LONDON -- There were no Olympic warm-up games played in Munich to commemorate the milestone, no throwback uniforms printed up for the 2012 squad to pay homage and no new documentaries commissioned by NBA TV to re-tell the story amid great publicity and pride.

The 40th anniversary of the U.S. men's Olympic basketball team and its infamous Cold War gold-medal game again the Soviet Union, up until the last week or so, had been passing rather quietly.

In stark contrast to what's seemingly been a yearlong tribute to the Dream Team, as it celebrates the two decades that have passed since it changed the face of international basketball at the 1992 Summer Games in Barcelona, members of the 1972 team who to this day remain convinced they were cheated and refuse to collect their silver medals get only occasional notice. That naturally would have changed in a major way had the current squad of NBA All-Stars representing the United States ended up playing Russia in Sunday's gold-medal game, but the Russians' semifinal defeat Friday to Spain means that '72 hoopla is bound to stay on the scarce side in 2012.

"I do think it's been pushed to the rear," says Johnny Bach, now 88, who served as an assistant coach to the legendary Henry Iba on the '72 U.S. squad. "I don't think the [International] Olympic Committee ever wanted to deal with it."

It was just last month that the 2012ers went to Spain, played two exhibition games in Catalunya to honor the original Dreamers' groundbreaking trip there and even sported the same jerseys Michael, Magic and Larry wore in '92, adorned with a special gold "CD" square above the heart to the honor the memory of late coach Chuck Daly. All that's currently planned for the Boys of '72, for certain, is the first get-together of its kind later this month in Kentucky that's scheduled to be attended by all 12 players on the roster.