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35 years since the ultimate screw job

Discussion in 'Sports and News' started by kingcreole, Sep 10, 2007.

  1. kingcreole

    kingcreole Active Member

    Just saw SportsCentury's piece on the 1972 Olympic gold medal basketball game.

    Let me see if I get the facts straight regarding the last three seconds:

    1. Timeouts could be called prior to the first or second free throws. But once the ball is in the shooter's hands, a timeout could not be called. Now, you can clearly hear the horn sound for a free throw when Collins has the ball. After Collins hit the winning free throw, the Soviets bitched that they tried to call a timeout. It should not have been awarded since the ball was clearly in Collins' hands when the horn sounded.

    But let's say for a moment the officials decided that indeed the Soviets had called timeout, which obviously they did. Collins' second free throw should have been negated and he should have returned to the line with the score 49-49.

    2. Some dicksmack international basketball official said the Soviets deserved three more seconds. I would guess this would be like David Stern going courtside to overrule a decision the refs made.

    3. Before the second attempt, the referees handed the ball to the Soviets before the clock was set. So the clock was not set, which is a legit complaint, but as you could tell the Soviets didn't score within three seconds. The screwed up clock had nothing to do with the Soviets' inability to score. Basically, the referees screwed up royally.

    4. Hindsight is 20-20, but the Americans should have walked off the floor before the third try. I am thoroughly convinced that the referees were going to continue to allow the Soviets to try until they won.

    5. The Americans rightfully protested. The vote before a committee was 3-2, Soviet Union. The three who voted for the Soviets were communist Romania, Cuba, Hungary, while Puerto Rico and Italy favored the United States.

    I'm glad the Americans have never claimed their silver medals. Even in some of their wills, they say nobody is allowed to claim the medal. There has never been a total fuck job like this.
     
  2. spnited

    spnited Active Member

    And the US has been getting fucked by international officials in every game they've played since [/starman]



    This was, indeed, ther biggest screwing ever. It's also ancient history.
     
  3. IU90

    IU90 Member

    Don't even get starman started on this one.
     
  4. kingcreole

    kingcreole Active Member

    "Those who forget the past are condemned to repeat it."

    OK, enough bullshit cliches. It was interesting to see the game on Classic, though. That Soviet team was actually pretty good, and it seems with better coaching, the USA likely would have run the Soviets off the floor.

    And I have to admit ... watching the final three seconds made me wish I could hear starman ...
     
  5. DanOregon

    DanOregon Well-Known Member

    Even if you take away the massacre (and no disrespect is intended), the 1972 Olympics was one of the most memorable ever between Olga Korbut, Mark Spitz, Frank Shorter, the hoops team, Steve Prefontaine finishing 4th, I'm sure a few future pros were on the boxing team.
     
  6. buckweaver

    buckweaver Active Member

    Meanwhile, on USSRSportsJournalists.com, a new thread was just started: Miracle On Parquet--35 Years Later, Do You Believe In Babushka?
     
  7. Boomer7

    Boomer7 Active Member

    Point No. 3 above is a non-starter. The clock read 50 seconds when the Soviets inbounded the ball for a second time. The officials couldn't let that play continue or stand for obvious reasons -- which is why it's wrong when people say "the Russians had three chances to score."

    The only injustice -- and it's a massive one -- is the FIBA guy coming out of the stands to put time back on the clock. Totally unprecedented, totally inappropriate. That gesture took all the legitimacy out of that game.
     
  8. Rusty Shackleford

    Rusty Shackleford Active Member

    [​IMG]

    I didn't realize Bret Hart was that old.
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Dec 15, 2014
  9. Starman

    Starman Well-Known Member

    Hank Iba, one of the original deities of "Playing the Right Way," coaching his dream game: his team takes a 50-49 lead with three seconds to play.

    When you have a 50-49 lead with three seconds to play, the refs can fuck ya - and they will.

    When you have a 130-79 lead with three seconds to play, there ain't much the refs can do to fuck ya.

    But in order to get a 130-79 lead, you gotta run and press and go for steals and slamma jamma dunks and all that ghetto ball stuff, stuff that Hank Iba and Larry Brown never went in for, because it just isn't "Playing The Right Way."

    It also didn't help that the '72 Olympic team, in addition to being our college players, wasn't even the best college players -- of the 10 players who were consensus All-Americans in 1972, one or two were on the Olympic team. We weren't sending the 'B' team, we were sending the 'D' team.

    The following summer, the Soviet National team played a U.S. college all-star team, this time including Walton, Wilkes, Barnes and DiGregorio, and the U.S. plastered them off the court.

    P.S. It's not "ancient history." Ask Tim Duncan. Hell, ask Amare Stoudamire, who was tagged for a foul every time he breathed this year.
     
  10. D-Backs Hack

    D-Backs Hack Guest

    SI's piece on this a few years back -- it interviewed each player on the team and took an unofficial vote on accepting the silver -- was excellent.

    Those medals will stay in the Switzerland bank deposit box forever. The IOC says any vote has to be unanimous, and -- given that, as king mentioned, it's in at least a couple wills that the player's descendants never take a silver -- that will not happen.
     
  11. HandsomeHarley

    HandsomeHarley Well-Known Member

    I thought this thread was about the fifth down in the Mizzou-Nebraska game.

    Wrong year. :p
     
  12. wickedwritah

    wickedwritah Guest

    Starman, why did we not send our best over there?
     
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