Over the past eighty years, basketball’s sweeping international growth has come about because of the creativity and acumen of individuals on and off the court. Th e history of the . men’s basketball team at the Olympic Games shows this in striking fashion. Th e . team’s history makes for a dynamic tale as it takes us from Olympic basketball’s humble beginnings as a full - medal sport at the 1936 Games in Berlin, where the tournament took place outdoors in the rain, to Bill Russell’s marvelous play in Melbourne, to the controversial 1972 . versus Soviet Union gold medal matchup in Munich, where the fi nal seconds of.
