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

When a fight broke out between the Houston Rockets and the L.A. Lakers one night in 1977, All-Star Rudy Tomjanovich raced to break it up. Unfortunately for Rudy, he ran into Kermit Washington, a good player with a great reputation, and one of the most ferocious punches ever seen in sports.

The punch dislodged Tomjanovich's skull, and he was never the same player after. Now he's head coach for the Rockets and coached the U.S. Olympic team to a gold medal in 2000. In the years since the fight, every team in the NBA has turned Washington away.

With his unique insight, style, and bone-deep knowledge of basketball, John Feinstein finally reveals the truth of that night and all the years after. Through this one cataclysmic event he casts a light on the NBA's darkest secrets, exploring race, conspiracy, violence, and how one mistake has haunted two good men for 25 years.

John Feinstein is the bestselling author of "The Last Amateurs," "The Majors," "A Good Walk Spoiled," "A Civil War," "A Season on the Brink," "Play Ball," "Hard Courts," and two novels. He writes for "Inside Sports," "Golf," "Tennis Magazine," and "Basketball America" and is a commentator on NPR and ESPN. He lives in Maryland and New York.