In 1977, rookie Kent Benson, barely two minutes into his NBA debut, tried to rough up Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and establish himself against the superstar. Kareem responded by immediately punching the cocky rookie in the face.
Benson was an asshole who drove Larry Bird away from IU by being such a prick to the freshman when he was a senior. Bird made a point of kicking Benson’s team’s ass whenever they played in the NBA.
He had better stats than Benson 32 times head-to-head in the NBA. Benson bested him twice.
Well Benson and Bobby Knight being a general dick. Obviously his name carried great weight but even then, I don’t understand how players could accept being coached by him.
You read how he talked about Steve Alford and Steve to this day says he loves that man. Crazy stuff.
Bird said he left for financial reasons and wouldn’t have had a problem playing for Knight:
https://www.thedailyhoosier.com/larry-bird-on-his-brief-stay-at-iu-i-dont-think-me-and-coach-knight-would-have-had-a-problem
Yeah, definitely talked in a book (probably “Drive”) that Quinn Buckner being his roommate and through no fault of his own, he had stuff and such, Bird had like literally ONE shirt.
Nah, Quinn wasn’t his roommate. It was Jim Wisman.
Larry Bird specifically said Benson wasn’t the reason he left. It was because he couldn’t afford to stay.
Bird said Benson was part of the reason. In his autobiography, “Drive”:
Kent Benson can be a nice guy, but point-blank, he treated me terribly. He treated us freshman as if we were idiots… Finally Scotty May spoke up a little and I got to play, but Benson continued to treat me like a jerk, like I was nothing. You’d see Bobby Wilkerson and some of the others around campus and they’d say hello and make you feel good. I couldn’t believe the way Benson was acting. But I’m not saying he was the reason I finally left. It wasn’t just him — it was the school itself.
He goes on to say that it was the side of the student body, class sizes, academics, coming from a poor background etc. “It didn’t take me long to decide that I was in the wrong place.”
It wasn’t ‘just’ Benson…
Right, exactly.
No scholarship? Why couldn’t he afford to stay?
He had a scholarship, but he had no money for anything else – clothes, transportation, food outside of the provided meal plan, etc.
And, outside of being a jerk, Bobby Knight was reportedly straight up with NCAA rules and didn’t find ways to funnel money to players like some coaches did…
Natural shooting motion
Natural pacifist motion
Their philosophy is never be the aggressor, but if you’re hit, hit back. This is perfectly in line.
Be Nice, Be Forgiving, But Don’t Be A Pushover
Pass-a-fist indeed
Mostly peaceful.
Basketball move
he motions away from Benson like he’s trying to box him out.
then boxes him out in the face.
Quite effective. I’ll try that against the next dude that’s 8” taller than me.
Hell yeah. Break his hand with your jaw
“How do you like my your-fist-to-my-face style?”
We purposefully trained him wrong, as a joke
Kent “Wimplo” Benson
Weeohhhweeohhh
CaptainAmericanICanDoThisAllDay.gif
Abdul-Jabbar is also an avid martial artist. Had a famous fight scene with Bruce Lee a few years before this. Movie was Game of Death.
Kareem trained in Jeet Kune Do under Bruce Lee for about 4 years. That and the contrast in height is what led him to the movie. But he believed that Bruce Lee’s emphasis on stretching and flexibility before workouts, is what led KAJ to yoga. And that discipline, mental and physical conditioning and flexibility is what really extended his longevity
He probably felt like the next great enforcer who nobody would mess with for about nine seconds.
A lot of people here are making jokes but they don’t really know the full story. Kareem, being the historian that he is, details the story here, as well as his autobiography (1983 and 2017 as he has two) if you want a longer read.
