1972 Olympic Basketball: The Controversies Of The 1972 Olympics Basketball

“Our nation does not know us as Olympians. Our sublime moments of exertion and triumph do not exist. We have no memories and you have no memories of us” (DeFranz, qtd. in Caraccioli 17). In 1980, the United States led a 61 nation boycott of the Moscow Summer Olympics. President Jimmy Carter called for the boycott to protest the Soviet Union Invasion of Afghanistan. Many people have debated whether the United States should have boycotted the games, which impacted President Jimmy Carter’s diplomatic relations and had serious consequences for athletes around the world. The boycott of the 1980 Moscow Olympics was problematic for both cultural and political reasons. The United States should not have participated in or led the boycott of the 1980 Moscow Olympics because the US government was blending the spheres of athletics and politics, government officials were solely concerned with the international reputation of the US and its relations with other nations, and the athletes preparing to participate in the games to represent the US were treated unfairly.

The Olympics have shown over the decades that they can be affected by political conflict. However, it seems that this is the point of the Olympics, to illustrate national pride, by competition. Bloodshed should not be the way for pride of one’s country to be shown, but it should be shown through competition, in the words of the founder of the modern Olympic movement, Pierre de

the time, and the Nazis were in power. Before the Olympics, German Jews had been segregated and

Ever since its inception in 1896, the Modern Olympics has hosted an invisible sport: politics. The Olympics calls for “a halt to all conflicts … [and to] strive towards a more peaceful world,” but politics soon spoiled its biennial message. “As the Olympics continue to dissolve into … a political competition … they no longer … justify the time and trouble,” Dave Anderson, Pulitzer Prize winner for his sports column, wrote in the New York Times in 1984. The Olympic spirit has routinely been used as an outlet for political agendas. With political and Olympic ambitions intersected, the great international sports festivity negatively affects all nations involved.

The Olympics are held every four years and are used as a global stage for many thousands of sportsmen and women who come from many different countries around the world to demonstrate their abilities ranging from running to rowing. In theory, the Olympic Games are supposed to be free from any politics and be purely about the athlete’s competition and celebrations. It is supposed to be non-gender, non-religion and non-race biased to show the accomplishment of the athletes that compete. Sporting officials are also supposed to be un-biased offering equal opportunities to all athletes.

“According anywhere from Australia to the United States and everywhere in between the game of basketball is played.” (Faurschou, “History of basketball”). The game is played anywhere where you can get a ball and something to throw the ball through. “G.L Pierce patented basketball on June 25, 1929.” (Bellis, “Basketball-James Naismith”). Basketball became an official Olympic sport in the 1936 game.

Four minutes later 13 scored to make it four to three. The cheers of the crowd echoed in the arena. Then we went 10 minutes without scoring. With 5 minutes left. I skated around the defensmen went to my forehand, backhand. Score! It was four to four. Now it was tied.

In sociology, there are 3 paradigms. There is the conflict theory perspective, the symbolic-interaction perspective and the structural-functionalist perspective. From a conflict paradigm point of view, the essay would focus on gender and how the assumption that girls lack the same level of strength and stamina as men. The WNBA (Women National Basketball League) doesn’t get the same amount of respect as the males do in the NBA (National Basketball League). Another issue could be that the NBA players have a higher annual salary than an average teacher. A structural-functionalist approach could be focused on how it creates jobs (the NBA) and academically too. Basketball could also be focused on how

The 1972 Olympics were supposed to show that Germany had changed as a country. They were supposed to be “The Happy Games” but instead are remembered for the massacre of the Israeli athletes. The Munich Massacre has changed how terrorism is dealt with in different countries and in the Olympics as a whole.

We can all agree that basketball is almost becoming popular around the world. So many people play this sport but do people know how basketball started and how it evolute throughout the years since basketball was borned? So like every other sports and creations, there has to be a inventor and in basketball there was a man by the name of Dr. James Naismith. “Created in 1891 in a Springfield, Massachusetts YMCA gymnasium has grown into a game played worldwide by more than 300 million people”(historybits.com). So this game has been out for a very long period of time with many changing of the rules in basketball throughout the history. When it was first played in the late 1800s, there were different rules and even different looking basketball. As for the rules, originally there would be 10 people on the court but it first started with 18 people on the court which after couple of years it changed to only 10 people. Substitution was also different and the rule for this was at first no one can enter until the next game. “The rule was changed in 1920 to allow a player to re-enter the game one time. In 1934, the rule was expanded to allow players to re-enter the game twice, and, in 1945 the rule was finally changed to permit players to return to the game an unlimited number of times”(hooptactics.com). The first basketball looked very alike a football but round. The backboards were made out of straight wood and the baskets were made out of peach baskets or square boxes. There was only

Most people would classify the Berlin Olympic Games of 1936 as just another Olympics, and they would be right because the Games did have the classic triumphs and upsets that occur at all Olympic Games. What most people did not see, behind the spectacle of the proceedings, was the effect the Nazi party had on every aspect of the Games including the results. Despite Nazi Germany’s determination to come off as the superior nation in the 1936 Olympics, their efforts were almost crushed by the very people they were trying to exclude.

The Nazi Olympics in Berlin in 1936 destroyed Hitler’s master race history. "There was very definitely a special feeling in winning the gold medal and being a black man," Woodruff said. "We destroyed [Hitler's] master race theory whenever we started winning those gold medals,” said runner John Woodruff (7). John Woodruff was a black man who won a gold medal. Another African American Jesse Owens won four track and field gold medals. These two people defied the Aryan ideal that Hitler believed that Aryan dominated the world. Another important impact the Olympic brought happened in 1956 Olympic Games in Melbourne, Australia. In that Olympics, Egypt, Iraq, Lebanon refused to participate because of a dispute over the Suez Canal; Spain, Switzerland, and the Netherlands boycotted the Games in protest over the Soviet Union's invasion of Hungary; China boycotted the Games because a flag of Taiwan was raised in the Olympic Village. The original purpose of the Olympics was to make the countries collaborate, however, it also brought negative impacts. Another example is that Olympics in Mexico city in 1968. Americans politicised the Games by letting two African Americans, Tommie Smith and John Carlos, represent the United States. Tommie Smith and John Carlos placed first and third in the track and field. During their medal ceremony, they raised a clenched fist above their

“No kind of demonstration or political, religious or racial propaganda is permitted in any Olympic sites, venues or other areas” (Advertising, Demonstrations, Propaganda* 98). This rule shows just what the Germans were hoping for, a peaceful, passive, war-free environment in which countries can get together and compete. Although we all know that quite the antithesis was upon the 1972 Olympics in Munich between September the fifth and September the sixth. The Munich Massacre, one of the worst massacres of all time, was driven by the vengefulness of the Palestinian group known as Black September, towards the people of Israel, or more relevantly, towards their Olympic team (Rosenberg). Since this confrontation between Palestine and

"...Sport is prostituted when sport loses its independent and democratic character and becomes a political institution...Nazi Germany is endeavoring to use the Eleventh Olympiad to serve the necessities and interests of the Nazi regime rather than the Olympic ideals."

The purpose of this study is to analyze extensively the role that Cold War tensions played in the 1980 Moscow Olympic Games. The analysis seeks to understand the effect that politics, have on the organization, implementation and eventually success of sporting events such as the Olympics. In order to do so, the analysis will address the events leading up to, during and after the Moscow Olympic Games of 1980. The Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979 will be addressed to help place the games into perspective. Also, exchanges between the two nations before, during and after the games will be analyzed to understand if and to what extent they affected the games. To investigate the issue, the study will address the