The Basketball Section

December 9th, 1977 saw one of the most brutal punches in the history of non-punch-centric sports. In a match-up between the Los Angeles Lakers and the Houston Rockets, a battle for a rebound between the Lakers' Kermit Washington and Rockets' Kevin Kunnert escalated into a full-on fight at half-court. As Washington's teammate, the legendary Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, attempted to break up the fight (something both Abdul-Jabbar and Kunnert attest to) by holding Kunnert back, Washington landed a punch on Kunnert. There are details of the fight that have multiple, conflicting accounts, but what happened next is not up for dispute. Rockets' star forward Rudy Tomjanovich ran toward the fight in an attempt to break it up. Washington, not knowing Tomjanovich's intentions, delivered a vicious punch directly to Tomjanovich. The results were devastating. Tomjanovich suffered a facial fracture so severe it detached from his skull, a cerebral concussion, and a broken jaw & nose, a...

The Boston Celtics are coming off a season that saw them make the Eastern Conference Finals. Along with the talented young core of Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown, and Marcus Smart, and a solid veteran group of Gordon Hayward, Daniel Theis, and Enes Kanter, the Celtics were been bolstered by their big offseason addition of Kemba Walker. The four-time all-star joined the Green last summer following a sign-and-trade with the Charlotte Hornets, who Walker had spent the first eight years of his career. Despite the ability to offer Walker, who was vocal about wanting to stay in Charlotte, even if it was on a smaller deal, a supermax deal worth $221 million, the Hornets reportedly offered Walker under $160 million , prompting the team's star to depart. It was the end of a story that saw Charlotte waste the best player in the franchise's history and end up with close to nothing to show for it. How did we get here? 2011 Offseason This story begins on June 23, 2011. The then-Charlotte Bobca...

It's May 5th, 2006. The Sacramento Kings have just been eliminated from the playoffs in the first round, falling to the top-seeded San Antonio Spurs in six games. It's the second year in a row where the Kings have been bounced in the first round, and the heartbreak of their controversial loss in the Western Conference Finals four years prior still lingers. Only Mike Bibby and coach Rick Adelman, but the additions in the last four years have proven successful enough to continue to make the playoffs, albeit with less success. The strongest addition is Ron Artest, a controversial yet talented player who won Defensive Player of the Year, was selected as an all-star, and made the All-NBA 3rd Team two seasons ago, but had missed just about the entire previous season after his involvement in the infamous Malice at the Palace. The additions, along with Artest, included other players like Brad Miller, Shareef Abdur-Rahim, Bonzi Wells, and a young Kevin Martin. There's a solid base t...