Ridiculous joke
Referees or officials could sometimes dictate results of close games. Even in the NBA there are calls or no calls that could make a team win or lose. Here’s one of those. In the 1972 Munich Olympics, the heavily-favored USA basketball team suffered its first defeat after coming to Germany with seven consecutive gold medals. The Americans has won the gold since basketball was introduced to the Olympics in 1936.
They also racked a fantastic 63-0 record as they battered the opposition by an average of 23 points. The ‘72 squad had the likes of Bobby Jones, Doug Collins and Tom Mc Millen. In the finals, the US team battled the USSR for the gold. The Americans struggled and took its first lead at 50-49 with mere seconds to play. The Soviets inbounded but was deflected as time expired. USA has won again! But wait, the officials said there should have been three seconds on the clock and again allowed another play.
It looked like the officials would give the Soviets the extra three seconds for as long as it took them to shoot the winning field goal. The Russians heaved a full court throw to Alexander Belov who had two defenders on him. Belov knocked off the Americans for an easy lay up as time expired for the third time. USA protested and argued that Belov should have been whistled a foul for charging. Secondly, the inbounding passer stepped on the baseline while firing the key pass and thirdly, Belov was in the three-second lane for five seconds.
The Americans protest was however rejected. The stunned and disgusted US team refused to receive the silver medal for second place. It was a cruel and ridiculous joke. But did you know Belov was drafted by the New Orleans Jazz in the 10th round in 1975, but the Soviets didn’t allow him. Today there are several Russians playing in the NBA.
Did you know?
Charles Darrow, the man who invented a game called Monopoly made millions, James Naismith, who invented basketball, that had made millions for a lot of people, died with his house mortgaged.
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