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The 2018 Czech film, Zlatý Podraz (Golden Sting) tells the true story of the Czechoslovak national basketball team during the historically tumultuous period of 1938 to 1951.  It is based on the book They Were Not Afraid of Their Courage, by Jakub Bažant and Jiří Závozda. Small roles are played by some of the former team members, including Jiří Welsch, who was drafted by the Philadelphia 76ers. The film was directed by Radim Špaček and has been nominated for nine 2019 Czech Lion Awards. In 1938 American Mormon missionaries at a YMCA camp near Prague teach a group of young Czech men to play basketball and a national team is formed. When the war starts, their coach is arrested and it falls to a young lawyer on the team, Franta, to lead them to the European Championship in Geneva. After the war, he visits the prison where the coach died and takes a handful of soil in a wooden box as a talisman of luck for the team. Miraculously, the team wins. Franta falls in love along the way with a beautiful ballet dancer from Poland. But, communist control tightens around the team as they advance through the ranks of championship sports.

Czech audio. English Subtitles.