USAB WUG

[ochoopsfan]

Unless my memory is faulty (not an impossibility), that Olympic fiasco in '72 was not the fault of the
refs. If it had been up to the refs the game would have been over with a USA victory. It was some Olympic basketball poobah (a Brit I think), who came out of the stands and made the refs give Russia another chance. His comment afterward was something to the effect that he thought it would be good for international basketball if Russia won (rather than the USA winning all the time).

I cant say I ever heard that story.

 

[UConnCat]

Unless my memory is faulty (not an impossibility), that Olympic fiasco in '72 was not the fault of the
refs. If it had been up to the refs the game would have been over with a USA victory. It was some
Olympic basketball poobah (a Brit I think), who came out of the stands and made the refs give
Russia another chance. His comment afterward was something to the effect that he thought it
would be good for international basketball if Russia won (rather than the USA winning all the time).

Good memory. The Brit's name was R.William Jones, who believed that a Russian victory would be good for basketball. There was some suggestion per private communications by former Olympic head Avery Brundage that Jones was a communist sympathizer. He was a known tyrant who came out of the stands to insist that the Russians be given not one but two additional chances to in-bound the ball after Doug Collins' free throws gave USA the lead. The third try resulted in Alexander Belov's winning basket.