The 30 Greatest Sports Conspiracy Theories of All-Time - Elliott Kalb [102]
The gold medal game pitted world, as well as basketball, rivals. The U.S. team started the game in a hole, with the Soviets scoring the first seven points. By halftime, the score was 26-21, in favor of the USSR. The Russians led by as many as ten points early in the second half. With just under thirteen minutes remaining in the gold medal game, the American’s leading scorer and rebounder, Dwight Jones, and Soviet reserve Dvorni Edeshko were both ejected from the game after a loose ball scuffle. Seconds later, the U.S. suffered another setback when Jim Brewer suffered a concussion after being knocked to the floor. The U.S. still trailed by eight points, with six minutes to go. It is a cliché, but the Americans never quit. Guard Kevin Joyce got hot. In the final forty-five seconds, Jim Forbes hit a huge shot, McMillian blocked a shot, and Collins made his potential game-winning steal. The Soviets were ahead 49-48 when Doug Collins intercepted a pass and drove in for the potential game-winning hoop. He was given a hard foul, with his Soviet opponent making sure that Collins would have to earn the points at the free-throw line. Doug was groggy getting up, and Iba wasn’t even sure if Collins would be able to shoot. Collins made two of the most pressure-packed free throws of all time, giving the United States their very first lead with only three seconds remaining.
McMillan was assigned to guard the out-of-bounds opponent with the ball. The Soviets threw a desperation pass which was deflected, and the United States won the game. The young U.S. amateurs were celebrating their hard-fought victory, when they noticed confusion at the scorer’s table. Referee Renato Righetto of Brazil noted the disturbance and called an administrative timeout. The Soviet coach was claiming that he had called a timeout following Collins’ first shot. The horn had indeed gone off just as Collins released his second free throw. The German officials at the scorer’s table apparently forgot to tell the game officials about the coach’s timeout request following the Collins’ first free-throw. The USSR was awarded the time-out. When play resumed, they inbounded the ball and time ran out. Give the gold to the boys in the red, white, and blue, right? Not so fast.
An Olympic official in the stands, Great Britain’s R. William Jones, who had no jurisdiction in the game (but was the Secretary-General of FIBA, the governing head of international basketball), was instructing the scorer to reset the clock to three seconds, not one, giving the Soviets another chance to win the game. Again, the United States defended the in-bounds pass. This time, the pass was short, and the United States had won the game again. Only it still wasn’t over! The official decided that the clock had been improperly reset. This time, there was bedlam on the court. Iba and his assistants were arguing fiercely at the scorer’s table, to no avail.
There was mass confusion on the court. Aleksandr Belov shoved Joyce and Forbes out of the way, caught the inbounds pass and scored an easy lay-up. This time, it was really over. USSR 51, U.S. 50 was the final. One of two officials working the game—the Brazilian Righetto—refused to certify the score. The medal ceremony was postponed while FIBA heard the U.S. appeal.
R. William Jones appointed Ferenc Hepp of Hungary to be chairman of the FIBA jury of appeals committee. The vote was 3-2, with representatives of the Communist bloc countries of Hungary, Poland, and Cuba voting for the Soviets. Judges from Italy and Puerto Rico voted for the United States. It was quite a surprising vote.
The U.S. team voted not to accept their silver medals, and have never backed away from that stance.
EVIDENCE TO SUPPORT A CONSPIRACY
It certainly appeared that the Soviets were going to get as many chances as