September 9, 1972: The Soviets Steal the Basketball Gold Medal

September 9, 1972, 50 years ago: The most blatant cheating in sports history takes place -- at least, until Diego Maradona's "Hand of God" goal in the 1986 World Cup.

Basketball was first competed for in the Olympic Games in 1936 in Berlin. And, each time, the American team had won the Gold Medal:

* 1936 in Berlin, Germany: Beat the Philippines by 33, Mexico by 15, Canada by 11. Keep in mind, this was still when the game was at an early stage. The margins would get bigger.

* 1948 in London, Great Britain: Beat Switzerland by 65, Czechoslovakia by 25, Argentina by 2 (even then, Argentina were good), Egypt by 34, Peru by 28, Uruguay by 35, Mexico by 31, France by 44.

* 1952 in Helsinki, Finland: Beat Hungary by 18, Czechoslovakia by 25, Uruguay by 12, the Soviet Union by 28, Chile by 48, Brazil by 4 (even then, Brazil were good), Argentina by 9, and, in the Gold Medal Game, the Soviets again by 11. This was the 1st Games in which the Soviets competed. Clearly, they were as good at basketball as any other European country. But no country was as good as the U.S.

* 1956 in Melbourne, Australia, with a team that included Bill Russell and K.C. Jones: Beat Japan by 58, Thailand by 72, the Philippines by 68, Bulgaria by 41, Brazil by 62, the Soviets by 30, Uruguay by 63, and the Soviets again by 34.

* 1960 in Rome, Italy. This was the original "Dream Team," the finest basketball team that had ever been assembled, and would remain so until Los Angeles in 1984, before Barcelona in 1992 set what may be an impossible standard. This team had Oscar Robertson, Jerry West, Jerry Lucas, Darrall Imhoff and Walt Bellamy, all of whom made the Basketball Hall of Fame long before the entire team was elected. This team was so good (How good was it?), future Hall-of-Famer John Havlicek only made it as an alternate.

They beat host Italy by 34 (and Italy usually has a strong league and a good national team), Japan by 59, Hungary by 34, Yugoslavia by 62, Uruguay by 58, and the Soviets by 24. 

* 1964 in Tokyo, Japan, with a team that included Bill Bradley, Walt Hazzard, Luke Jackson, and future coaching legend Larry Brown, who was a pretty good player: Beat Australia by 33, Finland by 26, Peru by 15, Uruguay by 55, Yugoslavia by 8 (they were beginning to get good), Brazil by 33, South Korea by 66, Puerto Rico by 20 (they have a national team separate from America's), and the Soviets by 14.

* 1968 in Mexico City, Mexico. This one was complicated by the fact that some of the country's best college players were boycotting the team, in response to America's racial inequities. These included Lew Alcindor (who later renamed himself Kareem Abdul-Jabbar) and his UCLA teammates, and Elvin Hayes of the University of Houston. This U.S. team still had Spencer Haywood, Jo Jo White, Charlie Scott, and Bill Hosket, who became a reserve on the New York Knicks' title team of 1970.

And, they were strong enough to beat Spain by 35, Senegal by 57, the Philippines by 21, Yugoslavia by 15, Panama by 35, Italy by 39, Puerto Rico by 5, Brazil by 12, and Yugoslavia by 15. The Yugoslavs had beaten the Soviets by 1 point in the Semifinal.

*

In 1972, in Munich, West Germany, America's best player, Bill Walton, didn't play. Hank Iba, the legendary coach of Oklahoma State, insisted that every player who wanted to be on the team had to try out. Walton, who had just led UCLA to a National Championship as a sophomore, believed he was good enough to not have to try out.

These players did try out, and did make it (listed here in alphabetical order):

* Mike Bantom, of St. Joseph's of Philadelphia, who later helped the Philadelphia 76ers reach the 1982 NBA Finals.

* Jim Brewer, who starred at the University of Illinois, and became a member of the 1982 NBA Champion Los Angeles Lakers.

* Tom Burleson, who later helped North Carolina State win the 1974 National Championship, and played 7 seasons in the NBA.

* Kenny Davis, an NAIA All-American at Georgetown -- the one in Kentucky, not the one in D.C.

* Doug Collins, a star at Illinois State, who later helped the 76ers reach 3 NBA Finals, then became a decent coach, and a Hall of Fame broadcaster.

* James Forbes, of Texas-El Paso (UTEP), who never played in either the NBA or the ABA, but went back home to El Paso and became a renowned high school coach.

* Tom Henderson, of the University of Hawaii, later a member of the 1978 NBA Champion Washington Bullets.

