[FearM9]

John Feinstein who authored the new book about this infamous incident in NBA history has been on sports radio today in my neck of the woods.

This is the first time I have ever head about Kermit Washington punching Rudy Tomjanovich in a fight way back in the days. From the sounds of it it sounds like Rudy T. could have died because the punch was so brutal.

Does anyone remember this incident? Are there any pics out there?

[SportBoy321]

John Fienstein is a frequent guest on the Jim Rome show.

[Lucid]

And in other really obvious news...

The sky is blue.

Thank you.



Anyways... yeah, as a youngin, well not really that young, but compared to the time period this happened in, I'm too young to know about it (I'm 21). At least I'd assume it was quite a while ago cause it's been at least 35 years since anyone considered naming their kid Kermit.

Did some quick searching on the internet and this is what I found....

In a typically physical game, Washington found himself embroiled in a tussle with Rockets forward Kevin Kunnert when he noticed a blur out of the corner of his eye. It was Rudy T, who had sprinted from the Houston bench to break up the fight.

In a moment of sheer instinct, Washington turned and crushed Tomjanovich with a vicious right hand that Lakers assistant coach Jack McCloskey called "the hardest punch in the history of mankind."

Tomjanovich suffered fractures of the face and skull. His nose was broken, and he suffered a separated upper jaw, a concussion and lacerations around his mouth. He was leaking spinal fluid into his nose.

In an article on the incident, Sports Illustrated reported the "bone structure of his face was knocked loose from his skull." Doctors compared the injury with hitting a windshield at 50 mph.

Tomjanovich spent two weeks in the hospital while nurses and family kept towels over the mirrors to hide his face from himself.

"When I was (in the emergency room), I wondered if I would ever play again," Tomjanovich said. "I thought I was gonna be the Elephant Man and have to be put away and, 'Oh, my God, look at the face on that guy.' "

Tomjanovich recovered, won a $3.2 million lawsuit from the Lakers and went on to coach the Rockets to an NBA title. Washington was fined $10,000 and suspended for 60 days (a loss of about $75,000 in pay), and saw his career start circling the bowl like a deceased goldfish.

He played with four teams over the next five years and retired in 1982 at age 30.

[Auriaprottu]

Originally posted by FearM9
John Feinstein who authored the new book about this infamous incident in NBA history has been on sports radio today in my neck of the woods.

This is the first time I have ever head about Kermit Washington punching Rudy Tomjanovich in a fight way back in the days. From the sounds of it it sounds like Rudy T. could have died because the punch was so brutal.

Does anyone remember this incident? Are there any pics out there?

Let's just say it's probably the reason so many NBA players just kinda wave and slap at each other in today's fights- they've seen the footage. If Shaq ever hits anyone like that, he'll be on trial for manslaughter. And the casket will be closed.

I saw replays of the hit a few years ago- they showed it when Houston was on a title run in 94 and 95 as a special intrest story. Kermit hit Rudy HARD, from waaaay downtown, weight behind the punch. Rudy was coming toward the punch, too, which made it even worse. I'm surprised he didn't have to relearn the alphabet. He dropped like he'd been shot. Do a Yahoo search with both names for more of the story. I'm sure there's some info out there.

[CrewDust]

It was brutal. I'm surprised it didn't break Rudy's neck.

[Lucid]

Oh my god, I only got to listen part of the interview with Rome earlier today, but I am listening to the entire interview right now and this story is just unbelievable. Other than Ivan Drago's punch on Apollo Creed, I didn't think it was possible for someone to land a punch that would do that much damage.

Originally posted by CrewDust
It was brutal. I'm surprised it didn't break Rudy's neck.

Dude... I think it actually did?



Some of the more disturbing things discussed from the interview....
- Whenever Kermit hears Rudy's name, he think of the sound from the punch he landed on Rudy's face.
- Rudy woke up in a pool of blood on the court thinking the scoreboard fell on him
- IIRC Rudy was leaking spinal cord fluid into his mouth. He was fine mentally until he asked the doctor what the metallic tasting fluid was in his mouth and he was told it was the spinal fluid. That's when he started to worry.
- The doctor told his wife not to scream when she saw Rudy's face.
- Suprisingly he got up, walked away and met the ejected Kermit Washington in the hallway back to the locker room, he asked "Why did you hit me you S.O.B.?" At that point Rudy was lucky security stopped the approaching Washington because if he would have landed any kind of punch on Rudy T, it would have kille dhim becuase his skull was dislodged a 1/4 of an inch! Talk about a tough son of a bitch. Gets up an walks over to the man who jacked him in the face to pick a fight when his head is knocked off it's stand a 1/4 of an inch and he's leaking spinal cord fluid into his mouth.
- Rudy sued and asked for $2.4 million, but the jury awarded him like $3.5 million. LOL.

That is just an absolutely horrific story and Rudy Tomjanovich is lucky to be alive. Normally I would say I'd like to see a video clip of this, but something that devastating I don't think I want to see because it sounds like 9 out of 10 times that punch would have killed Tomjanovich.

Before this book, a relationship between the two was pretty much non-existant, but this book has apparently brought the two together and they look at each other like brothers because they share the same story in going to "hell and back" in the words of Fienstien.

Think about this story next time you debate entering a fight either to fight or to help. Your intentions are never clear and are usually percieved as a threat. I was a bystander in a fight that broke out a few weeks ago, got nailed by two guys when I had no intentions of even joining the fight. Luckily only thing I suffered was a bruised nose that didn't hurt versus a dislocated skull.

[Dr. Wankler]

Originally posted by Lucid
Normally I would say I'd like to see a video clip of this, but something that devastating I don't think I want to see because it sounds like 9 out of 10 times that punch would have killed Tomjanovich.

Just to confirm your instincts, you don't want to see it. I saw it on the news after it happened, and it was bad. Between the punch and the way he Rudy T. hit the court with his head, it's a miracle he's alive.

How did it affect other kids my age? At the community center where I would play pick up basketball at the time, we didn't have a fight for nearly a year after this. Normally, there'd be one or two a night, but that incident made a bunch of kids who weren't even old enough to drive think twice about fighting. That at an age were kids tend not to think once about anything.

[skipshady]

I get sick just reading about it. I have no desire to see the video.

I'm too young to remember this, but from what I understand, NBA is the 70's wasn't unlike the NHL, where each team had an enforcer to protect its star players, which Kermit Washington did for the Lakers. The "punch" helped clean up the game and paved the way for a the era of Magic and Bird of the 80's. Or so I understand.

HBO Real Sports did a feature on Washington a couple of years back, I think, and he was saying he had trouble getting coaching gigs, most likely because of the Rudy T incident.

[FearM9]

I listened to Rome yesterday when he was interviewing Feinstein.

My reaction during the whole interview:

Very, very disturbing. It's a miracle Rudy T. survived the punch.

I just may have to buy the book.

[FlashMan]

The truly sad thing about this - even above and beyond what happened to Rudy T., who survived and has gone on to a truly great coaching career - is that Kermit W.,, depsite being built in the Maurice Lucas/Karl Malone/Charles Oakley mode, was a gentle giant, and is an extremely soft spoken, genuinely nice guy. But this incident put a blot on his entire career (he was a fine player before any of this happened, a rebounding force), and has scarred him ever since, I guess into keeping him from getting coaching gigs.

It all happened in the blink of an eye. I remember seeing highlights that night on the news. Kermit thought someone was ganging up on him from behind and just reacted, without thinking.

Life sucks and then you die...