Ask Duke associate head coach Chris Collins what happened to his dad, Doug, and the U.S. men's Olympic basketball team at the 1972 Munich Games and he'll tell you straight up, "They were robbed." The emotions tied to a controversial Soviet Union victory and first-ever Olympic loss for the U.S. have carried over to the next generation of the Collins family.

Still, the younger Collins has a chance to lighten the heavy heart that lingers for his father, who hit two free throws with three seconds left that should have won the game for the U.S. that night in Munich.

Instead, the Soviets won 51-50 after getting three chances to replay the final seconds and scoring on their final try.

Chris Collins will, for the third summer, serve as a practice assistant and scout with the U.S. men's basketball team as it goes for gold in Beijing next month.

"I don't think it will ever fully reclaim anything," Chris Collins said of playing his part in a U.S. gold-medal effort. "There's nothing that can fix that. But to be a part of that process the last couple of years and considering all my dad went through with that game and not being able to showcase a medal of his own ... it would be special for [my family]. It would be a great feeling for me."

Doug Collins, who turns 57 on July 28, still hardly believes he was in that spot in Munich. The Illinois native didn't start until his senior year at Benton (Ill.) High School. He eventually received the first full athletic scholarship ever given at Illinois State, where he became a star.

The court at Redbird Arena is named after the Olympian and All-American who was the No. 1 pick of the 1973 NBA Draft. But, in 1972, Illinois State coach Will Robinson, the first black head coach in Division I basketball, had to campaign hard to get Collins invited to the Olympic tryouts.

Collins got in and spent three sweaty weeks at the U.S. Naval Base at Pearl Harbor in Oahu, Hawaii. In an open-air gym with the sun beating down on a tin roof, he played three times a day with the likes of future NBA head coaches Gregg Popovich and Mike D'Antoni.

Every night, he and roommate Bobby Cremins, who would later coach 19 seasons at Georgia Tech, would lie awake talking about how they messed up, sure they'd be sent home the next day.

Collins made the cut and that's how he ended up on the foul line with the game in his hands in Munich.

The gold-medal game started at midnight so it was early morning before the U.S. team returned to its dorm, confused and inconsolable. Doug and, then-fiancee, Kathy, with Ed Ratleff and his girlfriend, walked the streets of Munich until the sun came up.

Upon returning to the Olympic dorms, they heard that FIBA, the international basketball governing body, had denied the U.S. protest. The team voted to skip the medal ceremony and refuse the silver medal, then took the first flight home.

Collins said the team took it hard being labeled "the first U.S. team to ever lose in the Olympics." Collins said it even stung 12 years later at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics when, while acting as a host at some events, he was introduced as such.

Chris Collins, who played at Duke from 1993-96, said it makes him proud to think his own dad nailed such clutch free throws, but Doug Collins still thinks about how they went for naught.

"I don't want this to sound self-serving but can you imagine if those two free throws stood up?" Doug Collins said.

The story lingers as one of the most controversial results in Olympic history, and Collins still marvels at taking part in it.

"What a life it has been for me," Doug Collins said. "But when I'm asked if I could be healthy enough to play one more game, would it be an NBA Finals game? I say, 'No, no, if you let me play one more day, [the gold-medal game] is the one I would want to play."

It lingers as poignant family history for Chris Collins, though he said his father never really shared the Olympic story with the family. It worked its way to Chris, and his sister Kelly, because Chris loved basketball. He began following it when he began nurturing his own basketball ambitions while tagging along with Doug to practices and games during Doug's NBA coaching career.

"But it's definitely something that hurts," Chris Collins said. "I have so much respect for his knowledge of the game. ... He should go down as one of the great Olympic heroes. Something out of his control means he's not really looked at that way. It angers me."

Every few years, the IOC contacts the 1972 U.S. team members to see if they'll take the silver medals. All 12 would have to agree. Doug Collins said he doesn't think that will happen.

But he continues to support the Olympics and USA Basketball and said he feels "so proud" that Chris was asked to work with the U.S. team in Beijing. Doug will be nearby, working courtside as NBC's men's basketball analyst. Kathy will be there, though Kelly, who's pregnant, will stay home.

Doug Collins also will share his Olympic lessons with the current U.S. team as part of the USA Olympic Ambassadors program later this month in Las Vegas.

"I want to talk to the guys about how quickly things go," he said, "and how opportunity is there one moment and gone the next and how to take advantage of that."

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