And was pretty apparent why Shaq misses so many free throws, horrible hand and eye cordination with that attempted swing.
yes there was, sorry i do not have the video, but it was on this board once. Miller is a cry baby, i always hatted him. But if you see this video he starts almost al the fights he is in. he plays very phisical but if somebody almost touches him he turns insane. he is crazy
Of all the NBA fights, the most famous one has to be the Punch that took place almost 30 years ago between Rudy T (as a player for the Rockets) and Kermit Washington (as player on LA Lakers). The video of the Punch is a must-see stuff for every professional NBA players to indoctrinate them against on-court violence, and the bad consequences of nano-second of sheer madness or loss of temper. A book was even written on this incident. The name of the book, written by John Feinstein is called: The Punch: One Night, Two Lives, and the Fight That Changed Basketball Forever. Rudy T was seriously injured in the Punch; in danger of his life in Intensive Care Unit for 2 days; had 5 to 6 surgeries to fix his skull and face; he won the law suit on LA Lakers, but his player life was cut short. He is constantly plagued by headaches and bad memories all his life. The life of Kermit Washington was completely ruined by the Punch; he was fined for US$ 10,000 and no games for 60 days; he was lucky not put into prison; but his NBA career as an up-and-coming power forward was impaired and ruined; he struggled afterwards ending his season at LA Lakers; failed to land new contracts in other teams; NBA never forgave him his trespasses and continues to blackball him to this day; never made a coach at any levels afterwards. NBA basketball changed forever as well; new rules were reinforced to ban on-court violence, as well as the invention of the lottery systems. I also got another interesting link as follows:- sort of a book review on John Feinstein's book: http://www.allsports.com/cgi-bin/showstory.cgi?story_id=37776 QUOTE The Punch: One Night, Two Lives, And The Fight That Changed Basketball Forever -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- January 2, 2003 By: James Anderson For those not young enough to remember this incident, basketball, as we know it today has its roots firmly cemented based on the results of this night. 9 Dec 1977 is a night that changed the NBA in many different ways based on one huge punch. The lives of Houston Rockets Coach Rudy Tomjanovich and former NBA power forward Kermit Washington have forever been linked to each other because of this punch. I want to say that I chose to read this book via the lazy man’s method. I listened to it on cassette tapes because I write so much now that I get very tired staring at and flipping pages for hours. I would recommend you do the same on this book because much of the information is somewhat redundant and written down to the last minute detail, therefore the reading may become boring and take you a much longer time to finish reading it. In fact, this book may not be for everyone because of the time period it covers and many people just may not find the primary characters of interest to them. I come from that era, therefore it still remains fresh in my mind when I heard about the events and saw the punch played over and over on TV. This book leads you through the night of, before, and after the 9 December 1977 game in Los Angeles between the Los Angeles Lakers and Houston Rockets. It gives the reader a feel of what a typical night in the NBA was like with many fights happening on a nightly basis. This is played out in an era where the NBA was at possibly its low point of popularity. Agents wielded less power, mediocre players didn’t make millions of dollars and players were simply glad to be in the league and would do anything to remain there. During the game between Houston and Los Angeles, one of those regular fights that happened in the NBA was developing. Kareem Abdul Jabbar and Kevin Kunnert were involved in a tangle up and Washington, the Lakers enforcer, which most teams all had, came back to make sure Kareem was ok and held up Kunnert by grabbing his shorts as he tried to get up the court, also a regular trick used. Kunnert threw an elbow at Washington’s shoulders based on Kunnert’s account that infuriated Washington. Washington claims Kunnert threw two elbows at his head and Jabbar held both of Kunnert’s arms to keep a fight from starting, but Kunnert was hit by a punch from Washington that sent him to the ground. The ref had blown his whistle and all of the players had become aware of what was going on. Washington was thrown out of the game, but not before the punch had occurred. Rudy Tomjanovich was the Captain; therefore felt he needed to look after his teammate. He came running from one end of the court to the other at full-speed without lifting his hands up ready to protect his body. His reasoning was that he hadn’t intended on fighting, so there was no reason to protect his face. Kermit Washington had a past history as an inner