If you had done a Rip Van Winkle and gone to sleep some time before the 1992 Barcelona Olympics, you would have been startled to wake up in 2012 and find that boxing had been reduced to a minor Olympic sport and that basketball was one of the glamour events.
That professional basketball players would be allowed into Olympic competition was probably inevitable after the 1972 games, which was the first time the U.S. team had not won the gold medal in roundball since it became an Olympic sport in 1936. A Russian team who were amateurs in name only upset a team of American college boys. Americans were shocked when Frank Gifford, who was doing the commentary, bellowed “Aleksandr Belov …” as the massive Russian center rammed home the wining shot as time expired. Coaches and players across the country grumbled: “If the Russian can have what amounts to a professional team, why can’t we use our pros?” 1988 settled it: American college boys couldn’t even bring home the silver, just bronze.