Rudy Tom and Kermit Washington

[TheShrimp]

There's this new Feinstein book out about "The Punch".

SI excerpted it a few weeks ago and had a bunch of people write in. A lot fo the letters just called Kerm a thug and criticized him for not being as remorseful as they thought he could.

Of course, he got a HUGE suspension at the time.

There's one point I'd like to make about this that I've never heard anybody say: Washington threw a punch. A thousand NBA players have thrown a thousand punches with the exact same intention. It just so happens that Washington's punch met a charging Tomjanovich flush on the upper jaw, and consequently it did a lot of damage.

Was it last year Shaw threw a roundhouse at the white goon on Chicago? No one thinks anything of it, but if that guy had stood up and turned around right as Shaq's punch came in it could have shattered his face.

Just because Kerm's punch landed and Shaq's didn't doesn't mean it was that much more "punishable" or that KW should be villified forever.

That's all I wanted to say about that. He's wrong for throwing the punch, but I don't think he's any more wrong than anyone else just because his punch landed.

Haven't read the book. Probably won't. There's an interview with the both of them in usa today if anyone is interested.

 

[maverick2112]

Growing up, I thought the guy was a thug, but after hearing him on the Jim Rome show last week he seemed like a very decent guy. He donated his car to be sold for charity and really helps poor people in Africa.

 

[ferdville]

Washington is probably the most misunderstood player in the history of sports. I doubt that any of us can say what we would have done if we were on the court and we saw some guy running fullspeed toward a meelee. Washington shouldn't have thrown the punch; but I can see why he did. Those of us that go back that far know that fighting in the NBA was an every night occurance. As Shrimp said, he did nothing that hundreds of other guys haven't done. Unfortunately for both Kermit and Rudy, the punch connected and nearly killed Rudy. If you remember though, Rudy came back at him despite the fact that his face was caved in. Because Washington was a tough enforcer at the time, he was forever labled a thug - a most undeserved title for this guy. He is one of the most stand up guys to ever play in the NBA and has donated much of his money and most of his time to charitable causes since his career ended. One of those wrong place/wrong time things that has been blown out of proportion. In this case, both of the guys ended up the worse for it.