Kermit Washington

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Kermit Alan Washington (born September 17, 1951) is a former professional American basketball player. Washington is best remembered for punching opposing player Rudy Tomjanovich during a field bout in 1977. His blow almost killed Tomjanovich, and resulted in severe medical problems that ended his playing career Tomjanovich.

Washington is not a very coveted player who dropped out of high school and could barely go to college with an athletic scholarship. He averaged only four points per game (ppg) during his senior season in high school. He is rapidly increasing at American University, and is one of only seven players in NCAA history with an average of 20 points and 20 rebounds throughout their career.

A great defense forwards, Washington is known for its ability to collect rebounds. He averaged 9.2 points and 8.3 rebounds per game in ten seasons of the National Basketball Association (NBA) and played in the All-Star Game once. Washington was designed by the Los Angeles Lakers by selecting the fifth overall in the 1973 NBA draft. He played little during his first three seasons, and sought the help of retired basketball coach Pete Newell before his fourth season. Under Newell's watch, the game of Washington has improved greatly and he has been a starter for several teams. He plays for the Lakers, the Boston Celtics, the San Diego Clippers, the Portland Trail Blazers and the Golden State Warriors.

Video Kermit Washington

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Mrs. Kermit Washington, Barbara, graduated from High School Teacher (later Howard University), where she is an excellent student; his father, Alexander, was an X-ray technician. Washington had a difficult childhood. When he was three years old, his parents quarreled where mother's uncle became involved and where someone rudely attacked his uncle with iron. Her parents soon divorced, with her father giving custody of the children. His mother, who suffered from bipolar disorder, then took her and her older brother, Eric, from their father in an inappropriate place that was not properly prepared. Struggling for money to feed the children, she finally called their father, who came and took them back. His stay with his father did not last long, and he and his brother were passed to various families on both sides of the family.

The effects of congestion in and out of the home of family members caused a feeling of undesirable, which made Washington very shy as a young man. The only time he remembered the feeling of self-esteem was when his great-grandmother on the side of his father had a partner for a while. According to Washington, he loves boys but is very strict, dominating, and sometimes, physically abusive. After his father remarried, the children returned with him and his new wife. Washington feels optimistic for the first time, saying "I think it's our dream come true." Throughout our lives, we've seen a good family on TV, the real thing, and now we're going to be a real family. " However, she again felt unwanted this time by her stepmother. As a child, Washington says that he does not remember having been cuddled, and just feeling close to his younger brother, Chris. Washington is a poor student who hates school in most of his childhood. She has to take back many of her classes in summer school to raise her value. When she enters high school, she plays football just so she can be near a close friend, and has someone to walk home with at night because she is afraid to walk home alone.

As a senior in high school, Washington stands 6 ft 4 in (1.93 m) but weighs just 150 pounds. After some rare positive feedback by his biology teacher, Barbara Thomas, she begins to study and propose a greater effort at that class. He quickly became a solid student in biology but poor in all other subjects. When Thomas became a teacher in his living room and saw his grades in other classes, he encouraged him to try hard in all his courses. Washington rapidly increased its values, making honorary rolls in its senior year.

His ball performance in high school was not impressive. He came from the bench to an average of four points per game (ppg). Her stepmother told her that when she graduated from high school she would be thrown out of the house. Chris has been able to leave home with a football scholarship and then will play in the National Football League, but Washington alone has no place to go. He trained for three hours a day towards the end of his senior season, and appeared uninvited in a playground game featuring top-school players from Washington and Pennsylvania, where he spoke in the game. Tom Young, who had just left his job as an assistant coach at the University of Maryland to become head coach at American University, saw him playing there, and although Washington did not perform very well, Young was impressed by his commotion and how he ignored the ill-treatment he received from the people who set the game.

