The Punch : One Night, Two Lives, and the Fight That Changed Basketball Forever

When an on-court fight broke out between the Houston Rockets and the LA Lakers just before Christmas 1977, Rudy Tomjanovitch raced to break it up. He was met by Kermit Washington's fist. This is the story of how one punch changed two lives, the NBA and how we think about basketball, forever. When a fistfight broke out between the Houston Rockets and the Los Angeles Lakers one night in 1977, All-Star Rudy Tomjanovich raced to break it up. He was met by Kermit Washington, a good player with a great reputation, and by an astonishingly ferocious punch, a single blow that has reverberated in both men's lives ever since. With his unerring insight into the deeper truths of professional sports, John Feinstein reveals what really happened that night and traces the remarkable trajectories of both men's careers before and after the punch. Through this one cataclysmic event he casts a light on the NBA's darkest secrets, exploring violence, race, and the true price men pay when they choose a career and a life in sports. .. He had always worried about the scoreboards.