PGA Championship predictions, odds 2021: Jon Rahm, Jordan Spieth, Rory McIlroy picks from PGA insider

The 2021 PGA Championship starts Thursday from Kiawah Island, and the top golfers in the world will be in attendance. The 2021 PGA Championship field features former winners like Rory McIlroy, who fired a bogey-free Sunday and won by eight strokes at this very same venue nine years ago. Also among the top 2021 PGA Championship contenders will be Collin Morikawa, who fired a 13-under to win last year at TPC Harding Park and turned 24 just three months ago.

McIlroy is the 10-1 favorite according to the latest 2021 PGA Championship odds from William Hill Sportsbook, while Morikawa is 22-1. Dustin Johnson and Jon Rahm are 12-1 and near the top of the PGA Championship odds 2021. Before you lock in any 2021 PGA Championship picks or PGA Tour predictions, you need to see who golf insider

Kobe, 'still winning,' inducted with KG, Duncan

8:48 PM ET

Tim BontempsESPN

Vanessa Bryant, the wife of the late Kobe Bryant, accepted her husband’s admission into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame Saturday night on his behalf, saying that he’s still winning even after he’s gone.

“I used to always avoid praising my husband in public because I felt like he got enough praise from his fans around the world and someone had to bring him back to reality,” Vanessa Bryant said at the Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, Connecticut. “Right now, I’m sure he’s laughing in heaven because I’m about to praise him in public for his accomplishments on one of the most public stages. I can see him now, arms folded, with a huge grin saying, ‘Isn’t this some s—?’

“He’s still winning.”

The 2020 Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame class is one of the most star-studded of all time, led by Bryant and fellow NBA legends

Warriors' Curry claims 2nd career scoring title

5:39 PM ET

SAN FRANCISCO — Golden State Warriors star Stephen Curry is the NBA’s scoring king for the 2020-21 season.

An 11-foot floater late in the first quarter of Sunday’s 113-101 win over the Memphis Grizzlies gave Curry enough points to clinch the scoring title over Washington Wizards All-Star Bradley Beal.

After Beal scored 25 points in Sunday’s 115-110 win over the Charlotte Hornets to finish with a season average of 31.3 points per game, Curry needed only three points to take the scoring crown, which he accomplished with a pair of field goals, including the clincher with 3:24 to play in the first.

The former MVP left little doubt by game’s end. Curry attempted a career-high 36 shots, including a career-high 22 3-pointers, en route to a 46-point game. He ends the season with 11 40-point games, just one shy of Michael Jordan’s record for the most by any player in his

Magic act: Wizards lock No. 8 seed for play-in

6:08 PM ET

Andrew LopezESPN

For months, the 2020-21 season looked like it would be a lost one for the Washington Wizards. There were injuries early on, rumors swirling about a Bradley Beal trade and eventually, COVID-19-related absences that took the Wizards off the floor for nearly two weeks.

The Wizards were 17-32 on the morning of April 7. That’s when ESPN’s Basketball Power Index gave them just a 4% chance of even making the play-in tournament.

However, things started to change, as the Wizards won 17 of their final 23 games, culminating in a 115-110 come-from-behind win over the Charlotte Hornets on Sunday to lock up the No. 8 seed in the Eastern Conference play-in tournament.

“We went through those rough periods we had and we came out stronger for it,” said Wizards center Robin Lopez, who finished with 18 points Sunday.

Now, a team that didn’t look like it had a viable chance

Kyrie: My focus on violence overseas, not hoops

8:36 AM ET

ESPN News Services

The Brooklyn Nets are about to begin their postseason pursuit of an NBA championship, but Kyrie Irving says he’s currently focused on issues other than basketball.

Irving declined to answer game-related questions Saturday after Brooklyn’s 105-91 victory over the Chicago Bulls and made multiple references to the ongoing violence between Israel and Palestine.

“I’m not going to lie to you guys, a lot of stuff is going on in this world, and basketball is just not the most important thing to me right now,” Irving said. “There’s a lot of things going on overseas. All our people are still in bondage across the world, and there’s a lot of dehumanization going on.

“So I apologize if I’m not going to be focused on y’all’s questions. It’s just too much going on in the world for me to just be talking about basketball. I focus on this most of

Knicks clinch No. 4 seed, set up series vs. Hawks

5:32 PM ET

Tim BontempsESPN

After leading the New York Knicks not only to their first playoff appearance in eight years, but also securing the fourth seed in the Eastern Conference with a 96-92 win over the Boston Celtics, Julius Randle said he isn’t interested in discussing how far the Knicks have exceeded their lowly preseason expectations.

“It didn’t matter then and it doesn’t matter now,” said Randle after finishing with 20 rebounds, seven assists and seven rebounds in Sunday’s win over the Celtics. “People really didn’t believe in us at the start of the season … it’s about what we believe in the locker room.”

And, after a season in which the Knicks have repeatedly defied expectations, they feel confident they can continue to do so in the postseason. They’ll have homecourt advantage in the first round of the playoffs against the No. 5 seed Atlanta Hawks.

But while everyone in Gotham was

Middleton to miss regular-season finale vs. Bulls

4:16 PM ET

Associated Press

CHICAGO — Milwaukee Bucks star Khris Middleton will miss the regular-season finale against the Chicago Bulls because of a sore left ankle.