* Bobby Jones, who helped North Carolina reach the 1972 NCAA Final Four, reached the 1976 ABA Finals with the Denver Nuggets, and reached 3 NBA Finals with the 76ers, winning in 1983. They retired his Number 24.

* Dwight Jones, of the University of Houston, who later reached the 1983 NBA Finals with the Lakers.

* Kevin Joyce, of Bayside, Queens, the prestigious Archbishop Molloy High School of Queens, and the University of South Carolina, whose coach, Frank McGuire, had previously raided New York City while coaching at North Carolina. He went on to play in the ABA, but not the NBA.

* Tom McMillen, who starred on the ill-fated Maryland team with Len Elmore that kept running into the North Carolina team of Bobby Jones and the N.C. State team of Burleson and David Thompson, and, under the rules of the time, couldn't make the NCAA Tournament because they hadn't won the Atlantic Coast Conference title. He later played 11 seasons in the NBA, and served 6 years as a Democratic Congressman from Maryland (1987-93).

* And Ed Ratleff, of Cal State-Long Beach (a.k.a. Long Beach State), who later played 5 seasons with the Houston Rockets.

Most observers figured, if the '68 U.S. team, without Kareem or the Big E, could win the Gold Medal without much trouble, then this team could do it without Walton. (Or George Gervin, as one of my regular readers pointed out. Gervin was about to begin his junior year at Eastern Michigan University.)

And they did go through the Group Stage as if nothing out of the ordinary was going to happen. They beat Czechoslovakia 66-35. They beat Australia 81-55. They beat Cuba 67-48. Brazil gave them a tough game before falling 61-54. They beat Egypt 96-31. They beat Spain 72-56. And they beat Japan 99-33.

The Soviets were in the other Group, and won all 7 of their games, by an average of 21 points. The Semifinals surprised nobody: The U.S. beat Italy 68-38, and the Soviets beat Cuba 67-61.

All-time in Olympic basketball competition, the U.S. was now 58-0. Only 6 of those 58 games were within 10 points. They were 7-0 in Gold Medal Games. They were 6-0 against the Soviets, including 4-0 in Gold Medal Games.

So, in spite of the cloud that had hung over the Games since the massacre of 11 Israeli representatives by Palestinian terrorists 4 days earlier, there seemed little reason to believe that the Soviets would win as the teams took the floor of the Rudi-Sedlmayer-Halle in Munich, West Germany on September 9, 1972. (The arena was named after the president of the Bavarian State Sport Association. It still stands, is now named the Audi Dome, and is home to the basketball team of Bayern Munich, far better known for its soccer team.)

This was the era when, if the Soviets -- and also the athletes competing for East Germany -- couldn't win honestly, they would cheat. They gave their performers steroids. When testing for steroids came out, many of their performers -- runners, throwers in track's "field" events, swimmers, weightlifters -- started losing. Others simply stopped competing. This was especially noteworthy among female competitors in swimming and track and field.

And the Soviet teams were known for rough play in other events, most notably the water polo competition against Hungary in 1956, held after Soviet tanks crushed a Hungarian rebellion.

In the 1972 basketball Gold Medal Game, the Soviets took an early lead, and held it through the end of the 1st half, 26-21. Early in the 2nd half, Dwight Jones and Mikheil Korkia both went for a loose ball. Korkia punched Jones. Jones punched back. Both players were ejected. This was fine with the Soviets: Jones had been the leading scorer of the tournament, so it was the equivalent of a hockey "goon," who had no talent beyond fighting, causing both himself and the opposing team's best player to be thrown out of the game.

A minute later, one of the Soviets' better players, Alexander Belov, purposely injured Brewer. The officials called a foul, but that was it. Belov was allowed to continue. With 10 minutes to go (like U.S. college basketball, Olympic basketball games are played in 2 20-minute halves, so this was roughly the end of the 3rd quarter), the Soviets had their biggest lead, 10 points.

The U.S. should have "switched to their A game" a lot sooner, but now, they began to press. With 38 seconds left, they closed to within 1 point. With 7 seconds left, Belov attempted a cross-court pass at half-court, and Collins stole the ball. (Boston Celtics announcer Johnny Most couldn't be reached for comment.) He drove toward the basket, and was hammered by Zurab Sakandelidze.

By rights, Sakandelidze should have been assessed a technical foul, Collins should have been awarded 2 unimpeded free throws, and the U.S. should then have gotten the ball back. Instead, this was treated as an ordinary foul. Collins made the 1st, making the score 49-49. But as he made his 2nd attempt, the horn from the scorer's table sounded. Was it an attempt to distract him? If so, it didn't work: He sank it. USA 50, USSR 49. There were 3 seconds left to play.

