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• Sale, Skubal win MLB's Cy Young Awards

  Detroit Tigers left-hander Tarik Skubal and Atlanta Braves lefty Chris Sale were each named the winner of their respective league’s Cy Young Award on Wednesday.

  The announcement was hardly a surprise after each ace won their league's pitching triple crown during the 2024 regular season.

  This is the first Cy Young for both pitchers.

  Skubal, who turned 28 on Wednesday, enjoyed a break-out year in his fourth full MLB season, and was a unanimous winner, receiving all 30 first-place votes in balloting by the Baseball Writers' Association of America. The Kansas City Royals' Seth Lugo finished second and Cleveland Guardians relief pitcher Emmanuel Clase finished third in the balloting, which was completed before the play-offs.

  Sale received 26 of 30 first-place votes, while Philadelphia Phillies right-hander Zack Wheeler finished second, ahead of Pittsburgh Pirates righty Paul Skenes, who was selected as the National League Rookie of the Year on Monday.

  The 35-year-old Sale has come close to winning the award before, finishing as runner-up to Cleveland's Corey Kluber in 2017, with five other top-five finishes in voting since his first full season in the majors in 2011.

  Since the inception of the Cy Young Award in 1956, there have been 16 pitchers to win his league's pitching crown. And now, every one of them has also won that year's Cy Young.

  Skubal and Sale each won an MLB-best 18 games, while Skubal led all pitchers with 228 strikeouts – three more than Sale. Sale's ERA of 2.38 was just a tick better than Skubal's 2.39.

  Both were dominant down the stretch in leading their teams to the play-offs, with Sale permitting two earned runs or fewer in each of his final 18 regular-season starts, though he was unable to pitch in the season final or the Braves' NL Wild-Card series loss to the San Diego Padres because of a back injury.

  Skubal posted a 1.94 ERA in his final nine outings, and then threw 13 shutout innings in his first two play-off starts in helping the Tigers surprisingly reach the American League Division Series. He ended up going 1-1 with a 2.37 ERA in three post-season starts.

  Skubal became the fifth Tiger to win the Cy Young trophy – and first since Max Scherzer in 2017 – and Sale is the fifth Brave to earn the award – and first since Hall of Famer Tom Glavine in 1998.

  Despite several close calls in Cy Young voting for Sale, he has dealt with injuries for the past five seasons, and was limited to a total of 151 innings over the past three years for the Boston Red Sox.

  In his first season with the Braves, however, he threw 177 2/3 innings and was awarded the NL Comeback Player of the Year Award last Thursday.

• Harden goes second in all-time 3-pointers list, does not expect to catch Curry

  James Harden may consider himself one of the most confident players in the NBA, but he does not expect to overhaul Stephen Curry's all-time 3-pointer record after going second in the charts.

  Curry made a pair of 3-pointers as the Los Angeles Clippers beat the Utah Jazz 116-105 on Sunday, finishing with 20 points, 11 assists and six rebounds.

  His first 3-pointer of the evening, made with around six minutes to go in the first quarter, was the 2,794th of his NBA career, the second-most in league history.

  Having surpassed Ray Allen's total of 2,973, Harden only trails Curry – who has hit 3,782 3-pointers ahead of his Golden State Warriors facing the Clippers on Monday.

  Asked about his feat after Sunday's game, Harden said: "Unbelievable accomplishment. It's just a testament to the amount of work that I've been putting in. 

  "As I get older and just chip away at an unbelievable career, I start to accomplish things like that. So I don't ever want to take it for granted.

  "I just want to give motivation to the youth and every other person that's chasing a dream to play professional basketball or whatever it is, so it's an honour."

  But when asked if Curry's mark was now within his sights, Harden – who is just a year younger than the all-time record holder – said nobody will ever take that honour, adding: "I'm one of the most confident guys that we have in this league, but no, I probably won't catch Steph.

  "I don't think anybody will honestly. He can shoot the s*** out of the ball. Granted a lot of these guys are on that list for being catch-and-shoot players, so they came off pindowns, they were spot shots or whatnot. 

  "Now, where the game has evolved, guys like Steph are coming off pindowns, he's creating off isos, he's coming off pick-and-rolls. 

  "There's so many different variables to be able to shoot the 3, make shots and do it at an efficient high level.

  "Somebody has to have an unbelievable career, shoot the ball well and make a lot of 3s. If it happens, it's going to be when we're not here anymore. So that'll be in there for a minute."

• Kerr recalls 'surreal' Thompson moment ahead of Curry reunion

  Golden State Warriors head coach Steve Kerr expressed deep emotions regarding Klay Thompson's return to the Bay Area, this time as a member of the Dallas Mavericks.

  Thompson finished with 22 points in an emotional return to Chase Center for the first time since he departed, though former team-mate Steph Curry stole the show. 

  Curry scored 37 points, including Golden State's final 12, to rally the Warriors past the Mavericks 120-117 in the NBA Cup on Tuesday.

  Thompson spent 13 successful years with Kerr in San Francisco, winning four NBA Championships. 

  After the game, Kerr revealed the surreal moment between himself and Curry before he went out to meet with his former “Splash Brother” Thompson. 

  "We went over our pre-game scout and the matchups,” Kerr said. “It was almost surreal saying, ‘Steph, you got Klay.’ Steph smiled.”

  In Thompson’s time in California, he was part of the core alongside Curry and Draymond Green, who also helped to bring so much success to the team.

  However, Thompson missed more than two years after suffering back-to-back injuries.

  First, an ACL tear and then a torn right Achilles tendon – before making a return in January 2022, with Kerr lauding his resilience to come back to the sport. 

  “I think what he overcame is almost unprecedented,” Kerr told reporters.

  “The last couple of years after he came back, he struggled reconciling all of that, losing those prime seasons. We all saw that, saw him struggle with it emotionally.

  "We saw him fight to get his game back. He helped us win a championship, led the league in threes two years ago, he did a lot of amazing things.

  “We wished that this had gone forever, that Klay would have finished his career with us, but circumstances always dictate these things.

  "In the end, I think he made the right choice. He was not happy and that was hard to see, because he deserves to be happy. At his core, he’s a very happy person.”