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