The Soviets got the ball back, got the ball to halfcourt, and called timeout with 1 second left. But the officials put a full 3 seconds back on the clock. That's 2 seconds the Soviets didn't deserve. They made 2 passes, getting the ball to Belov, but he couldn't get a shot off. The horn sounded, and the U.S. had a 50-49 victory and the Gold Medal.

Except the officials put another 3 seconds on the clock. Iba challenged this, and threatened to take his team off the floor. He was told that if he did that, the game would be forfeited to the Soviets. Iba considered doing it anyway, since, at the time, the U.S. was on good terms with FIBA, the governing body for international basketball, and was confident of a ruling in his favor. But he later said, "I don't want to lose this game later tonight, sitting on my butt." He would win or lose it on the court.

Ivan Edeshko prepared to make the inbounds pass. Referee Artenik Arabadjian -- from Bulgaria, a Warsaw Pact nation dominated by the Soviets, and an ethnic Armenian, therefore with ties to the Soviet Union -- told McMillen to back off a bit, to give Edeshko room. McMillen knew there was no rule requiring him to do so. But he figured, if he didn't, Arabadjian would asses a technical foul.

So Edeshko's inbounds pass got away with no trouble. It became known in the Soviet Union as "The Golden Pass." Except he stepped on the end line. He should have been called for a violation, making it U.S. ball. The infraction was not called. Another cheat.

Belov, Joyce and Forbes all went for his pass as it came down. Belov caught it, Forbes fell to the floor, and Joyce fell out of bounds. Belov had an easy shot. The horn sounded again, and, this time, no more seconds were put on the clock. USSR 51, USA 50.

Left to right: Dwight Jones, James Forbes and Ed Ratleff

There were 2 referees in the game, as prescribed by FIBA rules. Arabadjian signed the official scoring sheet. The other ref, Renato Righetto of Brazil (there are a lot of people of Italian descent in South America), knew it was a screwjob, and refused to sign it.

Naturally, the U.S. protested the result to FIBA. A 5-man jury was to decide. It consisted of 2 men from Warsaw Pact nations, Ferenc Hepp of Hungary and Adam Baglajewski of Poland; Andres Keiser of Cuba, a nation hostile to the U.S.; and Rafael Lopez of Puerto Rico and Claudio Coccia of Italy, both pro-U.S. countries. Hepp announced that the jury had ruled in the Soviets' favor, and refused to say what the count was, only that it was not unanimous.

The medal ceremony was held. The Soviets accepted their Gold Medals. Cuba, which beat Italy 66-65, accepted their Bronze Medals. The U.S. team did not attend the medal ceremony, and did not accept their Silver Medals.

The U.S. appealed again, this time to the executive committee of the International Olympic Committee. The appeal was not heard until February 1973, 5 months later, and the IOC ruled that FIBA's verdict stood.

The IOC announced that, in order to release the Silver Medals to the players, the vote would have to be unanimous. For 20 years, the 12 American players were unanimous in refusing. But in 1992, Ratleff said that, while he still didn't want his, his wife wanted to be able to show the medal to their children. So he was the 1st member of the team to change his vote on accepting the medal. 

To avoid a similar situation, Davis announced that he had put a clause into his will, forbidding his wife, children, or their descendants from accepting his medal after his death. In 2012, when all 12 members were brought together for the 1st time since the Games, on the 40th Anniversary of the robbery, they all said, "No." Ratleff had since gotten divorced, and had changed his vote back, to make it unanimous once again.

The 2012 reunion

The Soviet players all claimed that they won legitimately. Of course, they did. Sergei Belov, Alexander's brother and the team's best player, later elected to the Basketball Hall of Fame, and Edeshko went out of their way to say the Americans should accept that they lost.

Hepp died in 1980, Righetto in 2001, and Arabadjian in 2017. Soviet head coach Vladimir Kondrashin died in 1999. Alexander Belov died of cancer in 1978. Zurab Sakandelidze, Mikheil Korkia and Sergei Kovalenko all died in 2004. Gennadi Volnov in 2008, Aleksandr Boloshev in 2010, Sergei Belov in 2013, Ivan Dovrny in 2015. The other Soviet players are still alive: Ivan Edeshko, Modestas Paulauskas, Alzhan Zharmukhamedov and Anatoli Polivoda.

Hank Iba died in 1993. Dwight Jones died in 2016, making further reunions impossible. He never accepted his Silver Medal. The other 11 players are still alive. None of them have ever accepted theirs. They still sit in a vault at IOC headquarters in Lausanne, Switzerland.