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In 1976, UNC had our Olympic Dream Team.
Forty-seven years ago last week, Dean Smith coached the USA basketball team in Montreal, and it wasn’t an easy road to the Gold Medal.
Smith was named to succeed retired Oklahoma State coach Hank Iba after the Americans lost the highly controversial 1972 gold medal to the Soviet Union at the Munich Summer Games that were overshadowed by the kidnapping of 11 — and murder of 2 — Israeli athletes.
The next Olympic tryouts were held in Chapel Hill and Raleigh, and Smith was heavily criticized when the U.S. team announced a roster that included four Carolina players – Phil Ford, Walter Davis, Mitch Kupchak and Tom LaGarde. Smith wanted a base of continuity that included three other ACC players Kenny Carr of N.C. State, Steve Sheppard of Maryland and Duke’s Tate Armstrong, whom he knew well by coaching against them.
The theme of this Olympic basketball tournament was to avenge the loss in Munich, and the Soviets were the top seed in Group A with a 5-0 record in pool play. The U.S. was also undefeated in qualifying, finishing 5-0 in Group B. It wasn’t the Dream Team we’ve been used to since NBA players became eligible in 1992, but Smith also had Quinn Buckner and Scott May, stars of the undefeated 1976 Indiana NCAA champions.
The Americans’ closest call came in the second round of medal play when Puerto Rico, led by Marquette star Butch Lee, took USA to the final possession before losing 95-94. They recovered to win the third-round game by clobbering Yugoslavia, which advanced from the losers’ bracket to stun the Soviets in the semifinals and earn a rematch with the Yanks for the gold.
This one was far closer as Kresimir Cosic and Drazen Dalipagic, two of the greatest players in European basketball history, kept the score close before the U.S. pulled away behind Notre Dame’s Adrian Dantley, who averaged just under 20 points for the Games, May, who averaged 6.2 rebounds, and Ford, who dished off 9 assists per game.
Smith said afterward that the Olympics was the only time he ever mentioned the words “winning” and “victory” to his team as a college coach. “There was no choice,” he said, “we had to come home with the gold medal.”
Then, 31 years later, after the U.S. had suffered only its second-ever Olympic loss at the 2004 Games in Athens, Smith recommended Duke’s Mike Krzyzewski as the new coach of USA Basketball. Coach K went on to lead three straight gold medalists, with NBA all-pros and the biggest names in the game.
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