Must-see sports moments of the week: Podolski's stunner ends fairytale career

There were plenty of eye-catching sporting moments from the past week, including a fairytale ending to a German footballer’s international career and a clutch moments during a college basketball game. Yahoo Singapore picks out a selection.

Podolski signs off international career with stunner

If you have been selected to represent your country over 100 times, you must be a pretty good player. That definitely rings true for Lukas Podolski, who amassed 130 caps over 12 years of his international career.

But in that very last appearance, which came in an international friendly against England, Podolski showed once more what he is still capable of despite being 31.

The game was decided by his 69th minute strike, the only one of the game, and it was a spectacular effort to say the least. Receiving the ball 30 yards out, the former Bayern Munich and Arsenal striker swivelled before slamming a thunderous left-footed effort into the top corner.

It was his 49th international goal too, putting him in third amongst Germany’s all-time top scorers.

That’s surely an incredible way to bow out.

Astonishing college basketball buzzer-beater

Speaking of fairytale endings, a college basketball team had one of their own in the quarter-finals of a state tournament.

With mere seconds to go in the game, both Champlin Park and Chaska were tied at 50 each. Champlin Park had the possession of the ball, but an attempted pull-up jumper from guard McKinley Wright was off the mark.

Both teams tried to grab a rebound before a Chaska player tipped the ball outside of the restricted area in a bid to get the ball away as far from his team’s basket as possible.

But the ball was picked up by Champlin’s Sam Dubois at the three-point line, and Dubois had to hoist an off-balance shot with just one hand given that there was less than a second left on the shot clock. As the buzzer sounded, the ball swished through the basket, leading to frantic celebrations the Champlin Park team.

There’s never a better way to win a game of basketball.

Free-throws are never free

Free throws are generally looked upon as freebies, given that it is the easiest way to get points on board.

Not for Andre Roberson though. The shooting guard had a free-throw percentage of 49.5 per cent for his career, and is shooting it at 42.5 per cent this season. In a game against the Golden State Warriors on Monday, he showed exactly why by missing the only two attempts he had at the line.

In his first attempt, he bricked his attempt by shooting it against the backboard, as well as airballing his put-back attempt. He proceeded to follow that up with an air-ball in his second free-throw attempt, missing the rim completely with a high, awkward-looking arc on his shot.

Roberson definitely needs some shooting practice.

Reptilian invader at tennis game

There are various ways to halt a tennis game, but halting it because of an iguana sitting on the scoreboard is probably one of the rarest ways.

That is what happened in the Miami Open on Wednesday (March 22), when a game between Tommy Haas and Jiri Vesely’s game was stopped because of this little intruder.

The game was stopped because Vesely said he was unable to concentrate, while attempts to chase the iguana proved to be tough initially. ATP World Tour veteran Haas, however, saw the funny side of things and even snapped a selfie with the creature, much to the delight of the crowd.

Shortly after, the iguana started sprint across the court, possibly its own version of a victory lap, before officials caught it and carried it off the court with towels wrapped around it.

Who knew iguanas were that playful?

Reminds us of a reptilian encounter that golfer Cody Gribble had last week.

Fights, fights, and more fights

Who knew playing basketball can turn out so feisty? But that was what happened, as three games over the past week in the NBA saw players coming together. And the biggest of the lot was the one that happened in a game between the Chicago Bulls and the Toronto Raptors, with punches being thrown.

Bulls centre Robin Lopez and Serge Ibaka had a little exchange initially as they contested for a rebound with a less than four minutes in the third quarter. Ibaka appeared to elbow Lopez in the back slightly, and that sparked the whole frenzy.

Teammates and officials struggled to pull the two big men apart, and both threw punches at each other. Unsurprisingly, they were both ejected out of the game.

In other matches, the Golden State Warriors and Oklahoma City Thunder had a mini-scuffle, while the Los Angeles Lakers and Milwaukee Bucks game saw two ejections after several players started shoving each other.