The amazing thing about the Olympics is just how often it transcends sport into politics. There was Jesse Owens’ success at the 1936 Games in Hitler’s Munich, the Black Power salutes of 1968 in Mexico, and the terrible events in Munich four years later, when Palestinian terrorists murdered 11 Israeli athletes.

Quite understandably and quite rightly, it was these atrocities that dominated the 1972 Olympics. 40 years later and the events still live long in the memory, so it’s little wonder that one particular final, played less than a week later, has been overshadowed by the historic violence. Yet the story of the Men’s basketball final sent its own sporting shockwaves around the world, thanks to a textbook tale of two superpowers going head to head at the height of the Cold War.

The two sporting and political behemoths in question were, predictably, the Soviet Union and the USA. Here’s the controversial story…