In this particular clip above, Kareem says Don Nelson told Kent Benson that if he ever wanted to make it in the league, he had to be an enforcer, which makes sense since Nelson knew how to be an enforcer. Kareem also is a very detailed person, so I don’t think he would make a claim like this against Don Nelson unless he first confirmed it. The only issue is Kent Benson literally chose the wrong day of Kareem’s career to do that but being an enforcer was the right of passage for all unskilled centers back then and Benson wasn’t very skilled despite being the first pick. Benson never changed though. He was actually part of the early Bad Boy Pistons and he definitively had other moments but you just don’t know them since he didn’t get punched right afterwards.
Kareem also apologized for the incident, both in interviews here (you can hear the clip of how regretful he is in an interview during his career) and in his writings, although I’m not sure if he’s done it directly in person to Benson and couldn’t find a source for that. He knew he had messed up because he was also there a few months later when his teammate nearly ended Rudy Tomjanovic in a Rockets-Lakers brawl that probably changed the NBA in a way, and Kareem probably realized that could have been Benson if his punch had landed differently. So he’s been pretty regretful for his punch ever since then, plus he knew he was punished karma wise by missing 2 months and Benson only missed 1 game. I think him and Benson are on good terms, although I can’t confirm but he did say he called him in the clip above so they at least have talked. Kareem is a good guy, but that’s the full story and Kareem has told this many times.
Yeah Kermit Washington nearly killing Rudy Tomjanovic by punching him in the face and cracking his skull. Knocked out, spinal fluid leaking into his mouth because his skull was fractured badly, could hear a “melon cracking” sound out to the second row. Whole arena went silent. Missed 60 games. Washington got 23 game suspension.
Washington says his whole family became pariahs after that. OB/Gyn stopped seeing his wife. Also says he could never get a coaching job anywhere after he retired because of that incident.
I’m sure he never intended to hurt somebody that badly. But he sure did.
Washington never did get his shit straight after he retired, and hard to know how much of that is on him, and how much it is on repercussions from that punch.
However, I do know Kermit Washington is a scumbag who was sentenced to 6 years in federal prison in July 2018 for charity fraud, filing false tax returns, and aggravated identity theft. He admitted to stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars from his charity, “Project Contact Africa,” to fund personal lavish expenses.
I always felt bad for Kermit Washington because truthfully there have been more malicious punches in the NBA. Rudy was running at him full speed after a separate altercation had happened between two other players. The fine on Washington was justified but the way he was treated after seemed like a product of it’s time, considering the race relations of the 70s and the poor state of the league.
I suddenly feel a lot less bad for him after hearing about him starting a charity for African families and then embezzling from it.
Looked more like Rudy (who was known as a peacemaker kinda guy) was running BY him to help break it up and his hands weren’t up to fight. Tomjanovic brought them up to protect himself as Kermit started his punch.
But whatever Kermit’s mindset and POV was, once the melee was on, at worst he saw Rudy as a direct threat, and at best he at least saw Rudy as a “fair game/enemy” I guess.
The reason there was so much damage was probably Rudy’s running velocity into the punch. Typical right hook for even a pro boxer, fist is traveling 25-35 mph at contact. If Kermit is a good puncher throwing 25 mph, Rudy is running full speed into it, his face going more than 15 mph straight into it, that’s a relative velocity of 40 mph, and the mass of the whole forearm behind that fist.
Not to mention his head hitting the hardwood. I imagine that’s how the spinal fluid leaked and why it was near fatal. A bare knuckle would be less harmful to the brain than a gloved punch, not that it wouldn’t knock him out either way.
It’s lucky that Rudy recovered as a player and had a successful coaching career as well, he didn’t deserve that punch
‘Tomjanovich was in no condition to fight despite his aggression; besides having the bone structure of his face detached from his skull and suffering a cerebral concussion and broken jaw and nose, he was leaking blood and spinal fluid into his skull capsule. His skull was fractured in such a way that Tomjanovich could taste the spinal fluid leaking into his mouth.[68][69] He later recalled that at the time of the incident, he believed the scoreboard had fallen on him.[70] The doctor who worked on Tomjanovich said “I have seen many people with far less serious injuries not make it,” and likened the surgery to Scotch-taping together a badly shattered eggshell.[62]’
From Wikipedia
Christ alive
Thanks for the video. I really should get around to reading that book. Been way too long since I read a book for fun.
