Strange But True: They Shoulda Stood in Bed

When a country puts together an Olympic team, the best coaches and players are chosen. However, in the 1948 Olympics it was painfully obvious that no one in Iraq knew anything about basketball.

First the Koreans beat Iraq, 120-20. Then the Chinese beat Iraq, 125-25. The Iraqi team had lost each game by a margin of 100 points!

Has there ever been a basketball shutout in the Olympics? Yes, in 1936, when Czechoslovakia defeated Germany, 20-0.

From The Giant Book of More Strange But True Sports Stories by Howard Liss. Illustrations by Joe Mathieu.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iraq_men%27s_national_basketball_team

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basketball_at_the_1936_Summer_Olympics

avataravataravataravataravatar
About butcherbakertoiletrymaker 603 Articles
When you can walk its length, and leave no trace, you will have learned.

1 Comment

  1. So, there were a number of things in this story that need correcting.
     
    Iraq’s tournament went like this:
    Lost to Philippines, 102-30
    Lost to Chile, 100-18
    Lost to Belgium, 98-20
    Lost to Korea, 120-20
    Lost to China, 125-25
    Lost to Italy, 77-28
    Forfeited to Switzerland
    So, yeah, they sucked.
    Regarding the shutout at the 1936 Olympics, it turns out that didn’t actually happen, but it still had to be the most boring game in history because the score was 20-9.

Leave a Reply