Maps Kermit Washington

Course period

During the summer between his senior year in high school and his first year of college, Washington grew four inches. He started undergoing heavy weight training, and ran up and down stairs in a seven-story dormitory building wearing a weighted vest to improve his endurance. Washington became more extroverted in college, so much so that he later said his life could be separated into two parts - his pre-college life and his life after college. He often describes his college days as "the happiest time of my life." She began dating Pat's future wife when she was a freshman. They meet after he notices him accidentally scoring four consecutive points for the opposing team in a new basketball game. He pursued her even though he often kept quiet while spending time with him. Many of the emergence of Washington's personality are credited to Pat, who encourages him to be more open and overcome his low self-esteem. Washington spends much of his spare time practicing in the gym. He plays basketball playing in the summer, and in some Urban League teams. He averaged 19.4 points and 22.3 rebounds on his team in America. Pat helps him with his values ​​â € "despite the fact that he has succeeded in high school, he is still far behind; he did not even know what the paragraph was when he went to college or how to write a report.

He averaged 18.6 points on 46.8 percent shot and 20.5 rebounds in the first year of university basketball. He still plays a rather non-aggressive or "soft" basketball, and it hurts his chances of being recruited by a professional team. Between his second years and his junior years, he began lifting weights with Trey Coleman, a former football player from the University of Nebraska who was studying as a scholar in America. Coleman encouraged him to be more aggressive on the pitch, and Washington told him it was not his nature. Coleman scolds him, telling him that he can not be "cool" in court considering his talent level if he wants to join the pro ranks. Washington was named the All-American academy in its first year. He averaged 21.0 points on shooting 54.4 percent and the NCAA led 19.8 rebounds in his junior season. He was recruited after his junior season by the New York Nets of the American Basketball Association (ABA) and offered him a four-year contract worth $ 100,000 a year, which surprised him. He decided to stay in America with Young's coach for his senior season because he felt he owed the school that gave him a chance when he was out of hard times in high school. He was offered an invitation to try the 1972 Olympic basketball team after the season, but did not make the squad.

Washington is one of the best players in the country entering its senior season. He was amazed at a newspaper report in the Washington Post that mentions "the opposing team coach and how they plan to stop Kermit Washington." He led the nation in a rebound again in his senior season. He is the second All-American team, and helps America to National Invitation Tournament (NIT). In the last game of his college career, Washington needed to score 39 points for an average of 20 points and 20 rebounds games for his career in college. He became very nervous before the game and could not eat or sleep. The game regulates the attendance records of American University, and Washington feels light when he is introduced to the crowd. He scored 40 points and thus, became the seventh player to reach 20/20. He threw the party, and there was a wide campus celebration after the game. He graduated with a GPA of 3.37 and a degree in sociology. Washington is a double American academic, who taught his senior year's social science course.

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Professional year

Washington was fifth composed overall by the Los Angeles Lakers in the 1973 NBA draft. A week before the team started the training camp, Pat and Kermit got married. They do not invite their families; they just drove together to LA town hall for the ceremony. He has a difficult time making the transition from college center to NBA power forward. In basketball, many players succeed in high school and college because of superior physical skills, but when they arrive in the professional ranks, they will usually fight against players who are often physically gifted as they are. Washington has also played in the main zone defense system in college and has no experience in man-to-man defense, which is more common in the NBA. He arrives at a team that has a legend Jerry West, who is in the final stages of his career that will produce him into a silhouette that is seen on the NBA logo. Washington admits that he is afraid of the West, and feels anxious every time he makes a mistake in front of him. Although healthy, he played in just 45 games and averaged 8.9 minutes of his rookie season match. He injured his back that year but remained silent about it, afraid he would be "labeled soft." The injury will bother him throughout his career. He continued to struggle in the second season, and found that finding individual training in professional games at that time was difficult. Between the tight schedule, and the coaches assume players already know how to play for most when they enter the league, no one, including head coach Bill Sharman, is willing to work with him one on one.

