1972 - USA-USSR: The War of the Worlds
communism against capitalism, a challenge that transcends the sport. The final of the Olympic men's basketball tournament could not be a game like the others. In the city that had seen the birth of Nazism, in which a few days before an armed terrorists killed 11 Israeli athletes and delegates, as the war in Vietnam continues to make victims and Nixon continues to send troops, while the protests for a war that few understand and even less approve, a final between the U.S. and Russia can not be just a basketball game.
How did we get to the final
The youngest team I've ever represented the United States carries on his shoulders the weight of responsibility and history, sports and otherwise. Never a national stars and stripes had lost a basketball game at the Olympics: sixty-sixty-three wins out of matches, that's the outcome before the final in Monaco. But that group of university students, on the eve of the Games which will be remembered for the bombing of the Israeli team for eleven casualties for a war bigger than themselves, in a period in which ex once they stopped the war, had to behind only twelve friendly. While the Soviets were playing together for years, more than 400 matches.
The best-known names are U.S. national Thomas Henderson (San Jacinto Junior College), Bobby Jones (UNC) and future NBA coach Doug Collins (Illinois State). It lacked, however, the NCAA player of the year, the UCLA center Bill Walton. "The doctor advised him not to play in a season and the other," said legendary UCLA coach John Wooden. "Before every workout rubbing his knees for half an hour, and at the end for another half hour to apply ice packs." But it is not the only explanation that circulates. There are those who give reasons for his absence with the deep opposition to U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War, those who speak of a negative experience during the World Cup in 1970 in Yugoslavia.
Leading the group of hopefuls Yankees old Henry Hank Iba, anchored to a vision of the old basket, away from the modern play all race and pressing. But the defensive solidity, his knowledge of the game, and especially his winning seemed to be a natural reason enough to promote the national Olympic coach.
The Soviets, led by the inside-out game between the guard and center Sergei Belov Alexander Belov, were anything but the underdog, will prove, indeed, the toughest opponents ever for the Americans. Also because for them there is an ideological charge more, derived from the desire to symbolically beat the "Western bloc", to swing the balance toward Moscow among the world's superpowers. Doing so, then, in the city symbol of the supreme evil of Twentieth century, Nazism, would increase the depth of meaning of victory. Alexander Gomelsky recounts: "The first meeting between us basketball dates back to 1959, during a friendly tournament: they won 8 games out of 8. We have learned from them the pressing, fast trade, but we were excellent students. We were afraid of losing because we knew that we would be punished, that we would lose our privileges. " Gomelsky was the national coach, but he was jew, and the KGB he might desert in Israel, took his passport. On the bench for the Olympic tournament, went Vladimir Kondrashin.
Without great talent on the team, U.S. soft start with a 66-35 success over Czechoslovakia, Thomas Henderson with 16 points and Dwight Jones 15. Ed Ratcliff puts on the scoresheet 18 '81-55 while Jones is on Australia's top scorer with 18 points, 67-48 on Cuba in the struggle over Brazil, beaten 61-54, it is easy to give up Egypt , 96-31 with 17 points from Mike Banton, Spain 72-56, and Japan (99-33 with seven players in double figures. In the United States reached the semifinals of 30 points, 68-38, Italy, which then lose the final with Cuba for the bronze with 14 points and ten other of James Forbes Henderson.
It 's a team that scores a little at the end of the tournament will Topscorer only 9.2 points per game, but gives very few points to opponents, and you start to play for the entry into history Saturday, September 9, four days after the massacre that has moved the world and urged Egypt to withdraw its delegation, with two-ball to 23.45 to accommodate the American TV, so they can show the game live in prime time .
The final
A partial 7-0 puts it very clear the intentions of the Soviets. But the U.S. develop a game ordered and arrive at an acceptable interval -5, at 21-26. The balance also holds in the first half of the recovery. With 12'18 "still to play the Soviets are ahead of 4, 38-34. But here, Dwight Jones, leading scorer and rebounder U.S. will be ejected with Ivan Vasilevich Dvornij Edeshko, a reserve to be accused by the U.S. entry to provoke their opponents. What's more, two on the ball that marks the resumption of play, Jim Brewer, one of the strongest American players, a giant of 2.6 in 1982 to win a European Cup of Canterbury, is pushed, falls ill and must come out injured.
The U.S. should be less than ten points. But when the game seems over, when the hopes falter, that group of hopefuls university becomes a proud team that does not take losing well, and start playing as he had ever made during the tournament. Forty seconds from the end of a marker Forbes reports the national stars and stripes to -1, on 49-48. The Soviets feel playing with the stopwatch, but ten seconds from the end have to take the shot, by Alexander Belov, stopped by the future virtussino Tom McMillen. Doug Collins intercepted the loose ball, which McMillen had tried to revive towards the center of the field, and run the fast break but was stopped while trying to foul layup. Doug Collins is on the bezel for the possible first, and certainly decisive U.S. advantage. The trial marks three seconds to play. They are the three seconds that change the world.
The 3 seconds that change the world
The U.S. call for a time-out period: we must decide the tactics to use, both when free throws are scored, and we is therefore to defend the first advantage of the game, whether they are wrong, then try and serve a rebound in attack to take the last shot of the match. But above all there is to be assessed if Collins is still able to play or pull free. Otherwise it can always be replaced by a companion who would go in his place on the bezel. The coach keeps the player on the field, because Collins wants to take them and place it in spite of stunning bezel. The first enters: 49 peers. Collins is cool, is not swayed by the importance of the match, the situation of fear. The future head coach of Michael Jordan makes the second: 50-49, passing stars and stripes.
