Must-see sports moments of the week: LeBron James blows an open dunk

There were plenty of eye-catching sporting moments from the past week, including a missed dunk from LeBron James and the shortest press conference ever held. Yahoo Singapore picks out a selection.

The King messes up

Widely regarded as the best player in the NBA today, LeBron James showed that even the best can mess it up once in a while.

In Game Four of the NBA Eastern Conference finals between James’ Cleveland Cavaliers and the Boston Celtics, James made a huge blooper – by blowing an open dunk. He was trying to slam it in tomahawk style with force, but the ball came off the rim instead.

That came after teammate Kevin Love made a peach of a pass from the other end of the court to present James with the easy chance. That could have given the Cavs the lead, with Boston up 69-68 with four minutes to go in the third quarter.

Of course, James did have the last laugh, scoring 34 points to redeem himself (as if he needed to do so) and helped his team to a 112-99 victory. The Cavs now lead the Celtics 3-1 in the best of seven series.

Shortest press conference ever?

Post-match press conferences usually last for at least five minutes. But following Manchester United’s win against Crystal Palace on Sunday, Jose Mourinho probably set a new record for the shortest press conference ever.

It took just 24 seconds from the time the Portuguese manager walked into the media room until he walked out. With just three journalists in the room (and a number of empty chairs), it looked like the journalists weren’t settled down yet before Mourinho decided that the press conference was over.

The only three words he muttered throughout? “Good” and “bye guys”.

It was revealed later that journalists at the match were still watching United players do a lap of honour when Mourinho decided to go into the press conference room. And nope, Mourinho never returned.

Kevin Durant’s vicious block

In Game Four of the Western Conference Finals against the Golden State Warriors, Dejounte Murray had the ball had a clear path to the hoop.

It looked as though the fast break would result in an easy basket for the guard, but Warriors’ Kevin Durant had other ideas. Out of nowhere, the forward came from behind to block Murray’s attempt as he rose for a lay-up – and he blocked it not just once, but twice, completely destroying the shot attempt.

After tapping the ball against the backboard with his right hand, Durant then slammed the ball with his left hand against the backboard once more.

The Warriors clinched the series with a win in that game, and we are pretty sure Murray is happy at the thought that he won’t be facing Durant again until the next season commences.

50-yard own goal

If you’re think you’re having a bad day, you will probably reconsider after watching Fikayo Tomori’s own goal at the Under-20 World Cup.

The England and Chelsea defender suffered the humiliation of scoring the own goal in the match against Guinea from just outside the centre circle after displaying poor awareness around the pitch. To make matters worst, all but one of the opposition’s players were in their own half when the own goal was scored.

England were up by a goal and were stroking the ball around comfortably as they tried to open up Guinea in the 59th minute. But as the ball came towards Tomori, one of the Guinea strikers made an attempt to close him down.

While there was still some space between him and the striker, Tomori elected to pass the ball backwards without turning to look where goalkeeper Dean Henderson was. As it turned out, Henderson was way outside his area, and Tomori had hit the ball nowhere near him.

Henderson did make a last-ditched attempt to save the ball, but the odds was always against him given how hard Tomori had hit it. As the ball rolled into the empty net, Tomori had a look of disgust on his face.

That goal also cost England two valuable points, as they failed to score another goal to clinch the victory.

The greatest shot in table tennis?

This has got to be one of the best shots in table tennis ever recorded on video.

Adam Bobrow, an American who has been commentating on International Table Tennis Federation games, made this ridiculous shot that left his opponent stunned for words.

According to his Instagram caption, the shot came in the fifth and final game. Bobrow was given a wide serve and he allowed the ball to drop close to the floor. He then hit a backhand and put some spin on it with force – sending it under the net over to his opponent’s side, who was caught unaware.

That, is nothing but amazing.