Sport can sometimes break boundaries. This is what happened on February 12, 1989 in Houston. That day, Rimas Kurtinaitis had become the first player to participate in the NBA All-Star Game without having played in the American league. But not just any player. A Soviet.
At the time, the Berlin Wall was still standing for a few months. The USSR still has a little more than two years left, and we are therefore still in the Cold War. The end of the Cold War, but the Cold War nonetheless.
With his beautiful mullet cut and his awful swimsuit, Rimas Kurtinaitis is therefore a pioneer, a curiosity for the public gathered in Texas.
But above all a basketball player who had a great adventure.
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The episode – Rimas Kurtinaitis, a Soviet at the All-Star Game
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