His death on Saturday (December 3) was revealed by former club CSKA Moscow.

"Today, after a long illness, the great player of CSKA and the national team of our country, Alzhan Zharmukhamedov, passed away,” the club announced.

"CSKA expresses its deepest condolences to the family and friends of Alzhan Zharmukhamedov."

Zharmukhamedov is considered by historians to be the first ethnic Kazakh to win an Olympic gold medal.

He was an important member of the Soviet team that beat the United States 51-50 in the final that still ranks as one of the most argued-about results in Olympic history.

It appeared the Americans, whose team was composed of college players, had won the Olympic title for the eighth consecutive Games when the horn sounded to end the game with them leading 50-49.

But the game was restarted - twice - during what even the players struggle to define as errors by the officials or an outright attempt to cheat them.

Referees initially put time back on the clock after the Soviets argued they had called a timeout and the horn had sounded.

The clock was still being reset when the ball was put into play and the Soviets did not score, so R. William Jones, secretary general of the International Basketball Association (FIBA), again ordered the clock reset to three seconds.

Given another chance, the Soviets fired a long pass to Aleksander Belov, who scored to give them a 51-50 victory, the first defeat the US had suffered in 64 Olympics since basketball had made its debut at Berlin 1936.

The US team from that day still refuse to accept their silver medals, but it elevated the Soviet players into legends back home.

In 2017, the Russian film Going Vertical told the story of the 1972 team, culminating in the dramatic final play in the gold-medal game, including the winning assist from Ivan Edeshko.

In Russia, it is known as "The Golden Pass".

The film was wildly popular, becoming the highest-grossing Russian film of the post-Soviet era. 

It also won six "Golden Eagle" awards, the Russian version of the Golden Globe.

It was the highlight of a long successful international career for Zharmukhamedov, which included another Olympic medal, a silver, at Montreal 1976, and silver and bronze at the FIBA World Cup in 1978 and 1970 in the Philippines and Yugoslavia, respectively.

Zharmukhamedov was also a member of the Soviet Union squad that won the European Championships in 1967, 1971 and 1979, as well as the team that took the silver medals in 1975.

With CSKA Moscow, he lifted the European Cup in 1971 and was part of a team that won the Soviet Championship 10 times.

"He was a great man and athlete," Edeshko said.

"He made himself with his diligence, he was from a simple family.

"Everyone loved him very much for what he was.

"If you take the 1972 Olympic team, six different nationalities were represented there, and there were only three of us left.

"One Lithuanian, Modestas Paulauskas, another Ukrainian Anatoly Polivoda, and me."

Zharmukhamedov is due to be buried at the CSKA military cemetery on Wednesday (December 7).