The Tokyo Olympic Games have opened, and Chinese athletes have once again embarked on a journey to fight on the field for the honor of the motherland. I can't help but think of a super-burning Olympic final 49 years ago.
On September 10, 1972, at 11:45 p.m., the Olympic men's basketball final opened on time at the Olympic Stadium in Munich. The two sides were Team USA vs. Soviet Union.
At that time, the U.S. team had won 7 consecutive Olympic games, like a myth standing on the top of Mount Olympus, the jianghu people called it "lonely and defeated", and even the time of the final was set in the middle of the night to accommodate the American audience's viewing experience.
There is a Russian film released in 2017, "Munich Kill", which perfectly recreates the process of the game (only the process, characters and plot have been changed, as will be said later).
After the game began, the Soviet team adopted a flexible interspersed tactic in response to the height and physical strength of the American players, leading all the way, once leading by 10 points, but under the tenacious counterattack of the American team, the half was over, and the gap between the two teams had narrowed to 5 points (soviet union 26-21 United States).
Take advantage of the intermission of the two teams, write to this point, and insert an advertisement!
The 1972 Olympic Games were hosted in Munich, the Federal Republic of Germany, which was the second time germany hosted the Olympic Games after the 1936 Berlin Olympic Games, and the Federal Republic of Germany invested a lot of manpower and material resources in this regard, trying to make a separation from the previous Olympic Games in the shadow of the Nazis, and deliberately put forward the slogan of "Happy Olympics", but unfortunately, the Olympic village was mixed with terrorists.
The terrorists, known as Black September, came from Palestine and, according to the confessions of the plotters afterwards, were aimed at protesting that the federal German authorities had invited only Israeli athletes and not Palestinian athletes to the Olympic Games.
In the early hours of September 5, eight terrorists infiltrated the Israeli athletes' dormitory in the Olympic Village, and although the personnel under their control deliberately took them to Building 1, where the weightlifters and wrestlers lived, their flesh and blood could not defeat the heavily armed terrorists. The athletes were controlled.
The Olympic Village had infiltrated terrorists and taken hostages, and the police of the host country had quickly intervened with the terrorists and relayed the terrorists' demand to release more than 100 Palestinian prisoners. However, the Israeli government rejected it on the grounds that it would never negotiate with terrorists. At the same time, the Israeli government's request to send Israeli special agents to Germany to rescue the hostages was also not implemented because the Federal Republic of Germany "does not allow foreigners to bring guns into the country".
The terrorists, seeing israel's refusal to comply, finally demanded that the government of the Federal Republic of Germany provide a plane to Egypt. However, Egypt refused to admit the terrorists, but the German police did not inform the other side, and prepared to carry out a surprise attack at the airport.
Unfortunately, due to a lack of experience in responding, the final assault failed to rescue the hostages, resulting in the deaths of a total of 11 Israeli athletes, the killing of 5, the capture of 3 terrorists and the death of 1 German policeman.
The three terrorists eventually flew to Libya and were greeted by "heroes" at the airport.
However, the Israeli Mossad quickly launched a global killing order, and finally killed 11 members of the "Black September" organization involved in the planning and operation, comforting the athletes' spirits in heaven.
This is the tragic Munich hostage incident in the history of the Olympic Games, the original intention of the Olympic Games is peace, in ancient times, when the holy flame was lit on mount Olympus in Greece, all the Greek warriors would lay down their weapons, show the limits of human beings through physical competition, and also solve disputes through competition, however, under the sacred five rings, in the "safe" Olympic village, this bloody tragedy occurred, and it has to be said that it is a shame for all mankind, and the gods of Mount Olympus also shed tears.
Well, the intermission is over, let's get back on the field again! - The turn is a bit abrupt!
In the second half, the Two Teams continued to glue, the score alternately rose, the confrontation on the court became more and more intense, and 10 seconds before the final game, the Soviet Union still led by 1 point at 49-48.
At this time, the American team attacked the Soviet basket, the Soviet player fouled, and the United States was given a chance to take a free throw. The U.S. team made two free throws and went 50-49, with only the last 3 seconds left!
What can I do in 3 seconds? Brushing videos may not be effective to watch, but these 3 seconds will always remain in history!
According to the rules, the Soviet players kicked off from the bottom line, but as soon as the ball was shot, the final whistle sounded, and the timer clearly showed that there was 1 second left!
After negotiations with the Soviet team leader, the referee's seat announced that the game was not over, and the time returned to the last 3 seconds!
The American players who were celebrating were not happy, but reluctantly returned to the venue to continue the game.
The Re-serve Soviet team passed the ball to the midfield, but the shot was missed, and the final whistle sounded again, and the American players cheered again. The Soviet leader once again ran to the referee's bench to protest, because the time displayed on the timer began in 53 seconds and ended in 50 seconds, although it made up for 3 seconds, but it did not meet the rules, and asked to return to the last 3 seconds.
The referee, of course, refused, and by this time the stadium was buzzing and the U.S. team began celebrating their eighth Olympic title.
However, at this time a key figure held out 3 fingers and said: Basketball is a gentleman's sport, and the Soviet Union should get the last 3 seconds fairly!
Who is he?
His name is William Jones — FIBA's secretary general — and the film says he's "the most basketball-savvy person in the world."
