Munich, West Germany - August 27- September 9, 1972

In the most controversial game in international basketball history, the U.S. lost its first ever Olympic contest, ended a 63-game Olympic winning streak and a string of seven consecutive Olympic gold medals.

Coach Henry Iba's U.S. squad breezed through its opening games. Thomas Henderson and Dwight Jones scored 16 and 15 points, respectively, in a 66-35 opening win over Czechoslovakia, and Ed Ratcliff tallied 18 points in a U.S. 81-55 romp over Australia. Cuba fell 67-48 as Dwight Jones led the Americans with 18 points, and the U.S. struggled with Brazil before finally settling for a 61-54 win. Egypt was swamped 96-31, as Mike Bantom scored 17, Spain fell 72-56, and the U.S. drilled Japan 99-33 as seven U.S. players scored in double digits. James Forbes' 14 points and another 10 from Henderson powered the USA past Italy 68-38 in the semifinals setting the stage for the now infamous USA-USSR Olympic final.

Featuring a pair of 8-0 teams, the USA-USSR final was as expected, a hotly contested ball game. The USSR took a 7-0 lead and by half was in possession of a 26-21 lead. With 12:18 to play and the Soviets holding a 38-34 lead, the USA's 6'8' Dwight Jones, the USA's top scorer and rebounder, and Soviet reserve Dvorni Edeshko were ejected from the game after a loose ball scuffle. On the ensuing jump ball, 6'9' Jim Brewer suffered a concussion after being knocked to the floor. The U.S. continued to lag behind in the second half, but narrowed the gap to one point, 49-48 on Jim Forbes' jumper with 40 seconds remaining. The Soviet's worked the clock down to 10 seconds but Tom McMillen blocked Aleksander Belov's shot and Doug Collins intercepted his pass as he attempted to pass it back out to center court. Collins drove to the basket and was undercut as he attempted a layup with three seconds left. Awarded two free throws, a groggy Collins sank both free throws to put the USA ahead 50-49 with three-seconds left despi te the horn going off in the middle of his second attempt.

From there, confusion reigned. Immediately following Collins' free throws, the Soviets inbounded the ball and failed to score. But one official had whistled play to stop with one second remaining after hearing the earlier horn and seeing a disturbance near the scorers table. The Soviets argued that they had requested a timeout before Collins' foul shots. The referees ordered the clock reset to three seconds and the game's final seconds replayed. However, the clock was in the process of being reset when the referees put the ball in play. A length of the court Soviet pass missed its mark, the horn sounded and the U.S. again began celebrating.

However, R. William Jones, Secretary General of FIBA, stepped in and ordered the clock again reset to 0:03 and the game replayed from that point. This time, the Soviet's Aleksander Belov and the USA's Kevin Joyce and Jim Forbes went up for the pass, Belov caught the long pass from Ivan Edeshko at the foul line sending the two Americans sprawling, Belov then drove to the basket for the layup and the winning points. Post-game, the U.S. filed a protest and FIBA officials met to discuss the protest. The U.S. protest was denied and the Soviets were awarded the gold medals. The U.S. team voted unanimously to refuse their silver medals.

1972 U.S. MEN'S OLYMPIC TEAM ROSTER

1972 U.S. MEN'S OLYMPIC TEAM CUMULATIVE STATISTICS