Rite of passage, btw.
He actually has two autobiographies, the 1983 one and the 2017 one. Both are going to be interesting. I’m not some reading expert but if someone can contrast the two, it would be cool because obviously your life view changes in 34 years. I actually think the 1983 one is more famous since he was still playing but the 2017 one is going to be more comprehensive and reflective.
Kareem honestly was an underrated enforcer back in the day lol but I don’t think many people know this. Like you did not want to mess with him. Here’s another one of him knocking someone down just for getting under his skin. Back in the 1970s, this was common though. I’m not sure which big man didn’t do this, maybe Bill Walton would be my guess, but he had Maurice Lucas so he didn’t need to.
Benson deserved it no matter what Kareem says these days.
I mean yea Kareem covered that in his 1983 autobiography too. He basically (and I’m paraphrasing but you can find the paragraph yourself) said what you are saying. He wasn’t going to let some no-name rookie with no professional experience at that point in his first game show him up, and the elbow could have seriously injured him, so in Kareem’s mind, he needed to show who was in control and wasn’t going to back down until he was finished with Benson and taught him a lesson. The regret is just afterwards, not in the moment. I think everyone understood and agrees with Kareem in the moment of what he did based on all the other comments here. I don’t think anyone really disputes what you said but I was just giving some context based on Kareem’s own words later on.
Welcome to the league my boy.
I won’t lie it’s pretty easy to break your hand punching someone without gloves
nine seconds is about right and the whole bill went to kareem. broken shooting hand, 20 games missed, and the only all star team he didnt make in twenty seasons. benson had a concussion and two stitches, missed one game and was back four days later
Kent Benson (and Bobby Knight) were one of the main reasons Larry Bird left the University of Indiana and would later end up at Indiana State.
Benson was a tool and a jerk that would make even Duke’s Christian Laettner look like a Noble Peace Prize winner in comparison
Bird made it his mission to torture Kent Benson in the NBA every chance he got. He embarrassed him constantly.
There’s YouTube videos that detail these massacres if anyone cares to check it out.
Larry Bird highlights? Guess I’m about to fire up the old YouTube.
I’m more upset about being too young to have seen Larry actually play than any other entertainment icon. Maybe Houdini.
He was amazing. I was rooting for Philadelphia, so it was rough, but man he was good.
Definitely going to check it out
Bird has one of the absolute best highlight reels, adding this detail makes them so much better.
Why was he such a douche?
Because he had a coach who told him he was right to do it and probably came in like a shithead. Knight is a mistake the sport glorified
Knight got away with a lot of things, for a long time since people hand waved it away as being military discipline due to him coaching at Army before Indiana.
Idk man there’s other coaches with armed forces backgrounds like Coach Pop and Coach K, and I don’t remember either of them going to the extremes that coach Knight did.
Bro pulled up to a press conference in the 90s with a whip and said its the best motivational device he has ever seen 😭.
He was VERY different compared to other coaches in how he behaved. Extremely successful though, and his players loved him. But he was a loose cannon more times than not.
It was the fact his players loved him (along with his success) that allowed him to last as long as he did. You need both of those things in order to last when you’re a psycho like that.
Except for all of his players who did NOT love him and transferred away even when the teams were playing well
Coach K was a Knight protégé and Knight ended up beefing with him because of perceived slights that didn’t exist. And I’m no Duke or Coach K fan. It’s just reality of what happened.
Knight was a narcissistic asshole who basically scared his players into submission. He knew basketball too. But he was a fucking lunatic.
Anyone who hasn’t should read “Season on the Brink.” It’s one of the best sports books ever written and really gives you an inside look on Knight’s psyche.
