In 1972, the Olympic Games were held in Munich, Germany, where for the first time in the history of Olympism, the United States could not be Gold after being defeated in the final against the Soviet Union (51-50). Some call it ‘the robbery of the century’ and others call it ‘the biggest surprise of the century’, depending on which side of the trenches you look from, but the only thing that is certain is that Belov was able to score that basket which over the decades has become a legend in the sport. The U.S. team protested the result, did not attend the medal ceremony and did not accept the silver medal, which is still in a Swiss bank

In the semi-finals, the United States had no major problems in beating Italy (68-38). The Soviet Union had more difficulty in eliminating Cuba (67-61). In the fight for the bronze the Cubans took the metal after beating the transalpine by a tight (66-65).

Soviet Union 51
*S.Belov – 20p, 2r
*Paulauskas – 3p, 2r
*Sakandelidze – 8p
*Boloshev – 4p
*A.Belov – 8p, 8r
Zarmuhamedov – 4p, 4r
Korkia – 4p, 2r
Polivoda – 0p
Edeshko – 0p, 5r
Dvorni – 0p
Volnov – 0p, 1r
Kovalenko – 0p

United States 50
*Joyce – 6p, 1r
*Henderson – 9p, 3r
*Collins – 8p, 1r
*Brewer – 9p, 5r
*Ratleff – 6p, 3r
D.Jones – 6p, 5r
Bantom – 2p, 9r
McMillan – 2p, 2r
Forbes – 2p
K.Davis – 0p
B.Jones – 0p
Burleson – 0p