1972 Olympic Basketball Gold Medal Game - U.S. Refuses to Accept Defeat, Silver Medals

RoxSteady · Post #1 » by **RoxSteady** » Fri Sep 9, 2022 5:31 pm

I'd forgotten this story (a little before my time) which was recounted in the NY Times today... I actually don't have an opinion as to who the winner is; more that this game we're so invested in, is extremely vulnerable to the human error of refereeing.

But I'm curious to hear others' opinions.

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/09/sports/olympics/usa-soviet-union-olympics-basketball.html

Watch on YouTube

UcanUwill · Post #2 » by **UcanUwill** » Fri Sep 9, 2022 6:47 pm

Its funny, that in Soviet Union this game was remember as one of the greatest moments in sports history. Just only after I got internet, learned English, and Started hanging out with NBA crowd, I started to see the opposite side, America sees this game as one of the biggest cheats ever. Funny how it is, Soviets never talked that is in aany way could have been claimed by error of any kind, just a fair square victory.

RoxSteady · Post #3 » by **RoxSteady** » Fri Sep 9, 2022 6:59 pm

UcanUwill wrote:Its funny, that in Soviet Union this game was remember as one of the greatest moments in sports history. Just only after I got internet, learned English, and Started hanging out with NBA crowd, I started to see the opposite side, America sees this game as one of the biggest cheats ever. Funny how it is, Soviets never talked that is in aany way could have been claimed by error of any kind, just a fair square victory.

Thanks for sharing! At risk of sounding un-patriotic, I was kind of happy for the Russians watching the footage, while also feeling badly for the Americans.

Pelon chingon · Post #4 » by **Pelon chingon** » Fri Sep 9, 2022 7:09 pm

This is the first I've heard of this. Maybe some OG's came chim in and give us some context.

shakes0 · Post #5 » by **shakes0** » Fri Sep 9, 2022 7:09 pm

probably the biggest sporting result travesty in Olympic history. and that's saying something considering how many of those exist in Olympic history.

Heard Tom McMillan talking about it on NBA radio this week. The amount of grievous errors the refs and scoring table made in those final seconds is astronomical and can only be attributed to intentional cheating.

azcatz11 · Post #6 » by **azcatz11** » Fri Sep 9, 2022 7:13 pm

Pelon chingon wrote:This is the first I've heard of this. Maybe some OG's came chim in and give us some context.

I have never heard of this either and would appreciate context

shakes0 · Post #7 » by **shakes0** » Fri Sep 9, 2022 7:23 pm

azcatz11 wrote:
Pelon chingon wrote:This is the first I've heard of this. Maybe some OG's came chim in and give us some context.

I have never heard of this either and would appreciate context

USA won the game twice and both times the refs decided the game wasn't over and they had to replay the final few seconds. Did this 3x until USSR finally won. Also USSR used an illegal substitution when bringing in the guy who threw the inbounds pass. Ref incorrectly forced the USA player guarding the inbounds pass to back up off the line. And USSR player inbounding the ball stepped over the line when throwing the ball. There might've been an illegal time out as well, not sure.

There's gotta be some good docs on this on youtube. You should check it out. 50 years ago and it still upsets me when I see it.

LakersLegacy · Post #8 » by **LakersLegacy** » Fri Sep 9, 2022 7:37 pm

Pelon chingon wrote:This is the first I've heard of this. Maybe some OG's came chim in and give us some context.

Learned some bball history. Thanks for sharing. Good thread created

UcanUwill · Post #9 » by **UcanUwill** » Fri Sep 9, 2022 7:38 pm

shakes0 wrote:probably the biggest sporting result travesty in Olympic history. and that's saying something considering how many of those exist in Olympic history.

Heard Tom McMillan talking about it on NBA radio this week. The amount of grievous errors the refs and scoring table made in those final seconds is astronomical and can only be attributed to intentional cheating.

