A few days ago, I linked to a post by Lisa McElroy on using the scoring errors in the 2004 Men's Gymnastics to generate a discussion of law and justice. I mentioned that the previous standard example was the 1972 Men's Basketball Gold Medal Game, forgetting that this year is the 40th anniversary. Well, ESPN.com has published a series of essays on that game, including a recounting of the gap, an interview with Doug Collins (who hit what should have been the game-winning free throws with 3 seconds left), and a piece on an Illinois attorney who is pushing the IOC to award duplicate gold medals (as was done in 2002 for a Candian pairs figure skating team).
On that last point, here is an interesting ethical and/or remedial question: The push is to get duplicate golds and 11 members of the team have agreed to that solution. But one player--team captain Kenny Davis--insists that not only must the U.S. be awarded the gold, the Soviets (or Russia, as the successor nation) must be stripped of theirs. Is that the right position to take?