Indeed, William Jones is an Englishman, born in 1909, once went to school in the United States, came into contact with and fell in love with the sport of basketball when he was in school, and devoted his life to the promotion of basketball, since 1936, basketball has become an Olympic event, which is derived from william Jones's unremitting efforts. He has served as the secretary general of FIBA for many years, and the "International Basketball Rules" that he has presided over is simply the "Bible" of the basketball world, so the movie says that he is "the most knowledgeable basketball in the world", which is well deserved. In 1975, after our country restored its legitimate seat at FIBA, it also visited our country.
It was because of Mr. Jones's statement on the spot that the game once again returned to a state of "3 seconds" before the finale. The U.S. team also had to return to the field again.
It is said that Jones admitted afterwards that he felt that no one could turn things around in these 3 seconds, and that the Us victory was a foregone conclusion. But he, who has paid attention to rules and order all his life, believes that the Soviet Union should have the power to finish the last 3 seconds.
Then, a dramatic scene occurred, the Soviet coach learned the lesson of the last 3-second defeat, asked forward Alexander Belov to insert the basket, receive the ball and complete the final shot. In the end, Belov did it, he successfully received the ball under the bag of 2 American players, a jump shot, and the basketball fell to the net with the final whistle, 51-50! The Soviet Union finally defeated the invincible American team and became the olympic champion!
Suddenly, the stadium once again turned into an ocean of celebration, only this time the celebrators were replaced by soviet teams!
The U.S. team immediately appealed to the Referees Committee, which consisted of five referees from Hungary, Poland, Cuba, Italy and Puerto Rico.
Dear readers, don't forget that in 1972, when it was still the cold war, the five referees happened to come from two camps of countries, exactly 3:2, so the final ruling was also 3:2, rejecting the US appeal.
At this point, the fact is that the Soviet Union defeated the United States in the last 3 seconds and won the championship, while the American team finally finished as runner-up after 2 empty joys.
However, the reluctant American team refused to accept the award and collectively withdrew from the award ceremony, and the silver medals are still lying lonely in the Swiss museum for people to see.
I like the movie very much, and I am very enthusiastic about watching it, but I have to clarify some of the fabricated characters and plots in the movie, so as not to confuse the public.
1. Regarding the head coach, the head coach in the film is called "Garland Ren", but the real head coach is named Vladimir Kondrahin, the reason why the movie has to change his name is because the movie made up a son with cerebral palsy for the characters who needs to go to the West for treatment, for which the head coach needs to raise money, apply to go abroad, and finally the team members and team leaders who won the gold medal will donate all the prize money to the coach, so that the movie is more humane, but in reality, Condrasin does have a son with cerebral palsy. But there was never a plan to go abroad for treatment, and of course there was no warm tears of donations. After receiving strong opposition from the family of the archetypal character, the film had to blur the head coach and name it after a made-up name.
In addition, the head coach who was announced to be dismissed at the beginning of the film, although only a little shake in the film, his story is also quite a movie, his name is Alexander Gmiersky, the reason why he was removed at that time was only because of his Jewish ancestry, the leadership team was afraid that he used the opportunity to participate in the Munich Olympics to defect to Israel, so the change of coach, so that Alexander's dream of defeating the United States could not be realized for the time being.
The Olympic Games after Munich due to the Cold War, the United States and the Soviet Union resisted and did not participate, until the 1988 Seoul Olympic Games, Alexander once again became the head coach of the Soviet Union, he defeated the American team led by Vice Admiral Robinson in the semifinals, completed his long-cherished wish, and defeated another men's basketball team in the final, Yugoslav team, to win the championship.
Therefore, the United States decided to form a dream team composed of star players from the NBA from the 1992 Barcelona Olympic Games.
2. The biggest regret when I watched it was that the final kill did not use the "dunk", which was both shocking and safer than the shot, and later read the information to know that in the 70s of the last century, the dunk was also regarded as a humiliating action of the opponent and was not allowed by THE FIBA. So there are a lot of dunk shots in the game in the movie, everyone should just look at it as a joke, don't take it seriously!
3. The slaying of Alexander Belov is portrayed in the movie as a team member with a serious heart attack, but in reality, people are very healthy at the time, and according to the plot of the movie, how can such a terminally ill patient appear in the fierce confrontation field! However, god is jealous of the talent, Belov did die very early due to illness, only a short age of 26.
4. There is also a Lithuanian player in the film, Pauluskas, who also has many fictional plots, saying that he almost defected on the eve of the game. But the truth is that Pauluskas was a staunch supporter of the Soviets, and even as he entered the new millennium, he insisted on going to Russia every week to instruct the children there to play, in order to relive his green years and listen to the "country sounds" of Russian.
His artistic prototype should be a generation of Lithuanian "elites" who refused to fight for the Soviet Union in 1990 and participated in the Olympic Games in 1992 under lithuania's name.
5. There is also a scene in the film where after the hostage incident in Munich, the bureaucrats of the Soviet delegation decided to retire for safety reasons in order to avoid shame on the country by losing to the United States in the final, but at the last moment, the team leader was impressed by the determination of the head coach and publicly announced that he would stick to the competition. Although it is very dramatic, it is unfortunately fictional, and as for its purpose, it is the same as the history of the previous dynasty in later generations, you know.
This is a group photo of the Soviet basketball players who actually participated in that Olympic Games and performed miracles in the last 3 seconds.
Let us remember them and shout for our Olympic athletes to show the ideal of "faster, higher, stronger and more united" in the new Olympic Games!