost in Rhys Hoskins’ rehabilitation from ACL surgery won’t come for about three months, when he tries to begin jogging. Doctors told Hoskins he won’t be able to play again for seven to nine months. Hoskins intends to prove them wrong. After all, he noted that teammate Kyle Schwarber tore the ACL in his left knee on April 7, 2016, and was the Cubs’ designated hitter six months and 18 days later in Game 1 of the World Series. “I’m going to do everything in my power to give myself the opportunity that, if and when we are playing in late October, I have a chance to contribute to that.”

Jean Segura didn’t know what to expect in his return to Philadelphia as a member of the Marlins. He was greeted with a standing ovation and a championship ring.

The Phillies are starting to get their groove back, and it could be due in no small part to Bryson Stott and manager Rob Thomson remembering a short stint back in August.

Next: The Phillies continue their series against Miami at 6:40 p.m. Tuesday (NBCSP+). Aaron Nola (0-1, 7.45) will start against Marlins left-hander Jesus Luzardo (1-0, 0.71).

The Eagles could look to use this draft to select Lane Johnson’s eventual replacement. Johnson is signed through 2026, but the succession plan could very well begin later this month. There are offensive tackle prospects on the board who would be a fit, and EJ Smith has a look at them.

All the recent changes around the Flyers organization provide hope that the organization is truly turning in a new direction.

New Flyers chairman Dan Hilferty revealed the latest change when doing a radio interview over the weekend with WIP-FM (94.1). Hilferty laid out that while the “old guard” of Bob Clarke, Bill Barber, and Paul Holmgren will still be around, they will no longer be as influential in terms of decisions regarding the future of the organization.

This would be a major development, as the Flyers’ trio of “wise men” have been looming in the shadows and wielding their influence, often misguidedly, for decades. Mike Sielski has more on the Flyers’ long overdue decision to finally usher out the old guard.

Next: The Flyers wrap up their home schedule against the Columbus Blue Jackets tonight (7 p.m., NBCSP).

Sure, there was sadness and shock at the sight of the probably most on-form player for the United States women’s national team, Mallory Swanson, going down with a ruptured patella. However, there is also a deep bench of attacking options who are deserving and eager to prove themselves. One of them, Alyssa Thompson, is still a teenager.

Reporting from St. Louis, where the team will play one final game before the World Cup roster is named, Jonathan Tannenwald takes stock of the situation and the choices ahead for coach Vlatko Andonovski.

Of all the players to be selected in the WNBA draft, 10 of them played their college ball right here in Philly. Maddy Siegrist is the most recent, but who are some of the stars who came before her? We take a walk down memory lane, one that’s full of Big 5 hall of famers and All-Americans.

Some of them like the Washington Mystics’ Natasha Cloud are household names in the WNBA today. Some of them are coaches — Candice Dupree is on Gregg Popovich’s San Antonio Spurs’ staff. And some are hard at work in other fields.

But one thing is for certain, whether they had long careers or never took the court in a WNBA game. They all made their mark on the Philly hoops landscape and heard their name called on draft day.

Left out: Drexel’s Keishana Washington was not picked in Monday’s WNBA draft.

The one that got away: Claude Giroux notched 900 points with the Flyers, but hit the 1000th elsewhere.

Sixers slip into a mess: There are team ties to an ethically murky situation involving a mayoral candidate.

Inquirer reporters Massarah Mikati and Jeff Gammage are taking questions in a Reddit AMA with r/philadelphia at 1 p.m. on the “Downtown Dreams” Sixers arena story.

Joel Embiid has won the scoring title for this NBA season, which brings us naturally to the question of who is the all-time points leading scorer for the Sixers? Without looking up the answer, email us your response.

A) Allen Iverson

B) Wilt Chamberlain

C) Hal Greer

D) Julius Erving

We asked: How will the Sixers fare in their upcoming series against the Nets? Among your responses:

The Sixers have an uphill road ahead of them to advance deep into the playoffs. They’ll likely have to get past both the Bucks and the Celtics. True, they boast both NBA leading scorer Joel Embid and assist leader James Harden. Tyrese Maxey has also proven to be an offensive catalyst, all of which make them an entertaining and usually winning team to watch. Hurdles await: Doc Rivers’ struggles to coach teams to a championship; Embid’s and Harden’s previous failures in the playoffs; and the Sixers’ inability to beat in the regular season the two teams they’ll have to defeat. Thus, they have to overcome their collective histories as well as the psychological challenges facing them. It’s a lot to ask. — John N.

The Sixers will handle the Nets with ease, though they’ll be reminded that they should have held onto Mikal Bridges. — Joel G.

Sixers in 6 games. — James H.

We compiled today’s newsletter using reporting from Meghann Morhardt, Matt Ryan, Mike Sielski, Alex Coffey, Scott Lauber, Keith Pompey, Maria McIlwain, EJ Smith, Jonathan Tannenwald, Gus Elvin, Sean Collins Walsh, Anna Orso, and Chris Brennan.