Messi, Dolphins, Final Four: Our top 10 Miami sports stories of 2023 — a year like no other | Opinion

All of the gifts are unwrapped and put away. The champagne flutes are back on the shelf. We’re still saying Happy New Year but the holidays are officially over. The rush of days (and games) continue as always as we all lean into what’s next.

Take a minute, though.

Relive and appreciate the Happy Old Year and what a gift 2023 was for sports in Miami and South Florida. It was a year unlike any other. It fell a few wins short of nirvana — a year of getting close but falling short. Still, for sure, it was the most collective across-the-board cheering and high-fiving we had done as a community since the Heat and then-star LeBron James gave us our most recent major championship parade in 2013.

Not sure how you’d rank ‘em, but these are my top 10 South Florida sports stories of 2023:

1. The Messi-ah, Lionel Messi, signs with Inter Miami: We heard the speculation for a couple of years and it sounded ridiculous for as long. Of course Miami wanted Messi, but how on Earth might the interest be reciprocal? How could an MLS club largely unsuccessful in its first three seasons hope to land the biggest star in the biggest sport on the planet? When it happened, announced on July 15, it didn’t seem real. And it still doesn’t.

Messi coming to Miami and lifting an entire league and the regard and status of soccer in the United States was monumental. Sports illustrated dared name Deion Sanders its Sportsperson of the Year after his 4-8 season at Colorado. The honor should have gone to Messi, because Miami’s biggest story of 2023 also was that in American sports, a fairy tale come true. (Now we see if Messi and the star teammates drawn by him can win the championship that seems preordained.)

2. It has been dream season for Dolphins. But can they finish?: Miami’s flagship franchise is No. 1 in both NFL scoring and offensive yards for the first time since 1984. Fins are one win from their first AFC East title since 2008. Tua Tagovailoa and Tyreek Hill made 2023 the most exciting Dolphins season since Dan Marino’s prime. But can they finish what they started and reach the AFC Championship Game or, dare say, the Super Bowl?

3. Hurricanes, FAU reach men’s NCAA Final Four: The two semifinals were played on April 1, and it must have seemed an April Fool’s joke to college basketball traditionalists. Who were these interlopers from South Florida crashing the party? It was Madness! But yes it happened. Miami and Florida Atlantic in the hallowed Final Four for the first time. Each lost but both had arrived to an historic degree as college hoops mattered down here like never before. Nod to the UM women as well for making the Elite Eight for the first time.

4. Tkachuk leads Panthers to first Stanley Cup Final in 27 years: Newly acquired Matthew Tkachuk paid off fast with a 40-goal, 109-point, MVP finalist season that unexpectedly led No. 8 seed Florida to its first NHL Stanley Cup Final since 1996. The Cats lost to Vegas in June to fall short of a first championship; still, the season affirmed the rise of Panthers expectations to the level of a yearly playoff team and contender for Lord Stanley’s Cup.

5. Heat reaches NBA Finals, but fails to land Lillard: Miami in June reached its seventh league Finals in search of its fourth crown, falling short to Denver. But Jimmy Butler affirmed himself among the Heat’s all-time greats with a team-lifting postseason from a No. 8 seed that included 56 points in Finals Game 4. Portland star Damian Lillard then lobbied hard for an offseason trade to Miami but ended up getting dealt to East rival Milwaukee instead, a crushing blow to the Heat.

6. Marlins make playoffs, then flip the front office: Miami had its best regular season since 2009 led by Luis Arraez flirting with a .400 batting average and reached the postseason before quickly getting bounced in two October games by Philly. Two weeks later trailblazing general manager Kim Ng resigned when the club made it known it would reduce her control, and Peter Bendix arrived from Tampa in the president of baseball operations role that would have overseen Ng.

7. Canes’ Cristobal scores again in recruiting ... and needed to: Miami Hurricanes scored a second straight college football recruiting class ranked in the top six nationally to grow hopes for a rebound. Mario Cristobal’s UM homecoming has had a rough start: 5-7 in Year 1 and 7-6 this past season capped by the transfer of starting quarterback Tyler Van Dyke and subsequent 31-24 bowl loss to Rutgers.

8. Heat lifer Udonis Haslem retires: After 20 NBA seasons all with the Heat and three championships, Miami native U.D. retired from basketball at age 43 with a farewell season. He leaves as the club’s all-time leader in rebounds and second in games played despite a diminished role the last several years as he became a de facto assistant coach and respected O.G. mentor to younger players.

9. Japan, Ohtani win WBC crown in Miami: Japan led by Shohei Ohtani defeated the United States 3-2 in a riveting final to the World Baseball Classic last March at Marlins Park. With the Cuban national team’s appearance in Little Havana adding spice (and controversy), huge crowds filled the stadium with festive ambiance as Miami hosted games in all three rounds.

10. Coco Gauff wins U.S. Open singles title: Rising WTA tennis star Coco Gauff, 19, from Delray Beach in south Palm Beach County, won the U.S. Open women’s singles title over Aryna Sabalenka in September for her first career Grand Slam title. Gauff became the first American teenager to win the U.S. Open since Serena Williams in 1999.