To know Philly sports is to know a whole lot of heartbreak, those glimmers of hope you cling on to, and then, after feeling like it took everything to achieve, those long-awaited triumphs that stick forever. 

The year 2025 had all of that between the Eagles, Sixers, Flyers, and Phillies, with each having their days where you could see how it all might click for them, or in the case of one incredible run through January and February, how it all did.

Here's a look back at Philly sports' 10 best games from 2025...

Welcome to the NBA, VJ

Sixers beat Celtics, 117-116, 10.22.25

Belief in the Sixers wasn't in a great place heading into the new season.

They were a disaster the year before, there was no certainty as to whether Joel Embiid or Paul George would be able to consistently stay on the floor again, and what the team's identity would be with each banged up and only getting older wasn't clear either. 

They had VJ Edgcombe as the No. 3 overall pick, though, and on opening night in Boston, the rookie guard quickly assured everyone that he was the right choice. 

Edgecombe cut right through the Celtics to score an NBA rookie record 14 points in just the first quarter of his debut, and went on to score 34 in total to help push the Sixers to a 1-0 start with a 117-116 win. 

The Sixers had life again, and probably needed to start making sure they had enough No. 77 Iverson-era jerseys stocked up on the shelf.

Wheelin' and dealin'

Phillies beat Reds, 3-1, 7.6.25

The true strength of the 2025 Philadelphia Phillies was in their starting pitching, and leading it all was Zack Wheeler at the top of the rotation, who at this point in his career, had reached levels of dominance on the mound that the club hadn't really seen since Roy Halladay in the early 2010s.

Then in early July, Wheeler delivered a masterpiece: A complete game, an increasing rarity across Major League Baseball, with one hit, one earned run, no walks, and 12 strikeouts for a 3-1 Phillies win over the Cincinnati Reds. The right-hander threw 108 pitches.

The Phillies had their weaknesses, and still do, but their rotation last season 1-4, with Wheeler, an ever-improving Cristopher Sánchez, a revelatory Jesús Luzardo, consistent lefty Ranger Suárez, and even a struggling Aaron Nola in the No. 5 spot, held up to just about any other starting rotation in the Majors. 

And by July, the rotation looked like the core reason the Phillies would win the World Series – provided they got there – with Wheeler taking the first turn of every postseason round as their No. 1.

Wheeeler's blood clot diagnosis in his shoulder a month later, unfortunately, threw a wrench in that idea.

Cris joins the conversation

Phillies beat Red Sox, 4-1, 7.22.25

Cristopher Sánchez kept reaching for new heights in the past couple of years, going from a depth rotation pitcher, to further up the starting order with an increasingly meaner changeup, then to an All-Star, and in 2025, legitimately into the NL Cy Young conversation. 

Against the Red Sox, when the left-hander threw his own complete game with only an earned run allowed and 12 strikeouts for a 4-1 Phils win, that was the point where the Cy Young talk around Sánchez became unignorable. 

Then by season's end, after the Phillies lost Wheeler, Sánchez kept that momentum, and went into the postseason as the club's No. 1.

"We want Cutter!"

Flyers beat Ducks, 6-0, 1.11.25

Cutter Gauthier was abruptly traded in January 2024. 

Once the Flyers' top prospect, he just wasn't interested in being a Flyer anymore after some kind of fallout behind the scenes, the nature of which, to this day, is still unknown. 

The Flyers did what they could with the situation and traded Gautheir to the Anaheim Ducks for defenseman Jamie Drysdale and a second-round draft pick. 

Philadelphia as a sports fan base, however, felt scorned and had that first home game against Anaheim circled on the calendar as soon as the schedule for the 2024-25 season was posted. 

When the day came, the formerly named Wells Fargo Center was packed for a Flyers game for the first time in years. Fans were all looking for No. 61 on the Ducks and wanted to let him know how they felt about him. 

Chants of "WE WANT CUTTER!" progressed into "F--- YOU CUTTER!" once he finally hit the ice, then to "JAMIE'S BETTER!" in support of the player who was there wearing the Flyers jersey now. 

Poetically, Drysdale scored, Gauthier got knocked around and could do nothing about it, and on a night where the Flyers really needed to step up, with all kinds of energy in the building, they didn't miss. 

They blanked the Ducks, 6-0, in what was their best game all of last season by far – even if it was, on the schedule alone, just another regular-season game in January.

"I hope we can play in front of a crowd like that about something meaningful," former coach John Tortorella bluntly said afterward. "Not the s--- that whatever you guys are talking about. I hope it means something to the organization as far as winning and losing, that's when we want to see a crowd like that...

"I want it to be that we're a team to be reckoned with in a playoff series, or whatever it may be. Not this s---."

VJ's for real

Sixers beat Knicks, 116-107, 12.19.25

Just before Christmas, VJ Edgecombe went into Madison Square Garden and didn't flinch. 

The rookie guard already had Philadelphia's attention from helping to rejuvenate the Sixers' backcourt, but up against a serious title contender in the Knicks on the road, Edgecombe might've just turned the heads of the rest of the NBA.

