The 1972 Olympic basketball tournament in Munich has been a source of contention for 40 years. The heavily-favored Americans were trumped by the Soviets in a gold medal game that saw the victors unfairly awarded three chances at a game-winning basket. The Americans refused to take their silver medals, as the Soviets walked away with supposed honor.

Their coach in that tournament? NOT Alexander Gomelsky. He started to coach the Soviet basketball team in 1959, but was not allowed to travel to Germany due to fears that he, as a Jew, would defect to the West.

Gomelsky was reinstated as the national coach in 1976, and was at the helm during the triumph in 1988, when the Soviets finally won the Olympic gold fair and square. Led by four Lithuanians, they upset the Americans in the semifinals, and beat Yugoslavia for the championship.

In 1995, Gomelsky became the second international coach to be enshrined in the Basketball Hall of Fame. A Russian Jew in an American Hall of Fame... Who would have thunk it in 1988? And especially in 1972...