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

John Feinstein (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 5, 2002

Christmas, 1977 and an on-court fight breaks out between the Houston Rockets and the LA Lakers. Rudy Tomjanovitch races to break it up and is met by Kermit Washington's fist, delivering one of the worst punches ever seen in sport. Basketball was changed for ever. Tomjanovitch was a Rockets all-star, 6'7" and white. The punch dislodged his skull from his head, leaving him needing years of surgery and therapy. Washington was an average player for the Lakers, 6'8" and one of six athletes in the history of the NCAA to be both an academic all-American and a basketball all-American. By all accounts an exemplary man - until the split-second in which he threw his arm forward and devastated his reputation. The fact that Washington is black hasn't helped his treatment in the press or public opinion and no team in the NBA will hire him as a coach. Meanwhile, Tomjanovitch is head coach of the Rockets and the US Olympic team. Feinstein chronicles the untold story of what went wrong that night, the drastic response by the NBA, the conspiracy theories about the fight's origins and a story of how one man's mistake has haunted two good men for their entire adult lives.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

In 1977, Rudy Tomjanovich and Kermit Washington became entwined in a single punch that would change not only their lives, but how professional basketball is played today. Because the punch dislodged Tomjanovich's skull and nearly destroyed both men's careers, the scuffle never settled as a dusty bit of NBA trivia. Instead, it nearly superseded both men's notable achievements. The history of that punch (it could not, by any standards, be considered a fight) and the fate of the two men are the subjects of John Feinstein's The Punch.

In the early days of the NBA, teams had their stars and their "enforcers." Enforcers such as Washington protected star players on the court with their willingness to mix it up. With concise prose, Feinstein reports on this era, following strings of trades, drafts, and personal relationships to their nexus. Those who do not think about basketball on a statistical level may occasionally find themselves lost, but Feinstein, ever conscious of his subject, ties the tangents neatly to the core of the scuffle that led to the infamous punch.

Thorough and thoughtful, Feinstein does not make any excuses, nor does he vilify. He simply traces the web of both men's lives back to their adolescent years when it was not about the NBA, nor the punch, but about the game. Anyone who has ever wondered about these two men, or the history of the NBA, will want to read this book. --Karin Rosman

From Publishers Weekly

Feinstein's latest (after The Last Amateurs) tears the scab off one of the deepest wounds in the history of professional sports. In 1977, during a Lakers-Rockets match, L.A. forward Kermit Washington forever altered the course of his career and that of Houston's Rudy Tomjanovich when he threw a punch that nearly killed the Rockets' captain. From that moment on, each man's life became defined by the incident and its aftermath. Seamlessly weaving the event itself into the fabric of pro basketball's rocky pre-Magic/Bird/Jordan history of constantly relocating franchises, dismal television support and chronic violence, Feinstein tells a moving story of two men branded by a moment frozen in time, and how the incident changed the game it could well have destroyed. The narrative never gets mired in the fawning sycophantism of many sports books or the moral proselytizing of many others. Feinstein's research is sharp, and his time line jumps around effortlessly, like a good Quentin Tarantino film. Most importantly, the author sustains the balance between Washington's burden of guilt and the genuine misfortune that has followed him since. He's a sympathetic character, almost uniformly described as a smart, good-hearted man bearing the never-healing scar of the one great mistake in his life. Yet he is by no means the saint he might have us believe him to be. Feinstein's portrait of each man is compelling; neither is lionized or demonized. Rather, the complexity of the incident and the depth of the personal trauma for both Tomjanovich and Washington fester under the author's microscope in this excellent and engaging book.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 366 pages
• Publisher: Little, Brown; 1 edition (November 5, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0316279722
• ISBN-13: 978-0316279727
• Product Dimensions: 9.6 x 6.3 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (56 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,074,656 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

John Feinstein spent years on the staff at the Washington Post, as well as writing for Sports Illustrated and the National Sports Daily. He is a commentator on NPRs "Morning Edition," a regular on ESPNs "The Sports Reporters" and a visiting professor of journalism at Duke University.His first book, A Season on the Brink, is the bestselling sports book of all time. His first book for younger readers, Last Shot, was a bestseller.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

