LEADING OFF

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Photograph by Greg Nelson

AZURE THING Against a backdrop of blue-shirted fans at Oklahoma City Arena, guard James Harden leaped to keep a ball inbounds during Game 2 of the Thunder's Western Conference semis with the Grizzlies on May 3. Harden had 21 points and five assists in OKC's 111--102 victory, but at week's end Memphis held a 2--1 advantage in the best-of-seven series.

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Photograph by Fred Thornhill/Reuters

NIKONIC IMAGE Seen through any other lens, Adam Lind's fifth-inning fly ball in Toronto last Friday might have seemed routine. Against the centerfield backdrop at the Rogers Centre, Lind's poke, hauled in by the Tigers' Austin Jackson, assumed larger-than-life dimensions.

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Photograph by Jacqueline Duvoisin

SEVE BALLESTEROS 1957--2011 The dashing Spaniard burst onto the scene at age 19 with a second-place finish at the 1976 British Open, and for the next two decades he infused his sport with joy, flair and creativity (POINT AFTER, page 70). Ballesteros, pictured here at the '86 British Open at Turnberry, won five majors—the British in '79, '84 and '88 and the Masters in '80 and '83—but his proudest achievement may have been captaining Europe to a Ryder Cup victory on Spanish soil in 1997. He died of a brain tumor last Saturday at age 54.