Summer of discontent
The 1980 US basketball teams didn’t get to play in the Olympics that year either. But it wasn’t a pandemic that kept them away — it was a boycott.
When they heard the news, some athletes were angry. Others were just sad. One said she became physically ill. After years of training and preparation, the country’s best basketball players would not be able to show the world what they could accomplish.
In 1980, the United States boycotted the Summer Olympics. Much like what has happened to countless athletes this year because of the coronavirus, those in 1980 stopped competing because of events out of their control. Basketball players including Mark Aguirre and Isiah Thomas had the chance to win gold for their country taken away. For many athletes, the loss still stings 40 years later.
“It will stop bothering me when I’m dead because that’s when I’ll cease to stop thinking about that wonderful time and the mountain you have to climb,” said Rolando Blackman, a starting guard for the U.S. men’s basketball team. “This is a lifetime of work.And your time is now. Right now. And you get a chance to be there, you get a chance to apply yourself, you get to be one of the excelling members on a great basketball team for a great country. And then not to go?”
The Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan in December 1979, putting international leaders, including President Jimmy Carter, on alert. NATO representatives discussed a boycott of the Soviet-hosted Olympics in a December meeting. When the USSR was unmoved from pleas from Carter and other international leaders, the boycott was announced formally March 21, 1980. Basketball players were in Colorado Springs, Colo., at the time and were told after a practice.
“Disbelief, and then it was anger and resentment because the underpinning was a political reason,” said Carol Blazejowski, an alternate on the 1976 women’s team and a starter in 1980. “We couldn’t even believe it. It was the whole range of emotions, from anger to sadness to resentment to ‘ OK, what’s next?’ The unknown.”
The U.S. continued to prepare to go to the Olympics in case the Soviet Union met the NATO demands. The men’s team already had qualified for the 1980 Games because the 1976 team won gold, but the women won silver that year and still needed to win a tournament in Bulgaria to earn the right to compete. Even with the boycott hanging over their heads, the U.S. women went 6-1 to qualify for Moscow.
The men’s team went on a tour in the “Gold Medal Series,” playing games pitting the team of college Olympians against NBA All-Stars. Playing against teams that included Artis Gilmore, Magic Johnson, John Lucas and Kermit Washington, the young Olympians went 4-1.
The men’s and women’s teams joined the large group of 1980 Olympians on a visit to Washington. The players toured the White House and met Carter. The Olympians were outfitted with the same gear they would have received had they gone to Moscow to compete, including cowboy hats and boots for the opening ceremony. While in D.C., the players heard from other Olympians.
“They had one chance, and it was taken away from them,” Bill Hanzlik said. “You felt really bad for whatever athlete area that was. For the basketball side, the ultimate was to play in the NBA, not play in the Olympics. It was really cool to play in the Olympics, but at least you had something else to look forward to.”
Even with the American boycott and threats of a grain embargo, Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev showed no signs of capitulating. According to the State Department, American athletes who tried to compete in Moscow would have their passports confiscated. Though 25 athletes sued for the right to compete, their lawsuit was dismissed quickly. The Moscow Olympics went on without the United States, Japan, Canada and West Germany.
Soviet men’s basketball coach Alexander Gomelsky boasted before the Olympics that
“I could say I was disappointed, however sometimes you have to take one for the team. That’s how I viewed it. It just wasn’t women’s basketball. It was every sport that was held at the Olympic Games.”
the U.S. men, who won gold in 1976 and lost to the Soviets in a controversial final in 1972, were not playing in the Olympics because they were scared of the USSR. His team lost in an upset to Yugoslavia in a semifinal. Yugoslavia took gold, Italy silver and the Soviets bronze. After the loss, U.S. coach Dave Gavitt sent Gomelsky a telegram to congratulate him on the bronze.
Women’s basketball was in the Olympics for only the second time in 1980, and the Soviets easily won, beating Bulgaria 104-73 in the gold medal game. Point guard Tatyana Ovechkina led the USSR.
“I could say I was disappointed, however sometimes you have to take one for the team,” said Lynette Woodard, a four-time All-American for Kansas. “That’s how I viewed it. It just wasn’t women’s basketball. It was every sport that was held at the Olympic Games. You always try to find the positive. The positive for me was that I was going to try again. The part that saddened me was that a lot of folks were participating, this was their last shot. So it was bittersweet.”
Most players on the 1980 teams continued a career in basketball. Every member of the men’s team played in the NBA. Thomas went on to have a Hall of Fame career with the Detroit Pistons. Hanzlik hosts the Nuggets pre- and postgame shows and runs a foundation for kids in Denver.
Blackman, the director of player development for the Dallas Mavericks, played 13 NBA seasons and was a four-time All-Star. But his success doesn’t quite take away his Olympic disappointment. He was born in Panama and wanted Olympic success for his adopted country and the one in which he was born.
“I feel proud for myself, my family, I feel proud for the nation I came from,” Blackman, 61, said. “That an immigrant boy could come up to the United States and have the opportunity to excel and move forward in the NBA, all that is super. … But it still doesn’t take away the sting of being the shooting guard on our national team and not being able to compete.”
In 1980, women didn’t have the same options to play professionally. Some played in Italy or Japan before switching to coaching. Woodard, a Hall of Famer, went on to win gold with the U.S. in 1984 and is now the coach at Winthrop University. Blazejowski played for one season with the New Jersey Gems of the short-lived Women’s Basketball League. She became the first general manager for the New York Liberty in 1997 and stayed with the WNBA team until 2008.
“I’m proud that you can’t take my Olympian status away from me or from any of the other athletes who made it in 1980,” Blazejowski, 63, said. “We’re Olympians. We didn’t compete. We didn’t have that privilege of competing. We still are Olympians. But as you move on, life moves on. Your other career moves on. I’m just proud. I”m proud to have been part of an Olympic group and the Olympic family.”
Now a college coach, Woodard had to scramble to get her athletes home safely once Winthrop went to online learning and the NCAA suspended all activities in March. Though their seasons were cut short, as were the 1980 Olympians’, the foe her players face is much different.
“This is life or death,” said Woodward, 60. “That’s what’s hanging in the balance. That makes things a little bit different. And so much uncertainty. I don’t know what’s going to change from one day to the next, for I don’t know how long. “I could say to myself back then: ‘Wow, this is crappy, but I’m going to fight and I’ll be back in 1984.’ There was that glimmer of hope.
“Right now, you don’t know what the hope is.”