20 biggest sports scandals of all-time
19. USA basketball loses gold medal match to Soviet Union in the 1972 Olympics
In 1972, the United States and the Soviet Union were in the middle of the Cold War, a period of extreme political tension between the two nations. Sports was viewed as an escape from all of this, but that changed in the basketball gold medal match of the 1972 Olympics in Munich.
With three seconds remaining, American guard Doug Collins sank two free throws to take a 50-49 lead. The next three seconds of play would go down as one of most infamous moments in Olympic history.
The Soviets inbounded the ball, but play was stopped due to a disturbance caused by their assistant coach regarding not being awarded a timeout during the previous free throw. Rather than assessing a technical foul for disrupting play, the officials cancelled the play altogether.
On the following inbound play, a clock malfunction caused the final horn to sound after just one second, as the Americans tipped the Soviet pass out-of-bounds. The United States began to celebrate what they thought to be a victory. Once again, however, the play was wiped out and their opponent was awarded yet another chance.
This time, everything fell into place for the Soviets, as they connected on a length-of-the-court pass that led to an uncontested lay-up with time expiring. After losing a protest, the USA basketball team refused to accept their silver medals.
Over four decades later, the Americans still refuse to acknowledge the controversial Soviet victory.
Per Daily Mail:
"“If there hadn’t been the scandal, the controversy, if we’d lost that game fair and square I would proudly wear a silver medal,” Michael Bantom, a forward on the 1972 team said. “But it doesn’t matter if it’s one year, ten years or forty years it doesn’t make sense for me to accept the medal I don’t think I deserve.”"
Current USA basketball coach Mike Krzyzewski remembers the event as ‘a shocking example of politics meddling in sport.’
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