Entering his fourth season, Washington knew the only thing that kept him in the league was his guaranteed contract and that the Lakers had basically crossed it out. The organization feels he has the necessary physical skills, so they consider his failure to excel in mental shortcomings. Washington was deeply disturbed when in a match against Golden State he was involved in an awkward clash with Rick Barry, in which Barry commented: "Listen, you better learn how to play this game." Criticism especially bothered Washington because he felt Barry's reproach was right. Desperate to improve, he contacted Pete Newell at the agency's recommendation. Newell is a retired pro coach and college who works in front office positions with the Lakers, and has designed Washington when he is a GM team. In fact, while Newell says he feels responsible considering he composed it, he's been involved in a lot of player deals over his long career, and is not too tied to Washington. He was shocked by this request, however, and was unhappy with his highly marginalized new job within the organization, so Newell agreed to meet Washington for individual training. He scheduled an early morning practice to test Washington's dedication, thinking a professional athlete would not even bother waking up at that hour every day. Washington emerged without complaint and Newell took it through an intense training session. Newell is often seen as a kind and courteous man, who is considered one of the most important figures in the history of basketball games. However, in private practice, he can become an intense and unforgiving teacher, and he is even more unforgiving than usual with Washington because he feels that if he offers his services for free, he will only do so if the player is willing to train mad.

Newell has a Washington tape watch from Paul Silas, who is coming forward for the Boston Celtics, and convinces him to be more confident in his offensive game. He reworked Washington's game from the bottom up, and thus made a name for himself as a great big coach - he would then hold an annual "Big Man Camp" in Hawaii attended by hundreds of NBA players.

Los Angeles has acquired Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, and Washington's playing style equips him, since Abdul-Jabbar is not a physical player. Washington played well, averaging 9.7 points and 9.3 rebounds; However, he struggled with tendinitis in his knee throughout the season. His wife begged him to sit some games, but he drank painkillers and continued to play. Washington finally tore the patellar tendon in the final game of the season against Denver. "I could feel it tearing in. I looked down, and my kneecap hung on the side of my leg." The doctor covered all his feet in the cast and told him his basketball career was likely to end.

Newell was the one who brought Washington out of the despair Kermit felt when he heard his playing career might be over. Newell forced him to undergo a more exhausting training session the following summer, after several of them, Washington vigorously decided to quit. His legs have stopped growing from injury and he is afraid of injuring back during their training sessions. Newell ignores his request and tells him that if he wants to play again, he should practice more than ever and work harder. Washington returned to play the following season and performed well; through the first 25 games, he earned the highest average of his career (11.6) and rebound (10.8). He has been featured in the NBA edition of Sports Illustrated (dedicated to the enforcer of the year) before the season and is praised here for his intimidating and fighting ability. The magazine placed Washington unshaped in boxing position as part of the drawing layout entitled, "Nothing, but Nothing, Will Hurt My Colleagues."

Famous punch

On December 9, 1977, during an NBA match between the Lakers and the Houston Rockets, there was a fight between several players in midcourt.

Events that speed up the fight have been frequently debated, and interpreted in various ways. Two months earlier, on the opening night of the season, the Lakers played the Milwaukee Bucks. Kent Benson's Bucks Center elbowed Abdul-Jabbar in the stomach, and Abdul-Jabbar looked very painful. Abdul-Jabbar then presses Benson from behind, breaking Benson's jaw and his own. Washington fought several Buffalo Braves players a few games later. In December's game, early in the second half of the game, Lakers keeper Norm Nixon failed to shoot. Houston's Kevin Kunnert and Washington both competed for the rebound, which Kunnert finally got and handed out to teammate, John Lucas. However, their battle for rebound is more physical than usual. Abdul-Jabbar became involved and wrestled with Kunnert. As a result, Kermit Washington stayed behind behind to keep an eye on it and make sure nothing happened. After the two were not involved, Washington picked up Kunnert shorts to prevent him from attacking again quickly. Kunnert threw an elbow that hit Washington in the upper arm and this movement made him spin until he faced Washington. What happened next is moot: Washington, some Lakers, and Rocket forward Robert Reid insists that Kunnert pummel him, Kunnert says Washington swings first after he tries to free himself from Washington's grasp. The referee who saw the action saw only "fights" between Kunnert and Abdul-Jabbar followed by one between Kunnert and Washington then a Washington blow. Both Washington and Abdul-Jabbar refused this account.