Middleton, averaging 20.4 points, was ruled out Sunday after scoring 21 points the previous night in a win over Miami. The two-time All-Star is missing his fourth game this season.

The Bucks began the day a game behind Brooklyn for the No. 2 seed in the Eastern Conference playoffs. They needed a win over the Bulls plus a loss by the Nets to the Cleveland Cavaliers to clinch the second seed. Otherwise, they would finish third in the East.

Milwaukee had won three straight and eight of nine entering Sunday’s game.

The Bulls held out stars Zach LaVine (right knee tendinitis) and Nikola Vucevic (rest) as well as Daniel Theis (sprained right hip), Tomas Satoransky (sprained left ankle) and Troy Brown Jr. (sprained left ankle).

Chicago was eliminated from

A look back at the Steelers week that was from a black-and-gold mind: Schedule and Rookie Minicamp edition


Denver Broncos v Pittsburgh Steelers
Photo by Joe Sargent/Getty Images

BTSC’s random thought renegade is back with his bizarre look at the Steelers week that was.

With Draft Week over, things calmed down a bit in Steelers Nation. But BTSC continues their recap of the past week’s events for our readers. But where they went wrong was asking the one narcissistic writer that would put a bizarre spin on it to do it. So let’s all take a look at a BAD week in the Burgh together.

Monday 5/11

  • The Saints announced the signing of Sutton Smith, the Steelers sixth-round pick of the 2019 draft. Smith was a linebacker that will now compete at fullback for New Orleans. That’s it. The Steelers had that rare occasion when a sixth rounder didn’t stick. I can see the #firecolbert campaign starting already.
  • Ravens corner Marlon Humphrey described on social media constantly being able to hear Ben Roethlisberger tell receivers what routes to run. It looks like 7, 19, 11, 18 and the crew need to work on their sign language skills. In fact, when it comes to Humphrey and the Ravens…I can suggest the perfect single-digited gesture to wave at these guys.

Tuesday 5/12

  • Devin Bush was one of the many that voiced disbelief on “the tweeter” that Tim Tebow is back in the league as a tight end for his college coach, Urban Meyer, in Jacksonville. Bush’s dismay stems from Tebow getting a NFL return before Kaepernick. If Kaep can play corner, call him up.

Wednesday 5/13

  • The NFL scheduled their slate of games to be announced to the public at 8 PM on this day. But in all actuality, they kept leaking dates throughout the day making the actual drop anticlimactic. It’s like finding out what your Christmas presents were from that hack Ian Rappaport on Twitter. Accept Ian would report that you’d be getting an Xbox and in reality you’d receive sweat socks.
  • The schedule for the Steelers featured five Prime Time games and no holidays. That’s good, but the bye week should have been later. Nothing that we can do about that now. But my biggest issue with the schedule is having to watch the Browns on Christmas Day. Nothing can bring the Christmas ham back for a regurgitated performance more than having to look at Baker Mayfield and Myles Garrett. Still glad the Steelers aren’t playing though.

Thursday 5/14

  • The Steelers official jersey numbers for their rookie class came out today. As expected, Najee Harris is wearing No. 22. In our BTSC digit challenge, I defeated Michael Beck by the score of 4 to 2. Beck now has to buy me a Buddy Johnson jersey or surrender his first born.

Friday

  • Rookies reported and Najee Harris is already a character, mistaking the Steelers for boosters. When I think of the Steelers media, I’m more inclined to associating them with needing booster shots.

This was the significant week that was for the Steelers, mixed-in with my binge watching and black-and-gold loving life. I’m sure next week will be full of Steelers happenings as well, so we’ll have to do this again. Have a great week, but better yet have a BAD one.

Patriots 2021 schedule: Three spots where Mac Jones could leap Cam Newton as New England's starter

Getty Images

The New England Patriots will eventually make the switch from Cam Newton to Mac Jones, the club’s first-round selection in the 2021 NFL Draft. That’s inevitable given the lofty draft capital the organization has already put in the Alabama product. The big question, however, is when that switch will take place. While the only person with even the slightest inkling of when he may pull the trigger on such a team-altering decision is Bill Belichick (and he may not know for sure yet), the release of New England’s 2021 regular-season schedule does give us an opportunity to throw a couple of darts at the 17-game slate and theorize when a change could come. 

Of course, this is mere speculation at this point in the process as nothing that happens in May will truly shift that top

Warriors' Stephen Curry beats out Wizards' Bradley Beal to win second NBA scoring title

Getty Images

After an intense battle that raged for the entire season, Stephen Curry has officially clinched the scoring title over Bradley Beal, who only managed to put up 25 points in the Washington Wizards‘ win over the Charlotte Hornets. Due to Beal’s relatively low total, Curry only needed three points to lock up the scoring race and took care of that in the first quarter of the Golden State Warriors matchup with the Memphis Grizzlies. 

Beal would have beaten Curry in any other season, but this was something of a career year for the Golden State Warriors guard. He may not win MVP or compete for the championship, but that scoring total is now the highest of his career, beating out his historic 2015-16 season in which he averaged 30.1 points per game. The amazing thing about Curry’s