To me personally, biggest travesty in Basketball is Serbia vs Turkey, 2010, may be recency bias, but man that game, and I am not even Serbia fan, not at all, rather opposite. It is the only game I have ever seen were I really believe it might have been fixed.

shakes0 · Post #10 » by **shakes0** » Fri Sep 9, 2022 7:40 pm

UcanUwill wrote:
shakes0 wrote:probably the biggest sporting result travesty in Olympic history. and that's saying something considering how many of those exist in Olympic history.

Heard Tom McMillan talking about it on NBA radio this week. The amount of grievous errors the refs and scoring table made in those final seconds is astronomical and can only be attributed to intentional cheating.

To me personally, biggest travesty in Basketball is Serbia vs Turkey, 2010, may be recency bias, but man that game, and I am not even Serbia fan, not at all, rather opposite. It is the only game I have ever seen were I really believe it might have been fixed.

don't know anything about that game. What happened and how was it more outrageous than the USA/USSR game. Was Serbia vs Turkey even for a medal?

UcanUwill · Post #11 » by **UcanUwill** » Fri Sep 9, 2022 7:57 pm

shakes0 wrote:
UcanUwill wrote:
shakes0 wrote:probably the biggest sporting result travesty in Olympic history. and that's saying something considering how many of those exist in Olympic history.

Heard Tom McMillan talking about it on NBA radio this week. The amount of grievous errors the refs and scoring table made in those final seconds is astronomical and can only be attributed to intentional cheating.

To me personally, biggest travesty in Basketball is Serbia vs Turkey, 2010, may be recency bias, but man that game, and I am not even Serbia fan, not at all, rather opposite. It is the only game I have ever seen were I really believe it might have been fixed.

don't know anything about that game. What happened and how was it more outrageous than the USA/USSR game. Was Serbia vs Turkey even for a medal?

It was world cup semi final, that was taken place in Turkey. Even before that game, conspiracy people were talking how FIBA will get host nation into the finals to play USA, but what actually happened at the end of that game, kinda confirms that. Just a baffling referee decisions that favored turkey, they didn't call a very obvious out of bounds when Turkish PG makes a game winner, while trailing by 1 before hand. Just several seconds before that, Turkey awarded by a complete BS and one. Serbia with 1 second remaining draws a fantastic foul but its a no call, And Infamous Asik eye injury happens in that game, where he is fouled, and needs to made 2 crucial FTs, but he supposedly gets injured, and they allow Turkey to sub in different player to shoot FTs.

FIBA always had the worst refs, and we always had blunders that generate an outrage, to a point FIBA needs to admit mistakes while coaches demand to replay entire games. Those crap plays happen all the time in FIBA, but in that game, Serbia seriously was handed with 4 plays like that just in the last 30 seconds, it was a joke. And I wasnt cheering for Serbians, but when you watch sports, you want to se fairness and real winners not manufactured winners by ref mistakes. Thats what it was, if we believe those the genuine mistakes, cause it was shady as hell.

shakes0 · Post #12 » by **shakes0** » Fri Sep 9, 2022 8:03 pm

UcanUwill wrote:
shakes0 wrote:
UcanUwill wrote:
To me personally, biggest travesty in Basketball is Serbia vs Turkey, 2010, may be recency bias, but man that game, and I am not even Serbia fan, not at all, rather opposite. It is the only game I have ever seen were I really believe it might have been fixed.

don't know anything about that game. What happened and how was it more outrageous than the USA/USSR game. Was Serbia vs Turkey even for a medal?

It was world cup semi final, that was taken place in Turkey. Even before that game, conspiracy people were talking how FIBA will get host nation into the finals to play USA, but what actually happened at the end of that game, kinda confirms that. Just a baffling referee decisions that favored turkey, they didn't call a very obvious out of bounds when Turkish PG makes a game winner, while trailing by 1 before hand. Just several seconds before that, Turkey awarded by a complete BS and one. Serbia with 1 second remaining draws a fantastic foul but its a no call, And Infamous Asik eye injury happens in that game, where he is fouled, and needs to made 2 crucial FTs, but he supposedly gets injured, and they allow Turkey to sub in different player to shoot FTs.

