1972 Olympic Basketball Final

[harry hooker]

Just watched a documentary on this game on sky and found it fascinating. I know next to nothing about basketball and knew nothing about this. It is not a popular sport in England. Was wondering if anyone on here can give me an insight into how big a deal it was at the time. The respective players certainly haven't forgiven and forgotten.

[SavvySwede]

Never heard about the game before but was surprised when I searched online. I've always heard about the "miracle on ice" victory in 1980 but this equally compelling loss seems to have been erased from my generations' history books. USA! USA! USA!

[MyrtleBeachGolf]

I wasn't alive yet at that time, but I have seen the documentaries on it. Seems like a solid mix of sheer confusion and a one-sided officiating crew against the U.S. Team. The players from that team certainly don't consider themselves the silver medalists. It's an interesting story.

[harry hooker]

The players themselves are certainly still very bitter. Russians too . Strange times.

[boogielicious]

Just watched a documentary on this game on sky and found it fascinating. I know next to nothing about basketball and knew nothing about this. It is not a popular sport in England. Was wondering if anyone on here can give me an insight into how big a deal it was at the time. The respective players certainly haven't forgiven and forgotten.

It was a big deal, but it was one of many horrific things that happened at that Olympics. All were really eclipsed by the Israeli athletes that were murdered by the PLO.

There was rampant cheating by judges in judged sports like gymnastics, diving and boxing. In boxing, a soviet boxer won a bout against an American. What was odd was the Russian had to be helped to stand up at the finish because he was so thoroughly beaten.

The basketball game was just another grand example. US college players against Soviet professionals. Back then, most countries had only amateur athletes competing. Eastern bloc countries were basically professional.

The East Germans had begun there steroid program and had women that were the size of most of the men.

The other sort of non-sport change that happened at this Olympics was the US broadcast went from actually just showing sports to starting all the close up and personal crap that is rampant now. Jim McKay had the hots for Olga Korbut. They spent way too much time on her.

[onthehunt526]

The 1972 United States Men's Olympic Basketball Team will NEVER accept the silver medals they earned in Munich, period.   I don't even think the twelve men on that team will let the USOC accept the silver medals in their behalf...

Basically the Soviets got away with taking an illegal timeout, because in FIBA rules there is no such thing as a live ball timeout... Simply put Doug Collins got fouled with 3 seconds remaining, the Soviet coach pressed his buzzer to request a timeout... After Doug Collins made the first free throw to tie the game at 50, there was a horn during his shooting motion for the second free throw, he never broke his motion and made the free throw, then all hell broke loose, the Soviets got three chances to win the game... Basically..  The way the situation was handled by the officials, was the reason the U.S. will not accept their silver medals... 

The proper procedure under FIBA rules would have simply been one of two scenarios:

A)Disallow Collins free throw and grant the Soviet Timeout.

or

B)Ignore the timeout request.

With option A Collins would have re-taken the second free throw...

But I suppose the scorer didn't ask when the Soviets wanted the timeout, before the first free throw or in between... There was a gross lack of communication there.

I think that without the miscommunication and the total amount of one-sided officiating, the US would have won their 8th Consecutive Gold Medal in Munich.

Edited November 24, 2015 by onthehunt526
Deleted text

[mcanadiens]

That was five years before I was born, but it was one of those events that went down in history as a travesty. I agree with @boogielicious, that and several other events really diminished how we view the Olympics. 

 

[rkim291968]

I watched the same documentary years ago.   40 years later, a similar heartbreaking event took place in London Olympics in women's fencing event:

In this case, 1 second left in the clock mysteriously turned into many, many seconds.   

 

[vangator]

I watched that Olympic game live.  I haven't seen the documentary.  The US won the first two times and lost when the Russians were given a third try.  I still like the idea of having amatuers competing.