22 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars A lazy book that surely does not live up to expectations, December 7, 2002

By 

Bookreporter (New York, New York) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Punch: One Night, Two Lives, and the Fight That Changed Basketball Forever (Hardcover)

John Feinstein, author of THE PUNCH, is renowned for the fresh insight he shines on the cliché bound world of sports. Yet he has written a frustratingly lazy book about an event that deserves better. The book's subject --- a harrowing haymaker thrown by Kermit Washington that nearly killed Rudy Tomjanovich in a 1977 NBA game --- raises issues that transcend the sporting event in which it happened. But Feinstein shrinks to the challenge, never approaching matters of race, rage, class and family in a way that rounds out the story.

Feinstein begins the book with a description of the punch, an act so barbaric that it dislodged Tomjanovich's skull, causing spinal fluid to leak into his body. It took five surgeries to try to undo the damage from a single punch. In so doing, Feinstein introduces Washington as a mindless brute, ready to fight at any provocation. In this sense, the reader is pitted against Washington from the outset. No amount of "good guy" testimonials on Washington's behalf --- and there are many --- can shake the awful imagery. Moreover, Washington's bizarre behavior immediately after the punch --- he is remorseless and, incredibly, ready to go after Tomjanovich again, near the locker rooms --- doesn't help. It was not until Washington left the arena that he finally understood he had done something very wrong. But even then, he understood not because of his common sense and not because of what he saw on the court, described by one teammate as "just so much blood. I kept thinking, 'How can there be so much blood from one punch? Something is wrong here.'" What registered with Washington were the words of the parking lot attendant: "Kermit, you're in a lot of trouble. Big trouble."

Feinstein fails to pursue basic, important facts. For example, how did Washington's wife react to the punch? We don't know. Pre-punch, Pat Washington had grave concerns about her husband's notorious temper on the court. But Feinstein never explains her reaction to the punch, nor does he get any reaction from the Washington and Tomjanovich children. Washington's divorce is similarly unresolved. In a book that provides intricate detail on arcane, irrelevant NBA trades, salaries and management, the reader gets less than one page on the break up of a twenty-five-year marriage.

Compounding these problems is Feinstein's penchant for repetition, the withering repetition. A quote on page thirty-two re-emerges on page 171. A quote on page 154 reappears twenty-four pages later. Did you miss Brent Musburger's quote on page 21? No worries, it's there on page 194. Facts are recycled with great dexterity. On no fewer than four occasions, the reader is treated to the fact that the city of Houston is hot in the summer. Imagine that. Houston. Hot. Two of the four occasions are, naturally, the same quote.

Feinstein does a nice job describing the great friendship between Tomjanovich and his former teammate, Calvin Murphy. He skillfully reports on Tomjanovich's successful battle with alcoholism, offering a bare bones, unsentimental view of the ordeal. In fact, many biographical details are well researched and presented in a way that advances our understanding of the men, especially Washington, not as superstar athletes but as real people. Washington is a supremely hard working, thoughtful person. He achieved great things against long odds and, as a young person, looked to have a limitless future on and off the court. The punch changed things, and Feinstein provides sad details of a life gone off course, including an attempt to extort five million dollars from the NBA, and the taking of a polygraph test to prove he was not the instigator in the events immediately preceding the punch.

Feinstein reveals similarities between Tomjanovich and Washington that, perhaps, go beyond coincidence. Both men were raised in tough neighborhoods by emotionally distant parents. Both attended universities close to home, where they excelled in basketball and in academics. They have had close friendships with members of the opposite race throughout their entire lives. The same man drafted them into the NBA. Both are 6"8, and have sons named Trey. Although it may be a fanciful leap to look for cosmic meaning in an NBA fight, it is folly to dismiss Washington's belief that "Under different circumstances, I believe we would have been the best of friends. Everything I've seen or heard about (Tomjanovich) tells me that." Tomjanovich expresses similar feelings about Washington, indicating that in some sense they have been "married" ever since they were joined by the punch. And although they have not met or spoken at length since 1977, Tomjanovich characterizes Washington as his "brother."