Abdul-Jabbar then ran behind Kunnert and grabbed his arm to try to pull him away from the fight. But this only made him powerless for Washington's first hit, which hit Kunnert's head and dropped him with one knee.

Washington saw Tomjanovich running toward the quarrel. Not knowing that he intended to destroy the fight, Washington hit Tomjanovich with a round house blow. The blow, which surprised Tomjanovich, made his face about a third of an inch (8 mm) from his skull and made Tomjanovich unconscious in a pool of blood in the middle of the arena. Abdul-Jabbar likened the blow to the watermelon that fell to the concrete. Tomjanovich has a reputation around the league as a peacemaker. The players involved said that just after Tomjanovich dropped his absence in the arena, filled with surprised fans, was "the loudest silence you've ever heard." The reporters heard a blow through the second-floor press box, and some rushed to the floor to play in disbelief.

Tomjanovich can get up and walk, however, and on his way to the changing room he sees Washington. Tomjanovich said that he became aggressive and asked Washington why he hit him. Washington shouted something that was not heard about Kunnert, and they were split by two security guards. Tomjanovich is not in a condition to fight despite being aggressive; in addition to having the bone structure from his face detached from his skull and suffering a concussion and broken jaw and nose, he leaked blood and spinal fluid into his skull capsule. His skull was cracked in such a way that Tomjanovich could feel the spinal fluid leaking into his mouth. He then recalled that at the time of the incident, he believed the scoreboard had fallen on him. The doctor working for Tomjanovich said, "I have seen many people with less serious injuries unsuccessful" and likened the surgery to Scotch-tap together with a badly crushed eggshell.

Aftermath

The deterioration of the problem for Washington, the only repetition of events that existed only shows the blow, not the fights that preceded it. This made the attack appear for no reason, and Saturday Night Live, then watched by an average of 30 to 35 million people, repeated the blow countless times as a joke, had a cast member, Garrett Morris, gladly defend the blow. It was also the editorial subject of the New York Times and was investigated in CBS News by Walter Cronkite. Washington was fined $ 10,000, and suspended for 60 days, missing 26 matches; then the longest suspension for an incident in court in NBA history. The Rockets was very angry. Tomjanovich missed the rest of the season and they felt Washington should at least do the same.

Field fights were too common in the 1970s, often including fights with clearing-bench-clearing. In the season opener, when Abdul-Jabbar pressed Benson, no suspension was picked up. However, Washington's blow resulted in the league imposing strict penalties for fights in court. Former NBA commissioner David Stern, then an adviser to the NBA chief, later said that the incident made NBA officials aware that "you can not allow such large and powerful people to throw one another at each other." Currently, any player who throws a punch to another player - even if he misses - is automatically removed from the game, and suspended at least for his next team game. The league added a third referee to his game crew after the season; the referee will trail the game and could be called a foul when Washington grabs the Kunnert shorts, potentially stopping the game and preventing a successful melee.

Washington received no support from the Lakers front office, apart from one call a day after the fight from Cooke, and sent torrents of hate mail filled with racial epithets. He was advised by the police not to order room service when he played again, because he feared he would be poisoned. Larry Fleisher, head of the Players' Association, wanted Washington to appeal his suspension, an idea he initially considered, but was eventually rejected. Although many players around the league sympathize with Washington and say that he has a good reputation out of court, he and his wife become ostracized. They had a two-year-old daughter, and the Washington wife was eight months pregnant with the boy's first son at the time of the blow. His wife remembers him and his children being treated like a pariah after the incident. His obstetrician rejected his ministry because he was the wife of Washington, and his friends asked him what kind of a Washington person he could do such a thing. The only people who contacted them were Newell. Later that year Washington went to Newell's house with a large screen television which he insisted Newell accept.