FIBA always had the worst refs, and we always had blunders that generate an outrage, to a point FIBA needs to admit mistakes while coaches demand to replay entire games. Those crap plays happen all the time in FIBA, but in that game, Serbia seriously was handed with 4 plays like that just in the last 30 seconds, it was a joke. And I wasnt cheering for Serbians, but when you watch sports, you want to se fairness and real winners not manufactured winners by ref mistakes. Thats what it was, if we believe those the genuine mistakes, cause it was shady as hell.

what does any of that have to do with the Olympics? No reason to derail the thread.

That said, it doesn't sound like that was even close to as egregious as the USA/USSR game.

UcanUwill · Post #13 » by **UcanUwill** » Fri Sep 9, 2022 8:27 pm

shakes0 wrote:

what does any of that have to do with the Olympics? No reason to derail the thread.

That said, it doesn't sound like that was even close to as egregious as the USA/USSR game.

Sorry, just wanted to say, that when it comes to basketball, I have seen bigger travesties. FIBA is prone to this, it is too easy to get FIBA license for a ref, and since they are at war with Euroleague, they never use best international refs, because they are tied with Euroleague

Lalouie · Post #14 » by **Lalouie** » Fri Sep 9, 2022 10:18 pm

burleson and mcmillen, two gloriously overrated centers, and easy ed yet another in a long long line of overrated tark players. tark and mcguire made a career out of dispensing busts to the nba.

a team led by a legendary COLLEGE coach who got caught stupefied in a moment in history and did not protect the long pass.

from where i was sitting we deserved the loss. it was more of a smh moment. and iba was a dumb@**

but it served a greater good, ie the game was expending. it was the nascent event in basketball achieving global success. similar to houston's lucky win showing the country that college basketball did indeed exist outside of UCLA

Lalouie · Post #15 » by **Lalouie** » Fri Sep 9, 2022 10:20 pm

Mags FTW · Post #16 » by **Mags FTW** » Fri Sep 9, 2022 10:31 pm

shakes0 wrote:probably the biggest sporting result travesty in Olympic history. and that's saying something considering how many of those exist in Olympic history.

It's Roy Jones for me.

Watch on YouTube

Flash Falcon X · Post #17 » by **Flash Falcon X** » Fri Sep 9, 2022 10:33 pm

Used to always see this story on TV back in the early/mid 2000s. Makes you wonder how the reaction/backlash would be in the social media area.

mastermixer · Post #18 » by **mastermixer** » Fri Sep 9, 2022 10:35 pm

I would have to rewatch the footage. But I remember there was a doc that tried to present both sides of the story.

The USSR side basically tried to say that they were in fact calling a time out out, but you had to use an electronic buzzer (that led to the scorers table) to call a time-out and that their buzzer was malfunctioning as they were yelling for a time out. The (grainy) footage basically backed that up. And that’s why the refs choose to replay the the last few seconds.

Not saying I agree with that. Just going off memory, that was basically the USSR side to show it wasn’t a conspiracy.

Roy Jones jr getting robbed out his boxing gold was also Olympic tragedy worth checking out.

Watch on YouTube

Nate505 · Post #19 » by **Nate505** » Sat Sep 10, 2022 12:25 am

It was a complete and total screw job. Good for the players for not accepting those medals

Mr Puddles · Post #20 » by **Mr Puddles** » Sat Sep 10, 2022 1:43 am

Nate505 wrote:It was a complete and total screw job. Good for the players for not accepting those medals

It was clearly a screw-up from the refs, clearly, but it still seems childish to not show up for the medal ceremony. It's not like this is the first time in sports history that the refs made a mistake. If every team that felt wronged by the refs didn't show up for the medal ceremony we'd be looking at a lot of empty stages.

At the end of the day, the US made a tactical error on that last inbound play and ended up losing the game - even with the refs' screw-up they still had the lead with three seconds to go, they have themselves to blame for defending that last play poorly.

I understand the geopolitical situation at the time adds more context to this, but it seems childish and salty to not show up IMO.