city kid and in the NBA that said you protect yourself first and worry about who’s behind you second. Washington had been in a fight in Buffalo where another player jumped on his back from behind during a fight, so the precedent had been set for someone coming up from behind on him during a fight. Tomjanovich ran right into a perfectly thrown punch that had enough power to do the maximum damage to Tomjanovich or anyone else that ran into it. The result of that punch that lifted Tomjanovich right off the ground backwards was a completely damaged face that actually took his skull out of alignment with his face and left him only a few inches from death. Every player, writer, and fan in attendance claimed they had never heard a sound so disgusting or so much blood in one place coming from a person’s face that resulted from a punch. Tomjanovich was hit so hard that he tasted spinal fluid from his brain, but all he was worried about was going back to the basketball game to help his team win the game. He had been hot in the first half and simply wanted to get back in to help his team. Everyone at the game and in the hospital cringed at the view of Tomjanovich because it was damage that most people had ever seen. The lives of both people forever changed because both guys no matter what else happened in their lives have always been associated with the punch. When Rudy Tomjanovich won the NBA title as a coach with Houston, he still had to answer questions about that incident rather than enjoy the excitement of finally achieving every player or coach’s dream of winning a title. 16 years later and film of the punch was still being played. It’s been an upsetting aspect to his life and for his family to be reminded incessantly of this event no matter what else happens. Kermit Washington had the same problem because he was and still is forever known as the thug that nearly killed a man by throwing one punch. That is the furthest thing from the truth because Washington has achieved many things in his life, but everything always eventually comes down to everyone always wanting to know about that punch. He’s helped people in Africa live everyday with his charity and other things, but his name is forever linked to that event. He’s had a hard time trying to forge a normal life when that’s always on your life resume. One mention of your name and people associate it with punching another man. The book takes us through the accounts of the night’s events by every player at the game, the families of the two men and what amounts to an autobiography of each man to give you a feel of who and what they are about. The interesting thing about this book is that both men lived similar lives in different cities. Tomjanovich from a poor suburb of Detroit living on welfare at times and Washington in the inner city of Washington D.C. Washington mentioned at the end of the book that from all he’s heard about Tomjanovich that they could have easily been friends in the right situation. From what I read I believe that statement myself. Tomjanovich has lived his life after the punch trying to prove he belonged just like he did as a kid trying to prove he was good enough to be someone. He always felt he had to prove himself good enough in high school, college at the U of Michigan and eventually in the NBA when his coach wanted Pete Maravich rather than Tomjanovich. After being punched, many people including the team management questioned if he could come back and whether the team should go another direction. Tomjanovich proved himself to the point he was selected again to the all-star team and he had come all the way back. Washington had to prove himself continuously because he was never really a basketball player. He somehow played hard enough at an all-star tryout that he impressed Coach Tom Davis he was a diamond in the rough, who then convinced school officials to admit him in. He worked hard enough to become only the 8th player in Division I history to produce 20 points and 20 rebounds in a season. He was weak in the pro ranks and finally before his 4th season went to Pete Newell to help him get better, so he could remain in the NBA. He improved dramatically to the point he was acknowledged as a solid power forward and eventually made one all-star game in his career. The resulting affects of the punch in the NBA were that Larry O’Brien got the owners to toughen up the rules for fighting in a game. It used to be a maximum penalty of $500 dollars and a 5-game suspension for fighting and if you didn’t land a punch often you’d never get thrown out of a game. Now it’s an automatic suspension for just throwing a punch whether it connects or not and it can be up to a $10,000 fine with a suspension that can go up to 60 days. The league fears that men this size can produce tremendous damage to a person just like the event in 1977 and this is used every time something happens as an example to the players. Players are fined if they come off the bench like in the Miami Heat and New York Knicks playoff series from a few years back