He hung in there defensively against Jalen Brunson, and down the stretch, he made the shots, a crucial steal, and one emphatic dunk to clean up a rebound that put the Sixers ahead and left New York silenced. 

The Sixers won, and they left the Garden with the whole basketball world knowing that their rookie guard was for real.

Schwarber crushes four

Phillies beat Braves, 19-4, 8.28.25

Kyle Schwarber stepped up to the plate, and everyone in the seats of Citizens Bank Park pulled their phones out. 

They all knew: A home run was incoming. 

He launched one, then another...then another...then another...

By the end of the night, the Atlanta Braves were buried, and Schwarber had crushed four home runs with a genuine shot to make it five – he popped out on that last at-bat. 

Still, it didn't matter. That night at the Bank went into the record books. 

Schwarber registered the fourth four-homer game in Phillies history, joining some extremely good company among legends Mike Schmidt, Chuck Klein, and Ed Delahanty.

The star slugger also brought himself to a new career-best 49 homers in total on the season, only upping his price tag with his trip to free agency looming, but also making it clear that the Phillies, in the end, needed to find a way to be the ones to re-sign him.

"I don't know what else to say, I mean, the guy's having a year for the ages," Phillies pitcher Aaron Nola said after that game. "It's just awesome to watch. He's a hard worker, great teammate, great guy, and for him to do something like that, especially at home, too, it's special."

Pack it up

Eagles beat the Packers, 22-10, in Wild Card, 1.12.25

Oren Burks forced a fumble on the game's opening kickoff, Dallas Goedert stiff-armed Carrington Valentine the whole way down the field, and the Eagles picked off Jordan Love three times to take their first playoff win. 

The Birds were on their way, and the Packers went into the offseason complaining that the Tush Push wasn't fair, almost ignoring that Love not being able to stop turning the football over was what they really should've worried about.

Run it out

Eagles beat Rams, 28-22, in Divisional Round, 1.19.25

Saquon Barkley ran through the Rams and into the snow, and on LA's last possession, Jalen Carter sacked Matthew Stafford on third down, then rushed the quarterback's throw incomplete on fourth to ice it. 

The Eagles, in what ended up their closest game of the playoffs, were off to the NFC Championship.

Pile on

Eagles beat Commanders, 55-23, in NFC Championship, 1.26.25

The Commanders, behind rookie QB Jayden Daniels, rode a wave that took them into the playoffs, past a heavily injured Lions favorite, and to the NFC Championship against the Eagles. 

And Washington fans were feeling themselves leading up to that cold Sunday in Philly, believing that they finally had something under new owner Josh Harris (while Sixers fans sat there the whole time snickering).

This was an upset for the ages in the making, Washington fans thought, and they showed up for it in force to take over the sacred Philadelphia landmark of...the convention center Hard Rock...

Yeah, so anyway, Saquon Barkley ripped and spinned right through the Commanders' defense, and a Washington team that was praised for being so disciplined all year leading into the NFC title game suddenly couldn't hold onto the football anymore against Vic Fangio's defense, then imploded in humiliating fashion in the face of a goal line Tush Push, to the point where the refs told a roaring Linc that the Eagles would be awarded a touchdown if Frankie Luvu kept trying to jump the line. 

The Eagles were in a totally different class and embarrassed Washington with a 55-point downpour. 

And as this season showed, the Commanders never really recovered from that day.

Deliver the Dagger

Eagles beat Chiefs, 40-22, in Super Bowl LIX, 2.9.25

Two year prior, in Super Bowl LVII, Jalen Hurts played the game of his life, but the Eagles' defense couldn't get to Patrick Mahomes and just barely lost to the emerging Chiefs dynasty in the end.

Then the Birds got their rematch, with Mahomes and Kansas City on the doorstep of the NFL's first-ever three-peat.

For two weeks, many bought into the hype that the Chiefs were just this unstoppable goliath, and that, try as you might, Mahomes Magic would beat out anything in the end.

History was inevitable...except the Eagles never got that memo.

Against Vic Fangio's defense, Mahomes and the Chiefs never got the ball past midfield until late in the third quarter, when there was no coming back at that point down 34-0.

And when the Eagles had the ball, Kansas City was so terrified of Saquon Barkley burning them that they loaded up the box to ensure that he couldn't. They did succeed, just to get torched everywhere else as Jalen Hurts earned Super Bowl MVP honors. 

You can take your pick of your favorite moment – Cooper DeJean's pick six, Jalen Carter decking Mahomes with a palm to the face as the ball went flying free, Hurts and DeVonta Smith connecting on the Dagger – all of it added up to probably the most satisfying watch in Philly sports history. 

The Eagles' second-ever Super Bowl title was in the bag by the third quarter, the reserves were in with minutes still to go, and fans already had the party on Broad Street well underway back home. 

The Eagles brought a dream season complete, and brought the once untouchable Chiefs dynasty to ruin to do it.

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