1972 Olympics Basketball Final USA - USSR

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• published: 06 Sep 2012
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It may have been only a basketball game, but this Cold War era matchup didn't exactly help to ease tensions between the Americans and Soviets. Coming well before the Dream Team, when U.S. pros laced up their sneakers for Olympic hoop action, Team USA's 1972 roster was made up only of amateur athletes. Until then, the U.S. had never lost in Olympic men's basketball. Naturally, that made them the favorites going into the matchup with the Soviet Union. The Soviets, however, were a talented bunch. Unlike Team USA, they brought professional players to the Games, and therefore were more experienced than their American counterparts. For the majority of the game, nothing particularly unusual occurred. But it didn't take long to realize that the United States had a battle on its hands. The Soviets took a five point advantage into the locker room at halftime. With less than ten minutes remaining, that lead had ballooned to double digits. Undeterred, the U.S. battled back, clawing to within one with 38 seconds to play. As the clock ticked under the ten second mark, Doug Collins stole a Soviet inbound pass, and was fouled with three seconds left in the game. Collins then hit a pair of clutch free throws to give Team USA its first lead of the contest, 50-49. Suddenly, an otherwise normal basketball game concluded with a highly unusual ending. Following Collins' second foul shot, the Soviet Union inbounded the ball. The referees stopped the game with only one second to go, eventually deciding to reset the clock to three seconds. The reason was that, supposedly, the Soviet team had tried to call a timeout between the two free throw attempts that the officials hadn't noticed. The Soviets passed the ball in again. Time expired, the buzzer sounded, and the U.S. had won gold. Or so they thought. As Team USA began to celebrate, the players were called back onto the court. Due to a mistake by the scorer's table, the clock hadn't been reset properly. Amazingly, the Soviet Union was given a third opportunity to win on a last-second shot. A full-court pass led to a layup by Alexander Belov, and just like that, the Soviet Union stole the Olympic title away from the United States. Understandably, the U.S. was outraged. They filed a formal protest after the game, and upon losing that, refused to accept their silver medals.