1972
was the worst year ever for international sports. During the notorious Munich
Olympics, eleven members of the Israeli delegation were killed by Black
September, a terrorist organization later revealed to be under the control of
the Fatah wing of the PLO. At the same Munich Games, the final seconds of the
Men’s Basketball Gold Medal match were rigged to allow the Soviets to eke out a
one-point victory. In contrast, 1977 was a great year for international sports,
for reasons also involving Israeli and Soviet athletes. Dani Menkin chronicles Israel’s
unlikely championship run in the 1977 European Basketball Championship and
analyzes its historic legacy in On the
Map (trailer
here),
which opens this week in Los Angeles (and early December in New York).
Maccabi
Tel Aviv was a scruffy club with a fraction of the resources of their European
counterparts. However, they scored a coup when they lured highly touted NBA
prospect Tal Brody away from the Baltimore Bullets. His storied career would be
interrupted by stints of military service for both the U.S. and Israel, but in
1977, he still had the skills and prestige to attract the kind of local talent
and just-missed-the-NBA American players Maccabi needed to compete with the Europeans.
Obviously,
Maccabi did well in 1977, because nobody would make a documentary about a
mediocre season. Many players and commentators compare their European championship
drive to U.S. Hockey’s “Miracle on Ice,” which is particularly apt considering
both teams had to win emotionally-draining, symbolically-charged victories over
the Soviets just to reach the championship matches, but neither story ended
there.
Menkin
assembled all the surviving Maccabi players, including Brody, to re-watch their
celebrated games. They clearly enjoy each other’s company and the sense of fun
is contagious. It is also quite moving to hear from the widow of Jim Boatwright,
Maccabi’s leading scorer. Maccabi center Aulcie Perry is also an engaging
screen presence, but Menkin really does him a solid by omitting mention of his
subsequent issues with drugs and crime. For extra added attitude, Menkin gets
some characteristically colorful color commentary from Bill Walton, who sounds
like an old school Cold Warrior when discussing the Soviet team.
