With a bone-deep knowledge of basketball, this sportswriter reveals the truth about the cataclysmic event in 1977 between the Houston Rockets and the L.A. Lakers that changed two lives, the NBA, and all of professional sports.

With a bone-deep knowledge of basketball, this sportswriter reveals the truth about the cataclysmic event in 1977 between the Houston Rockets and the L.A. Lakers that changed two lives, the NBA, and all of professional sports.

With unerring insight into the deeper truths of professional sports, John Feinstein explores in riveting detail what happened one night in December 1977 when, as a fistfight broke out on the court between the Houston Rockets and the Los Angeles Lakers, Kermit Washington delivered a punch that nearly killed All-Star Rudy Tomjanovich. The punch -- now legendary in the annals of American sports -- radically changed the trajectory of both men's lives and reverberates throughout the National Basketball Association to this day. Feinstein's compelling investigation of this single cataclysmic incident and its aftermath casts a light on the NBA's darkest secrets, revealing the true price men pay when they choose a career in sports.