Approximately 44 years ago, Rolando Blackman was living his best life.
In 1980 while playing for Kansas State, Blackman won Big Eight Player of the Year honors and also was named third-team All-American. He capped that year off by going through the United States of America Olympic Trials and winning a coveted spot as the starting shooting guard on the 1980 Olympic team following his junior season at K-State.
At the time, Blackman was just 21 years old. And life was good. Really, really good.
However, before Blackman could lace up his sneakers and continue celebrating all the good tidings that 1980 brought his way, President Jimmy Carter announced that the United States would boycott the ’80 Olympic summer games in order to protest the Soviet Union’s invasion of Afghanistan, which occurred in December of 1979.