Olympic Trials in North Carolina—Dean Smith was the US coach—and then awaited the NBA draft. May was the second pick, by the Chicago Bulls, and Buckner the seventh, by the Milwaukee Bucks. It was all a “whirlwind,” Buckner recalled. “There was really no time to reflect that we had such a great college season,” Buckner said.
Perhaps Buckner’s greatest contribution to Team USA was to persuade May to come along. May was understandably conflicted. If he played poorly or was injured, he could be jeopardizing his NBA dollars. Others, notably UCLA centers Lew Alcindor (not yet Kareem Abdul-Jabbar) and Bill Walton, had passed on the Olympics.
May ended up sharing the cover of Sports Illustrated magazine’s Olympics preview edition with marathoner Frank Shorter and swimmer Shirley Babashoff. As the Olympic tournament evolved, May became as invested as he had in the NCAA tournament. “I had the same sensation,” he said. “The same feeling.”
Smith endured criticism for choosing four North Carolina players—Phil Ford, Walter Davis, Mitch Kupchak, and Tom LaGarde—and two others from the Atlantic Coast Conference, Kenny Carr of North Carolina State and Steven Sheppard of Maryland. Buckner said the coaching staff wanted “continuity,” which was one shortcoming of the 1972 Olympic team. Even so, Buckner said Smith’s offense “was perfect” for a smart player like May.
“It really couldn’t have worked out better,” Buckner said. “I played for, easily in that era, maybe the two greatest coaches of all time. They went about the game very differently. Coach Smith was Coach Smith. He never swore; he never raised his voice. Coach Knight, he raised his voice all the time. One was very demonstrative, and the other really wasn’t.”
In Montreal, the Americans opened with a 106–86 victory over Italy. In their second game, Marquette’s Butch Lee, a New Yorker born in Puerto Rico, nearly led his team to a historic upset. Lee scored thirty-five points on fifteen-of-eighteen shooting but was called for charging with eight seconds left and Puerto Rico trailing 93–92. Ford made two free throws to cap a twenty-point game, and the United States won 95–94.
“They had us in a tough spot. I will not kid you,” Buckner said.
The Americans rallied for a 112–93 victory over Yugoslavia behind Adrian Dantley’s twenty-seven points and May’s twenty-four. Egypt withdrew from the tournament for political reasons, so the United States won by forfeit. After beating Czechoslovakia 81–76, the Americans faced host Canada in a semifinal before a crowd of nineteen thousand. May and Buckner led the Americans to an early 22–8 lead, and then rolled into the gold-medal game with a 95–77 victory. May finished with twenty-two points and Buckner with twelve.
There was no rematch with the Soviet Union, which lost to Yugoslavia 89–84 in the other semifinal. In a rematch with Yugoslavia, Dantley scored eighteen of his thirty points in the first half, and redemption was complete with a 95–74 victory. The United States won an eighth gold medal in nine Olympics.
Dantley, of Notre Dame, was Team USA’s top scorer with a 19.3 average. May was second in scoring at 16.7 and led in rebounding at 6.2. Buckner was the fifth-leading scorer (7.3) and totaled eighteen assists, second to Ford’s fifty-four.
Buckner said he was indifferent to missing out on avenging the 1972 loss to the Soviet Union. That’s not what the Hoosiers, and Americans, were thinking atop the podium with gold medals around their necks and “The Star-Spangled Banner” ringing in their ears.
“It is by far the best feeling,” Buckner said. “Winning a national championship is tremendous. But there’s nothing better than representing your country and have that success. That’s the world stage, and you just showed you stand above all.”
” The magnitude of it was underscored to Buckner in Barcelona, where he was an NBC reporter at the 1992 Olympics. Within the first few minutes after the Dream Team went into the locker room, somebody spoke the words “got you” to Buckner.
“I didn’t pay any attention. It was Magic,” Buckner said. “I had not even thought about it. That’s how important it was to him.”
The Los Angeles Lakers superstar had joined Lucas and Buckner in that state/ NCAA/Olympics/NBA championship club.
Buckner went on to a ten-year career in the NBA with the Bucks, Boston Celtics, and Indiana Pacers. As in college, he was a defender and playmaker rather than a scorer. He made the NBA all-defensive second team four times with the Bucks. In 1980–81, he had career highs in scoring (13.3 points per game [ppg]) and steals (197, third in the NBA), and the Bucks were 60–22 in the regular season.
In 1982, the Bucks traded him to the Celtics for center Dave Cowens. In 1984, with Buckner coming off the bench, the Celtics went 62–20 and beat the Lakers 4–3 in the best-of-seven NBA Finals. The Celtics also made the 1985 finals but lost to the Lakers 4–2.
After that season, Buckner was traded to the Pacers but waived after thirty-two games. So he retired in 1986 at age thirty-one. For his career, he averaged 8.2 points, 4.3 assists, and 1.9 steals. He ranks just outside the NBA’s all-time top fifty for steals.
Despite lack of experience, he was hired to coach the Dallas Mavericks in 1993.
The Mavs, coming off an 11–71 season, started 1–23. They finished 13–69, and Buckner was fired two days after the season ended.
After being a network sportscaster, he was hired as vice president of communications for Pacers Sports & Entertainment in 2004. He became color analyst on TV broadcasts for Fox Sports Indiana.
May’s NBA career was even shorter. He made the all-rookie team in 1977, averaging 14.6 ppg for the Bulls, but was impaired by injuries thereafter. He averaged 10.4 ppg in a seven-year career with the Bulls, Bucks, and Detroit Pistons. He played seven more years in the Italian League.
May made his home in Bloomington and became an owner of apartment complexes. Two sons, Scott Jr. and Sean, both played for Bloomington North High School. Sean, a high school and college All-American, helped North Carolina win the 2005 NCAA championship and was most outstanding player of the Final Four. Sean was chosen thirteenth in the first round of the draft by the Charlotte Bobcats and played four NBA seasons before leaving for Europe. Scott and Sean are one of four father-son duos to win NCAA championships.
In May’s hometown of Sandusky, the Scott May Courts are named in his honor at Jaycee Park.
Walt Bellamy, 1958.
IU Archives.
Walt Bellamy
1960
Hoops Hall-of-Famer (Twice)
BEFORE BASKETBALL’S DREAM TEAM WAS ASSEMBLED FOR THE 1992 OLYMPIC Games, there was an original version.
“This was the authentic Dream Team,” Walt Bellamy once said of his 1960 Olympians. “I’d like to think that we were the best team that has ever played basketball.”
Before pros were allowed in the Olympics, the six-foot-eleven Indiana center was a starter on a team of college and amateur players that crushed all opposition in Rome. The Americans won the gold medal, outscoring eight teams by an average of 102–59.5. Indeed, the United States won by a cumulative 339 points, nearly as big as the 1992 margin (350).
The 1960 team, coached by Pete Newell, featured four members
