The “Basketball” stamp from the series “International sports competitions “Friendship-84” (Moscow)” was issued on August 15, 1984. Print run: 5,800,000 copies. Artist: Ivan Akimovich Sushchenko.
“Friendship-84” was a series of international competitions held from June 6 to July 22 and from August 16 to September 16, 1984, in 9 countries of the socialist bloc (USSR, Bulgaria, Hungary, GDR, DPRK, Cuba, Mongolia, Poland, Czechoslovakia) that boycotted the Olympic Games in Los Angeles, under the official motto “Sport — friendship — peace”.
The reason for the boycott was the refusal of the U.S. authorities to provide the USSR and other socialist countries with special written security guarantees, as well as the refusal to allow Aeroflot to operate charter flights to transport the Soviet delegation, and the refusal to accept the passenger ship “Georgia” in the Port of Los Angeles, which was planned to be used as an Olympic floating base.