Just recently, controversial Olympic soccer player and expert wordsmith Megan Rapinoe received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from Joe Biden.  To state that this was hypocritical, unjust, and un-American would be understating the event and putting limits on the White House's sheer gall and contempt for America.  Rather, the Medal of Freedom should have been bestowed on a group of Americans who were cheated of their Olympic glory through greed, envy, and politics.

Fifty years ago this September, the greatest injustice in modern Olympic history occurred when corrupt officials, referees, athletes, coaches, and the Olympic committee itself denied — indeed, stole — the USA basketball team its gold medal.

The loss was devastating to the United States' pride and prestige because basketball, like baseball, was an all-American game.  James Naismith, an instructor at Springfield (MA) College, invented the game to keep athletes toned and in shape during winter's cold, brutal months.  A game that started using a peach basket as a goal has become one of the most popular sports around the world, with a good percentage of players in the NBA over the last 50 years coming from Africa, Asia, Australia, South America, and Europe.

In 1972, both teams came onto the court with "chips on their shoulders," leading to excessive elbowing, pushing, shoving, and other roughness.  This led to a foul on Doug Colling, an Honorable Mention All-American from Southern Illinois who calmly sank two crucial free throws in the final seconds, helping the USA battle back from being ten points behind.

That lead didn't last long.  From there out, their "extra plays" introduced clock problems, language barriers, disregarded Olympic rules regarding time-outs, referee mishandlings, and politics.  Taken together, these factors robbed the American kids of their Gold Medal at the Munich Games.

Image: The U.S. men's Olympic basketball team 1972 (edited).  YouTube screen grab.

In this, pivotal game, the USA team experienced its first loss in 64 Olympic games by just one point: 51-50.  It was frustrating, aggravating, and unjust.

The USA team was a hardscrabble unit of amateur college players.  They were not America's best or most talented players.  In fact, of the team's centers, only Tom McMillan made any of the All-America Basketball teams for 1972.

Still, this team composed of hustling, dedicated, "lunch pail" players systematically defeated older; more experienced; and, indeed, professional players (as was true for all Soviet bloc athletes) on other teams.  In fact, compared to the Soviet club, the much younger (all under 23) American unit had played only 12 games together, compared to the nearly 400 games the Soviet team members had played together.

At the time, the best center in the land, Bill Walton (indeed, he was arguably one of the two or three greatest college players of all time), employed his First Amendment rights and forfeited a spot on the team because of his opposition to the Vietnam War.  After the Olympics, taken all together, the players lasted about 75 total seasons in the NBA and ABA (6.25), with none becoming Hall of Fame players.

To this day, to protest the Olympic bureaucrats' injustices and shenanigans, the American squad steadfastly refuses the Silver Medal ostensibly awarded it for finishing in second place.  They know that the silver medal is not their medal.  One of the players, Kenny Davis, a reserve on the team, has reportedly put a clause in his will prohibiting his wife, children, or descendants from accepting the silver.

To this day.

Their class, courage, and patriotism should be noted.  They represent all Americans.

The players don't care about getting a "Participation Trophy."  They earned gold.

And here's a little side note: Bill Walton may also have been disillusioned with the selection process.  About playing in the 1970 World Championships, he said, "For the first time in my life, I was exposed to negative coaching and the berating of players and the foul language and the threatening of people who didn't perform."

Compare that wholesomeness to Megan Rapinoe's reliance on the F-bomb, a term she hurls at the media, players, fellow Americans paying tribute to the women's team, Trump, and even those young women who admire her or emulate her game on the soccer field.

Class?  Admiration??  Respect???  None of these qualities defines Megan.  And yet Biden awarded her the Medal of Freedom, an honor meant to acknowledge those who have made "an especially meritorious contribution to the security or national interests of the United States, world peace, cultural or other significant public or private endeavors."  Rapinoe is a vulgarian who just told America's parents to "suck it up" because no one cares about their daughters losing athletic opportunities to so-called "transgender" (i.e., fake) women.

Maybe next year, one of the longest-running wrongs in American sports history can be remedied with the awarding of a truly deserved Medal of Freedom.