A.J. Brown to the Eagles, Sixers win, Phillies sweep: Philly awakes to a hope-filled landscape
After a dismal weekend, suddenly, the city has a franchise receiver, a hot baseball team, and an NBA playoff winner.
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Early this week, the sports scene in Philly could hardly have been more dismal.
The $238 million luxury-taxed Phillies had lost two of three to the visiting Brewers, had lost their last four series, and had fallen four games below .500.
The Sixers, newly Bearded, had lost a Saturday game in Toronto, would lose again Monday night, and stood in peril of being the first team in NBA history to blow a 3-0 lead in a seven-game series.
The Eagles held 10 picks in the NFL draft, but still had Howie Roseman making them -- the same Roseman who’d picked wide receiver busts Jalen Reagor in 2020 and JJ Arcega-Whiteside in 2019.
The Flyers were stumbling to the end of the worst season in franchise history.
And Jay Wright had just quit.
By Friday morning, everything had changed.
The Phillies scored 32 runs and got four outstanding starts in a four-game sweep of the visiting Rockies.
The Sixers destroyed the Raptors by 35 points on Thursday night to win their first-round series, 4-2.
And the Eagles? Yeah, they’d brightened the landscape.
The Eagles traded the Texans a fourth-round pick and two fifth-rounders to move from No. 15 to No. 13, where they picked massive defensive tackle Jordan Davis. He’s a 6-foot-6, 341-pound replacement for 31-year-old Fletcher Cox, who is playing on a one-year contract after leading the Birds to the playoffs in five of his 10 seasons.
Then, Roseman traded his second first-round pick (18th) and a third-round pick (101st) for Titans receiver A.J. Brown. He was due to become a free agent before Roseman signed him to a four-year, $100 million extension.
There was more.
The Flyers’ season was due to end Friday night, mercifully, with the NHL draft on the horizon.
And Wright -- who, as Villanova’s Hall of Fame coach, shot down every suggestion that he might one day join the NBA -- had left the door open for a return to coaching, this time at the highest level.
This is convenient, since the 76ers’ elation might be short-lived. They seem destined for destruction at the hands of the Heat in next week’s semifinal round. As such, they might be moving on from Doc Rivers.