Or not? Collins has just left after the second free throw on the table when the official part of the siren. At least one of the referees look to the table, as if to somehow fix the error, but the game was not stopped. The ball is alive, and the Soviet Union is less than one. But Bashkin, an assistant coach Vladimir Kondrashin Soviet Union was furious, leaves the technical and cries that the USSR had called a timeout that should have been granted before the second free throw. Since it was not successful, however, the Soviets there was nothing to do but put the ball in play, without having a clear strategy for the last three seconds of the race.
The Soviets call into play the palla, ma non appena il portatore di palla supera la linea mediana, i continui disturbi al tavolo spingono uno degli arbitri a interrompere ancora il gioco, a un secondo dalla fine.
L'arbitro, l'architetto brasiliano Renato Righetto, che arbitrava la terza (e rivelatasi poi l'ultima) finale olimpica della sua carriera, ritiene che ufficialmente sia stata presa, dopo l'errore, la decisione di non consentire il time-out, anche perché il lungo rallentamento ha comunque consentito ai sovietici di stabilire una qualche strategia per la ripresa del gioco.
Eppure si stabilisce che il gioco, benché fermato a un secondo dalla fine, debba ripartire less than three seconds. A decision made with the decisive contribution of R. William Jones, secretary general of FIBA, the International Federation of basketball, present in the stands and down at the table of officers to review the replay. Too bad that Jones, at a later time, has declared that it had no authority to intervene on a running game.
The Soviets are the only thing possible. Long recovered from his own basket to the opposing bezel. But the timing marks 50 seconds. An American intercepts the ball and plays the siren. The Yankees cheered. But it's too soon. Again.
The siren is played too early. In basketball, in fact, the actual time not calculated at the time of the passage, but the timing is triggered when the first player receives the pass or when the opponent intercepts it.
The final three seconds to be replayed. Again. Meanwhile, the Russians continue to protest, because it is undeniable that there were technical errors, and have penalized the Soviets. And on the bench to get the U.S. on the verge of a nervous breakdown. Do not deny the existence of errors, but makes its way to suspect that the errors are far from random, that unforeseen technical.
Why US-Russia is not playing like the others. It 's the battle between two powers, between two blocks, between two worlds. And every act is a declaration, every statement a sign of membership, each membership is obedience to an ideology and a system of values, each error becomes a betrayal.
Haskins wants to bring them all out. "We could not believe," said the wing Mike Bantom years later, "It seemed like they wanted to replay those three seconds until they had won them." But the coach Hank Iba disagrees with Haskins. "I do not want to miss tonight by staying seated," he says. And such a gesture would be a betrayal, yes, the Olympic spirit, as well as to trigger a legal appeal by the USSR.
the third try, the center Tom McMillen Ivan must mark Edeshko responsible for calling the ball in play and make it difficult to complete the transition. But the referee Artenik Arabadjian makes a gesture, McMillen moves back a few feet, leaving the Soviet clear view. McMillan later admitted that although there is no rule that they need to maintain a minimum distance on the throw, he moved to the sign of the arbitrator to avoid a penalty against the team.
Arabadjian, however, has always denied that his gesture would serve to indicate McMillen taking a rearward position. In any case, Edeshko, with the clear view, you can complete the transition and reach across the field Alexandr Belov, which anticipates Kevin Joyce and Jim Forbes and sends them out of position. It may well mark the undisturbed layup of victory and the siren sounds. For the last time.
The after-match
The U.S. immediately deposit an official protest, tried by a Jury of Appeal consisting of five members. Italy and Puerto Rico voted in favor, Hungary, Poland and Cuba, the Soviet orbit all nations, against. The appeal is dismissed.
"Everything went strictly according to the policies of the Cold War," he wrote at the time Gary Smith in Sports Illustrated. "There were three judges of the Communist Bloc and the vote was 3 to 2. America has lost. The Soviet Union won the gold medal at which point the Americans had to face a bitter reality. Or not to accept the silver medal? "
" We had the feeling that something illegal, unlawful had been perpetrated against us, and we had no other way of protesting that say 'we do not see the medal 'gold around his neck ", so the captain Kenny Davis said the final decision of the team. At the awards ceremony the announcer from the speakers said: "The U.S. team refused to accept the silver medals. Do you think you deserve the gold. "
"If this was been an honest mistake, "said Brewer, a former assistant to the Toronto Raptors," we would have accepted. But the policy came into camp. "
the Soviets did not take kindly to protest the stars and stripes. For them, not accepting defeat amounts to a momentous lack of respect, they are still convinced that, after all, Americans do not know how to lose.
"I think now it hurts even more," said Edelman. "The United States won the Cold War. But they never recognized us, of victory in that game. "
"It was the first time I lost," said Edeshko some time ago, "and the first time you never forget. It was the era of the Cold War, the U.S. was against Soviet Union, the sport at the time was political. But the United States are wrong to feel offended. Taken from their natural pride and love of country, were unwilling to admit defeat. Do not want to miss anything, especially basketball. "
"If we had lost to proudly show my gold medal today," replied Bantom. "But we were not beaten. We have been cheated. "
After the game, however, the U.S. Olympic Committee has again appealed to the IOC Executive Board. Again it was not successful, despite the help of the referee Righetto who called the Soviet victory "completely illegal, outside the rules of basketball." The referee has particularly criticized Jones for his insistence on calling the timer to 3 seconds (not less than one second) to suspend the game and explained the initial confusion with a language barrier between himself, who spoke only Portuguese, and the board of arbitrators, all German.
Thirty years have passed, and the silver medals are still in a vault of the IOC in Lausanne. "I clearly wrote in my will that my wife and my children will never receive that medal," said Davis.
Because the first Once is never forgotten.
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