I think Bobby Knight was just worried his protégé was going to end up being a better all time coach then him and that soured their relationship until it became personal.
Bobby Knight retired as the coach with the most wins in D1 and 3 national titles. Coach K broke his wins record and finished with 5 national titles. Not to mention Coach K had to constantly compete against another blue blood school in his own state in UNC his entire time, which would make it harder to win given you’re competing for the same recruits.
No disrespect to Purdue but they have no where near the history or prestige UNC had at the time under Dean Smith.
If Bobby Knight could change history he would wish that Coach K got the Lakers job in 2004 and stayed as an NBA coach for good. Then his protégé would not pass him in wins or titles for the collegiate level.
Bobby Knight threw a chair onto the court during a game while an opposing player was shooting a technical foul free-throw.
Watch the 30for30 doc “The Last Days of Knight,” the allegations were insane. Video of him going for a player’s throat, audio of him threatening players if they didn’t win, and allegations of him and fecal matter among other things.
I had a highlight video (on VHS) as a kid of Knight’s antics. Absolutely unhinged to say the least.
Same but it was a part of a sports blooper video. They made it seem so light hearted.
idk, Coach K sure seemed to end up with a lot of generational pricks on his teams over the years
He is a direct disciple of Coach Knight lol. Played for him at Army and was his assistant at IU for a year. Coach Knight did help him get the Army job then referenced him for the Duke job so I guess some habits were picked up.
But his behavior is no where near Bobby Knight who would be unhinged at times.
Grayson Allen
Allen hasnt committed a foul that compares to this
The amount of players he’s tripped over the years…
List the pro players his tripped in the NBA in regular or preseason games
He was dirty in Memphis early in his career, but started to chill out after he was traded. It is known.
Don’t think I saw it after the preseason in Memphis. Kind of my point. He got a message
Lmfaoo come on now
Anyone who wants to know more about how much Bobby Knight sucks should watch The Last Days of Knight 30⁄30 episode
+1 for this. The allegations regarding fecal matter were insane.
That’s one of the great unanswered questions of mankind lmao.
Why Kent Benson was a douche?
Lmao, Laettner still catching strays.
I’ve heard first hand how Knight was and have met him myself. Pops played for him at West Point. No doubt Knight would’ve encouraged the behavior.
I saw Benson play in college several times. He was the most physical center I ever saw, in terms of getting down into the paint or block, spreading out, and making himself available for a pass. That was the last undefeated NCAA men’s team, and they beat us (Michigan) three times (including the championship game) that year.
Welcome to the NBA, Rook!
> University of Indiana
Had me second guessing myself that he was somehow not an IU alum writing it out this way.
University of Indiana
C’mon man, I can forgive “Nobel” getting autocorrected, but this made me wince.
Kent Benson at Indiana University
Does Laettner have a bad reputation?
Bird left and yes hated Benson, but he is on record multiple times that it had nothing to do with Knight.
O damn he kocked him tf out lol
Kareem didn’t fuck around
His elbows were legit weapons and he knew how to use them.
he was literally fighting bruce lee
He was also a commercial airline pilot
Imagine Kareem dropping the people’s elbow on you
Man went toe-to-toe with Bruce Lee. He ain’t afraid of anyone.
Should have learned somewhere in there how to punch without screwing himself over.
That’s not what a knockout is why are we lying lol
Uh falling down is not a knockout lol
No lol being knocked out is losing consciousness not falling down
Correct
Sorry I completely misread your comment. My bad
This punch broke Benson’s jaw and Kareem’s own hand
You can see his head shake around a bit 💀
Eat shit rookie
A nice handful of it.
Is that you Shaq?
Put that Bruce Lee training to use
Jeet Kune POW
Bill Walton: What he say fuck me for?
