Years later, USA not as controversial

Abe Lemons, the famous basketball coach/humorist who died Monday at age 79, once said, "Finish last in your league and they call you an idiot. Finish last in medical school and they call you doctor."\nThis is interesting to note in light of two events related to international basketball: The 30th anniversary of the U.S.'s controversial 1972 loss to the Soviet Union in the Olympic gold medal game in Munich and the current World Championships of Basketball going on in Indianapolis.\nBy the time the 1972 Olympics rolled around, the U.S. had won the gold medal in men's basketball all seven times it had been awarded. Favored to do it again, the U.S. rolled through their first eight games rather easily, winning seven of them by double-digit margins. Among the victims, Egypt went down 96-31, and Japan fell 99-33.\nThe Soviets had also won their first eight, and the gold medal game figured to be the Americans' toughest game in their Olympic history. As it turned out, it was. The Soviets led much of the game, but when Team USA guard Doug Collins, now the Washington Wizards coach, sunk two free throws with three seconds left, the U.S. had a 50-49 lead.\nWhat happened after this inspired more confusion and debate than a David Lynch film.\nFirst, somebody set off the horn in the middle of Collins' second free throw. Then, the Soviets inbounded the ball and missed a desperation shot, apparently giving the U.S. the win. Then, the officials said the Soviets called timeout after the second free throw, even though international rules indicated that the ball must be inbounded before a timeout could be called. Then, the ball was put in play while the timekeeper reset the clock. The Soviets threw a length-of-the-court pass out of bounds as the horn sounded. The U.S. celebrated again.\nR. William Jones, the Secretary General of FIBA, the international governing body for basketball, ordered three seconds to be put back on the clock. The Soviets threw another court-length pass to star player Aleksander Belov, who apparently elbowed the two Americans guarding him out of the way. While his defenders lay sprawling, Belov put in the winning layup at the buzzer to give the Soviets the win.\nThe Americans protested but had their protest denied. They refused to accept their silver medal, and it still lies today in a Swiss bank vault. Considering that the U.S. has an all-time Olympic record of 109-2 -- the other loss was a much more legit 82-76 decision to the Soviets in 1988 in the last games before the arrival of NBA players, it stained the U.S. dominance in a sport we claim to own. Furthermore, it blackened the historical images of an Olympics as memorable for the slaying of 11 Israeli athletes by Arab terrorists as it was for IU swimmer Mark Spitz's seven gold medals in swimming, all in world record time.\nAs if griping about the way that game was lost has gotten old, the griping now centers -- no pun intended -- around Bill Walton. Walton was the best college player in the country, but he declined to play even though he was so good that coach Henry Iba and the rest of USA Basketball weren't going to make him try out for the team after Walton claimed he was tired after a long college season.\nIn his autobiography Nothing but Net, Walton said his allegiance was toward his UCLA teammates and Coach John Wooden. He also said that people on the inside had told him that the rigorous practices in preparation for the Games amounted to boot camp. In the recently released Knight: My Story, former IU coach Bob Knight, a close friend of Iba's who consulted with Iba during Knight's run as the 1984 U.S. Olympic Team coach, raises the issue anew, saying he lost all respect for Walton for not representing his country.\nThirty years later, Team USA is a group of slightly-less-than-elite All-Stars playing in the World Basketball Championships that was pre-selected without any particular trial process. Basically, they picked the best team they could. Head Coach George Karl has never won anything before. The team convened just a couple of weeks before the first game to practice. No criticism exists if our best players don't show because we can win without them. After all, we have Raef LaFrentz.\nFrankly, the lack of fundamental play of our star players in these games is rather embarrassing. Rarely will the simple pass be made if a one-in-a-million chance exists that a crazy behind-the-back pass might work. \nIt's easy to argue that we need to go back to the old way of doing things, but a collegiate team couldn't win, especially given how early collegians go to the NBA. As a fan, gold medals alleviate my conscience every time, even if we are the steamrollers and teams like Algeria and Lebanon are the grasshoppers.\nWho knows what will happen with the 1972 Olympic team? Maybe they will be given gold medals 70 years after the fact like when Jim Thorpe got his medals. \nAs for now, let's just take the gold medals and not be idiots.