LEADING OFF

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Photograph by John W. McDonough

KEY PARTY What makes Bulls center Joakim Noah, the NBA's second-leading rebounder, so effective in the paint? Maybe his disregard for the comfort of opponents and teammates: that's Noah's forearm in the neck of the Lakers' Ron Artest and his elbow in the face of Chicago's Taj Gibson in Los Angeles on Nov. 23. Noah wound up with a game-high 13 boards, but the Bulls lost 98--91.

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Photograph by Karl Walter/Getty Images

STEVIE WONDERS Bills receiver Steve Johnson pondered what might have been after a game-winning touchdown pass slipped out of his hands in overtime against the Steelers on Sunday. Buffalo lost 19--16, and afterward Johnson, who said he was "devastated," questioned a higher power that's normally a source of comfort. "I PRAISE YOU 24/7!!!!!!," he tweeted. "AND THIS HOW YOU DO ME!!!!!"

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Photograph by Emmanuel Dunand/AFP/Getty Images

GATE EXPECTATIONS Steven Nyman of the U.S. led off the 2010--11 season on Nov. 24 with his first downhill training run at Lake Louise, Canada, the opening stop on the World Cup circuit. Austria's Michael Walchhofer won the downhill, with Nyman finishing 38th. Bode Miller, in eighth place, was the top U.S. skier.

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Photograph by Manny Millan

FROM THE VAULT QUITTING TIME Thanksgiving was the 30th anniversary of an iconic boxing moment: The No Màs fight, when Sugar Ray Leonard regained his welterweight title with a TKO of Roberto Duran. Leonard wore down the champ with his mobility and threw in tricks like this one in the seventh, when he wound up to throw a bolo punch with his right hand and then clocked Duran with a left jab. One round later Duran told the referee he'd had enough. Said Leonard, "To make a man quit, to make a Roberto Duran quit, was better than knocking him out."