where everyone was suspended that came out to the court. Another rule change in the NBA brought on by this incident was the lottery system based on the constant losing by teams like Houston. They were still trying to recover from this event and had lost enough that they got the top draft pick two years in a row and the league decided to go with the lottery system because of it. It can be said the league goes overboard on its rules, but they refuse to ever again have an event that brings a lasting black eye to their sport where it’s viewed as a league of big thugs and cheaters. Of course, players back then really can’t be compared to today’s players with rap sheets as long as their uniform pants, but perception can be more important than reality at times. Kermit Washington never had any kind of an illegal police record on file, but his name has forever been associated with violence in sports. An older crowd will forever link Tomjanovich with being punched and with Washington for punching Rudy Tomjanovich. Younger people probably only know him as the Rockets coach, which is what he wants because everyone wants to be identified with their successes not events that bring pain to them. What’s so amazing about this book is that Tomjanovich and Washington have really only spoken once in the 25 years following this event and briefly at that, but have finally come to a quite peace with each other because they now view their relationship almost as a marriage. They realize their names will forever be linked and only hope for the best for each other because holding anger for someone will never produce any positive results. Tomjanovich continues to coach Houston, while Washington is reportedly coaching in China because the stigma of the punch leaves him unable to land a job in the NBA even after 25 years. This would be the end of the story if it weren’t for Kevin Kunnert. Kunnert and Washington have a very acrimonious relationship because each person continues to blame the other for the incident. Washington believes the fight started because of Kunnert, while Kunnert believes Washington needs to move on and stop feeling sorry for himself. Kunnert feels it was an incident like any other at that time and he didn’t need to react that violently. Kunnert has had to listen and read about Washington on talk shows and newspapers telling his story, which always makes Kunnert out to be the bad guy. Kunnert’s kids even hear about it because now it’s viewed as if Kevin Kunnert hadn’t throw the first blows Washington would never have thrown the punch. One relationship has a quiet peace while another has continued to spew venom because neither man will accept any responsibility. John Lucas, a teammate of Rudy T and a friend of Washington has said he believes Washington needs to simply say he screwed up and he’s sorry and accept that responsibility without adding a but in there. If he does this maybe the NBA and people in general will learn to drop it and he can live a normal life like most people do. Sometimes though, the more time that passes the harder it is to accept reality. Washington may never accept that reality because of all the hurt he’s experienced, but life goes on and we all have to decide for ourselves how we want to live it. I shouted out now you shout back and tell me your thoughts on this incident if you’re old enough and what you’ve heard of it. I recommend this book to all that know nothing of the history of this league and how we’ve gotten to where we are now. Shoutoutsports is the place where everyone has a say and gets to shout it out. UNQUOTE
That book, "The Punch", is a FANTASTIC read. I recommend everyone who likes basketball pick it up. Anyone have a video of it? I've only seen it once and I didn't get a good look at it . . . read a whole book about it, but I hadn't even seen the video until afterwards . . .
Provided you're a REAL ONE pass subscriber, maybe you could try the following news clip from ABC covering the incident, titled: Single Blow: - How One Punch Changed Professional Sports. There is a video inside that news clip, I think. http://abcnews.go.com/sections/gma/goodmorningamerica/gma021209thepunch_feature.html I was not a REAL ONE pass subscriber, so I have not seen the video clip myself. I'd rather not, as I think it has to be very violent and bloody !!!
MLB fights are great since they almost always end in brawls: https://webspace.utexas.edu/kimjh26/Baseball karate kick.avi
While we are on this subject, maybe it is interesting to know that Kermit Washington and Rudy T did not reconcile over the incident until 2002, i.e. a quarter century after the Punch !!! http://www.usatoday.com/sports/ccovtue.htm
I recently saw the video of the fight on ESPN 25 greatest something I don't remember and they had both Rudy T and Kermit talking about it it was really and unnecessary sucker punch
Baseball fights? Pffft, you guys have such short term memories; this BY FAR the best 'fight' in baseball since Ryan wearing out his knuckles on Robin: 'Karate' Man, someone needs to remix that.