On December 27, 1977, just two weeks after the incident, Washington was traded to the Boston Celtics. Red Auerbach, Boston's general manager lives in the Washington area, D.C., and has long been a Washington fan. His wife, Pat, stayed behind because the couple had two small children, and Washington would stay at the hotel. While he waited to be restored, which he thought would not happen until the following season, he became depressed and fell out of shape. He calms down, and starts running up and down the steps of the 29-story hotel.

Years later, Jerry West, who was the Lakers coach at the time, told John Feinstein that he still wanted Washington on the list. Later, the general manager, Bill Sharman said he was "on the fence." Cooke, however, decided to continue.

Washington started side by side with the Hall of Fame center, Dave Cowens, who enjoys playing with Washington, commented, "It's great, you can always hear him grumbling when he's rebounding." Auerbach said, "Kermit is fighting against him can not win.Nothing he can say or do will change the way people feel it because of the moment, I want him to feel at home with us, to feel wanted." Washington won Boston fans soon. Her acceptance was aided by a glowing article, Bob Ryan from The Boston Globe who wrote about the player after researching his life and spending time with him. After the season, Washington took less money to sign back with the Celtics over the Denver Nuggets.

Later career

Kunnert signed a contract with Boston before the 1978-79 season even though Washington was on the team because the Celtics offered the most money to him. There was still a dispute that remained largely silent between the two when Washington felt that Kunnert never really acknowledged his role in the fight.

Washington and Kunnert were involved in one of the more unusual player deals in NBA history. Celtics owner Irv Levin wants to move closer to his home, and business interests, in California, but also wants to continue to have an NBA team. To solve this problem, he and John Y. Brown, Jr., owner of the NBA Buffalo Braves team, exchanged franchises. Washington and Kunnert are two of the four Celtics sent to Buffalo as part of the deal. Levin then moved Buffalo Braves to San Diego, where they renamed the San Diego Clippers.

In November 1978, San Diego played in Houston. Tomjanovich scored 26 points and collected 11 rebounds while Washington had six and two. Before the game, Clippers coach, Gene Shue, had suggested to Rockets coach Tom Nissalke that the players shook hands on midfield before giving a tip. Tomjanovich rejected the idea.

After a year in San Diego, Washington is trading again. Levin decided to buy the Portland center, Bill Walton although Walton had missed the entire 1978-79 season due to a broken bone in his leg. Since the Blazers and Clippers could not approve the compensation, the BOC made a final decision, sending Washington, Kunnert, and Randy Smith to Portland instead of Walton. This became the second time Washington and Kunnert became part of the same trade.

Portland desperately wants Washington, and their general manager Stu Inman, is Pete Newell's close friend. Inman has worked hard through Newell to tell Washington that they want this to be the last time he is bought. This is important because media coverage and re-location is very hard for Pat and the children. Very relieved, the city of Portland welcomed Washington with open arms. Portland has one of the more fanatical fan bases in the league, and wherever Washington goes, it is treated like a loved celebrity.

During the same season, Tomjanovich and the Rockets vs. Lakers civil suit took place. The Houston side believes that Los Angeles has failed to control Washington. During the trial, many of the players and coaches in the game testified, while Washington sat at the defense table, listening to himself described as a dangerous bastard. Kunnert testified during the trial and contradicted Washington's testimony, angrily labeling him a liar. While both play for San Diego, their wives become close friends, but their relationship deteriorates over time; Washington believes the NBA keeps Kunnert on his team to prevent him from suing him. Jack Ramsay, the Portland coach, however, said that he chose Kunnert over the San Diego Swen Nater center when his side were asked by the league to submit a list of players they deemed a fair compensation for Walton.

