40 Years Ago: Second Biggest Travesty In Olympics

In 1972, there were two travesty's that has harmed the Olympics in so many ways.
Of course, the Muslim terrorism in which  Muslim terrorists killed 11 Israeli athletes in one of the most brazen terrorism attacks ever.  Nothing can compare to what happened in this terrorist attack- what happened was horrible and I think it began the hatred of Muslim terrorists around the world.
That being said, 1972 had an athletic travesty when the USA Olympic basketball team was cheated out of the gold medal by the USSR, the officials and the timekeepers.  The game was stolen from the U.S. in the final seconds by the officials and time keepers and that hurt still goes on to this day.  The U.S. basketball team refused their silver medals and they still do today.
From the El Paso Times:  
Forty years after the most controversial basketball game in Olympics history, former UTEP star Jim Forbes says he is at peace with his decision to reject the silver medal.
"No, I haven't changed my mind. I don't want the silver because we actually earned the gold medal," he said in an interview.
The record book, of course, shows a different outcome. It lists the team from the Soviet Union as the basketball gold medalist in 1972 and the Americans as the runners-up.
Forbes and his 11 teammates refused to accept their silver medals, believing they were robbed of victory by the game's timekeepers and Cold War politics.
Their decision is believed to be the only time that winners of Olympic medals have declined them since the Games were reborn in 1896.
Forbes said the illegal conclusion of the Olympic final against the Soviet Union justified the Americans' decision.
Officials at the scorer's table in Munich, Germany, twice put three seconds back on the clock after the game seemingly had ended with the Americans winning, 50-49.
After the clock was changed and the game restarted for the second time, the Soviets made the most of the chaos.
 The American coaches, Hank Iba, John Bach and UTEP's Don Haskins, filed two protests about the clock manipulations. They lost.
The last vote was 3-2, a trio of communist-bloc nations siding with the Soviets.
Forbes has been a high- school basketball coach in El Paso for 28 years, the last eight at Andress High School. He says people ask about whether it was sportsmanlike to refuse the silver medal and to stick to that position all these years later.
"Because we're trying to teach kids the ethics of victory and defeat, I get posed that moral dilemma a lot. I say every situation is different. The Olympic final was so bizarre compared to any other game that it can't be compared to any other game."
At age 60, Forbes maintains that refusing the silver medal feels just as right as it did when he was a 20-year-old Olympian.  http://www.elpasotimes.com/news/ci_21090438/former-utep-basketball-star-stands-by-rejecting-olympic-silver-after-controversial-loss?source=most_viewed
I remember watching the game (probably was on a delayed broadcast) and the hurt I felt after the game was over.  It was clear that the Americans were cheated and that politics were behind the USSR alleged victory.  The innocence of the Olympics for me was taken away from me, at the age of 12 years old and it really hasn't come back.  Before this, I actually had a goal to be in the Olympics someday but after the 1972 Olympics, that killed my Olympic spirit.
Now, we have professional athletes basically competing in an All-star game of professionals in their different sports.  We will never see the amateurs even though that is who the Olympics were supposed to be.about.  USA basketball consists of All star performers.  That's nice but they are not amateurs, they are just high priced basketball players.  Same with the other basketball teams.  Track and field athletes used to be amateur athletes but nowadays, they can hundreds of thousands of dollars or more in prize money, endorsements and salaries and this the same with most other sports.
Will I watch the Olympics?  Maybe, but not very much because these are just games, nothing more than that.  To me, they are not the Olympics anymore, just high priced athletes competing in their events.