The Lakers with Kareem were 37-25 (59.7% winningpercentage) and 8-11 (40%) without him. The Blazers were 48-10 (82.8%) with him and 10-14 (41.7%) without him. I love Kareem, but Walton absolutely deserved that MVP despite the boxscore numbers not showing it. He completely dominated games despite not scoring a ton, and taking some ugly ass jumpers.
So what you’re saying is you think Kareem is good but you don’t think he works hard enough on defense?
Tell your old man to drag Walton and Lanier up and down the court for 48 minutes!
I literally just watched this today.
He’s been hearing that crap ever since he was at UCLA
Walton was so good those two seasons he basically made the HoF based on them. He didn’t care if he was the one taking the shot, and he was so good at finding cutters that he didn’t need to be a volume scorer the same way Kareem did. Granted, Walton never had a weapon as consistently money as the sky hook, but he was no scoring slouch. But he was an incredible rebounder and a far better defensive player at his peak than Kareem.
I think his college career probably played a role too, although he was NBA top 75 nevertheless which shows his NBA legacy was in tact too. It would be interesting if he didn’t have a college career though like how he would be viewed in terms of the Hall of Fame but his college career probably also kind of helped his NBA top 75 chances indirectly too.
Kareem and Walton are the only 2 players that would have made the HOF solely on their college career.
Probably the only two that should get into the HOF based on their college careers, but the (mostly white and mostly East coast) media at the time had a huge hard-on for Bill Bradley when he was at Princeton.
He delayed his entry into the pros by going to Oxford for two years. If he had come back and gone straight into politics, I could see him still making the HOF just on his three years at Princeton.
KAJ ., Bill Bradley and Walton are probably top 3, but Pistol Pete, the Big O and David Thompson have an argument.
KAJ and Walton decided to skip the Olympics.
Add Bill Bradley - who won the Olympics gold as an undergrad, won the MOP of the NCAA tournament and several college plyer of the year awards as a senior and won the European Champions Cup while studying in Oxford
Pistol Pete never played in the NCAA tournament, but he is the all time NCAA men’s leading scorer, and led LSU to 4th in the NIT
The Big O - in each of his three years, he won the national scoring title, was named a consensus first-team All-American, and was chosen college player of the year. The USBWA which gave him the first 2 such awards, would later name the award after him . He was the NCAA’s leading scorer until Pistol Pete and won gold in the olympics.
David Thompson won his 2nd national player of the year awards immediately after Bill Walton…undefeated 27-0 in 1973 (but college was banned from postseason), won NCAA tournament and MOP along with 30-1 the next year, 3x consensus first team All American
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._men’s_college_basketball_national_player_of_the_year_awards
Also I feel that in the earlier years, college basketball was given a lot of prominence, but somewhere after Skywalker Thompson, it ceded a lot more to professional basketball..
So even guys like Laettner/Hill Duke or fab 5 or Noah’s Florida Gators wouldn’t make it on college accomplishments./
Didn’t he also sweep Kareem in the playoffs when Kareem had home court and Kareem won regular season MVP that season?
People talk about Hakeem over Robinson all the time but something similar happened years earlier with Walton and Kareem.
Kareem was obviously a better player but Walton was really good too. Stats like RAPM would have probably highlighted his intangibles like his screen setting, hockey assists, and defensive communication ordinary counting stats would never show.
Well-deserved punch, Kent Benson was/is a fucking asshole.
Kareem didnt see him there it was just an accident
Why did i read that in Christopher Moltisanti’s voice lmao
Not supposed to turn your head after giving a cheap shot
Yeah, like can it even be a sucker punch if you should’ve been more than expecting it?
-Steve Kerr on Dray punching Poole
Welcome to the NBA, kid.
Crazy how Kent Benson looks like he’s 42 years old
Did he knock him out?
I believe that the punch broke Benson’s jaw.
concussion. only missed one game
Kent Benson - Wikipedia
Considering the state of sports medicine at the time, he definitely got knocked the fuck out if he missed a game.
