It’s still as hard to watch as it was the first time I saw it. In what was a simple regular season matchup between the Houston Rockets and Los Angeles Lakers on December 9, 1977, things got heated. In the midst of that, one extremely poor decision almost led to the newly announced Hall of Famer Rudy Tomjanovich losing his life.
Sometimes, small incidents can escalate and lead to disasters, which is exactly what happened on that night. It’s tough to fathom what exactly was going on in Lakers forward Kermit Washington‘s head when he decided to punch Tomjanovich, with whom he wasn’t even fighting with at the time.