Had Feinstein kept his gaze trained tightly on the major players --- and if his editor cut out the repetition and about fifty pages of irrelevant detail --- THE PUNCH would have made a bolder statement. As it is, however, the book fails to make good on its promise to fully explore "the fight that changed basketball forever."

--- Reviewed by Andrew Musicus

22 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Compelling reading, with just a few flaws, November 16, 2002

By 

mario tennon (Los Angeles, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Punch: One Night, Two Lives, and the Fight That Changed Basketball Forever (Hardcover)

First I'll begin with the book's flaws. For one thing, Feinstein was frequently redundant in mentioning the details of the incident over more than one chapter. More editing in that area would have made the book stronger. Also, I would have liked Feinstein to have done a more in-depth exploration on the way race played into this incident instead of merely mentioning that Washington received racist death threats in the aftermath of the incident and the fact that the NBA at that time was regarded as being "too black." By whom? The media or the fans? (Personally I believe it was both but I will save this for another discussion.)

Now on to the book's strengths: for one thing, Feinstein described Tomjanovich's injuries and the scene at the Forum and the hospital with vivid detail. When I first read what he meant by "dislocated skull" (after having heard Feinstein discuss the book on the Jim Rome Show), I gasped rather loudly at the bookstore and I actually felt a bit nauseated. Feinstein also did a good job describing the remainder of that evening for the two principals, showing how Washington already felt horrible about what he had done and how Tomjanovich, long portrayed as the harmless, gentle victim, actually asked the doctor working on him to allow him to go back to the Forum to get back at Washington, after they had nearly gone at it near the Laker locker room. I also had never known that Tomjanovich HAD been in a fistfight in an NBA game, in the 1971-72 season (his second season) against an Atlanta Hawk player, nor had I known about his post-incident anxiety attacks and drinking problem for which he finally got help a few years ago. Meanwhile, it was compelling to see how Washington had to deal with being viewed as sinister (and this is where, in my opinion, we could have used some insight from Feinstein on how race entered into public perceptions of the two men) and had trouble keeping a long-term job of any kind because, inevitably, his employers did not want to have to deal with the trouble of associationg with such a controversial figure.

Despite its flaws, this is a compelling read and is evocative of the darkest moment in NBA history, how it affected two men and their families, friends, teammates, coaches, and their sport, and how time has eventually helped to heal the wounds suffered by both Kermit Washington and Rudy Tomjanovich and also helped them to have a better relationship with each other. Ultimately uplifting.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Misses his own point, February 8, 2004

By 

patchman512 (San Jose, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Punch: One Night, Two Lives, and the Fight That Changed Basketball Forever (Hardcover)

In the introduction, Feinstein tells us how compelling he found this subject and how he pursued Tomjanovich and Washington rather than writing a book on golf. Then he inexplicably rushes through the book without apparent editing or proofreading. As many of the other reviewers point out, the repetition is extremely distracting. Of course, Feinstein's work never really qualifies as fine literature, but he's usually a very good sports journalist. This plainly is not his best work, which is too bad because he was right -- there was an interesting story here.
Regarding that story, the author's presentation was reasonable but could have been more comprehensive. In particular, he presents the punch and it's aftermath as an unfortunate incident -- almost an accident. Although he mentions in passing that Tomjanovich came close to dying, he never explores just what that would have meant, both to Washington and to professional sports. Instead, he recounts both players' careers and alternates between sympathetic and pathetic portrayals of Washington. He seems to want us to choose sides and then tells us that there are no sides.
As for Washington, it's unfortunate that this one event has overshadowed all of the good things that he has done inside and outside of basketball. But I have to agree with John Lucas that Washington has never owned up and taken responsibility for his actions. He refers to events using the passive voice. He childishly blames someone else for starting the fight. Heck, Tomjanovich takes more responsibility for what happened than Washington does. And if we use the measure that bad people are people who do bad things, for one moment at least Kermit Washington was a bad person.