Washington shared the time in place of Trail Blazers power forward with Maurice Lucas at first, but after trading Lucas to the New Jersey Nets, he became a full time starter. He played three seasons in Portland, where he earned a place in the NBA All-Star Game 1980, after several top players sat up with injuries. During the All-Star weekend, held in Landover, Maryland, near the United States held a halftime ceremony in which they retired the Washington number. He was appointed captain of the team for the next season. In his post-punch career, many players, coaches, and officials noted that he became less aggressive in the field for fear of engaging in other fights; something he never did. Washington began to experience pain in his back and knees during the 1980-81 season. The pain became unbearable during the 1981-82 season, and he retired in January 1982 after missing all but 20 games. In 1987, after more than five years out of the league, he tried to make a comeback with the Warriors, but only survived eight games on the list (playing in six of them) before being cut.

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NBA career statistics

Regular season

Playoffs

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Retirement

Since retiring, Washington has run a restaurant and is the founder and operator of a number of charitable organizations. He runs a restaurant in the Portland metropolitan area with former Blazer team mate Kevin Duckworth, called "Le Slam." The restaurant closed in 2001. He also served as a coach at Stanford University, and worked in Pete Newell's "Big Man Camp" for 15 years. In 1995, he founded The 6th Man Foundation, otherwise known as Project Contact Africa. In August 1994, Washington accompanied a team of doctors and nurses on a humanitarian mission to Goma, Zaire, working in a refugee camp to help victims of the bloody Rwandan Civil War. The smell of death and human waste extends for miles. "It was a sad and sad sight," Washington later recalled, "a sight I will never forget."

After his career, Washington complained about the treatment he received in connection with the beating of Tomjanovich. Washington has been trying to portray itself as a victim of a fight and seems to have exaggerated some of the misfortunes that come as a result. Washington told The New York Times that he had been denied work as a coach and again. However, Tom Davis hired him as an assistant coach at Stanford, and Davis wanted to take him to Iowa when he went to train there. Washington stayed at Stanford and then quit his assistant coaching position, and he later worked as a strength and conditioning coach for the Portland Trail Blazers.

Washington also claimed that the American University broke with him after he hit Tomjanovich. However, this seems to be a misstatement for certain events. When he tried to become an American athletic director in 1995, the school offered to hire him as an assistant athletic director, since Washington had no front office experience. When confronted with this, Washington stated: "I do not understand why I can not become an AD so they can use my name up front and then have someone with more experience be my assistant." John Feinstein and others say that the most enduring damage caused by the fight between Washington and Tomjanovich is Washington's self-image, and his refusal to accept responsibility for his actions in the fight. Pat then says it's deeper than that, like when he met her in college:

It is very difficult for him to show affection. Sometimes I'll ask him directly if he really cares about me, and he'll say something like, "I think you're really good." It's hard for him to be more open than that. He was never really nurtured, never really loved. I believe if I maintain enough, if I love him enough, he will pass all that. But I do not believe he ever actually did it.

Washington currently lives in the Washington, D.C. area, where he is employed as a regional representative of the National Basketball Association.

Crime belief

On May 25, 2016, Washington was indicted for allegedly embezzling about $ 500,000 devoted to children in Africa. On December 04, 2017, he pleaded guilty to three charges: one of the identity thefts exacerbated, and two of making false statements in tax returns. Washington does not accept donated money for charity for children in Africa. Instead, he used a charity to launder the money he received as a bribe. Washington, as regional representative for the National Basketball Association, referred NBA players to San Diego lawyer Ronald Mix, who later contributed to the charity, but was actually an illegal referral payment. Washington then withdrew this money for personal spending. Washington failed to report this money in return for its tax return.

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See also

• List of NCAA basketball players backdrop Division I men pacing
• Breaks of the Game

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Note

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Source

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External links

• Career and player information statistics from Basketball-Reference.com
• Legal deadline with Kermit... Coach by Jeff Twiss @ NBA.com

Source of the article : Wikipedia