That’s how you know Benson is professional athlete, if Kareem punched a normal dude off the street he’d be dead
He put all 38,000 points into that punch cause God damm that look was a hard punch
The hell I don’t! LISTEN, KID! I’ve been hearing that crap ever since I was at UCLA. I’m out there busting my buns every night! Tell your old man to drag Walton and Lanier up and down the court for 48 minutes!
I’m sure that line was not scripted. Kareem knew it would work and he didn’t have to act that scene. That was his life.
I understand Kareem’s for his response, but I can’t believe that he can punch a guy who didn’t see it coming, couldn’t knock him out, and broke his hand in the process. That is hilarious. I guess the training under Bruce Lee did not pay off.
Now I’m confused because I’m seeing people above saying he missed the game due to a concussion from this punch… I don’t know which strangers to believe
You can get a concussion without losing consciousness. Hope that helps
bro sucker punched and then ran away 💀
This clip does not boost Kareem’s legacy 😂
Yeah that was a bitch move by Kareem tbh. Didn’t even look like Benson elbowed him that hard at yet Kareem acts like he got kicked by a horse before he sucker punches him.
And how much did Benson get fined/suspended??
$0 and missed one game to injury
Damn he cracked that man lol
Kareem was definitely feistier in his younger days, lol.
This punch is the only reason Kareem isn’t a 20 time all star
Kinda soft if I’m being honest
people act bitchmade like this with bigs specifically. they get elbowed, clawed, and fucked up and just because they dont fly back 6 feet or flop, the other guys get away with it. thats why we see so many bigs get pissed and crash out these days, its bc its a valid strat to just push the physicality too far until someone gets violent instead of letting a skilled big rack up wilt numbers.
The last paragraph has me worried you don’t know how percentages and per game stats work. Playing less games doesn’t mean your per game stats are going to be lower than someone who played more
Felt a bit over the top, but guess Kareem wanted to send a message
Also it was the 70s, feels like you could punch people
Kareem also broke his hand
GOAT
> yet despite losing roughly a quarter of the season, he still averaged
Confusing phrasing. Were they calculating averages by dividing by 82 regardless of how many games you played back in 1977?
I’m pretty surprised that people are defending this sucker punch and Kareem immediately jumping backwards like a bitch.
Wow never seen the punch that broke his hand. I’m actually kind of surprised that he was out for 2 months because of it.
Ahhh… The good old days.
Thats fucking basketball right there. None of that pansy ass dick tugging smile for the camera bullshit. Men puke, men poop on the court, men deliver their new born baby on the side lines. Fucking hard core dick in the ass butterball basketball fuck it chuck it game time shit.
I see the Wemby comparison to Kareem now
Kent Benson made Larry Bird feel bad when he went to visit Indiana, so he went to Indiana State. When they got the NBA Larry made a point of wearing him out.
I assume Benson won that MVP vote seeing as he single handedly held Kareem to 0pts in 20 consecutive games!
What do you think a full out punch connecting like that would get suspension wise in today’s NBA?
1 game for Draymond Green and 2 free throws for SGA
Also technical for Tatum because that’s why.
7-10
Sucker punch
Didn’t this guy know Kareem fought Bruce Lee?
Gotta love the running away after a sucker punch. Real tough guy move.
And Kareem actually knew how to throw a punch
Nice clear out
My favorite Kareem memory is how he would clear out rebounds by throwing elbows back and forth. Everyone knew to keep your head back or take one on the chin.
Larry Bird’s college nemesis too
and then NBA Bird destroyed him
LMAO. I’ve seen this clip a lot of times before but didn’t know Benson was a rookie at this time. The gall to do this to anyone but to Kareem of all people, he got what was coming for him.
Damn near full extension from a 7 footer. I know that shit hurt.
Honestly Benson got the last laugh considering Kareem fractured his hand, lol
considering that 99.99% of people never heard of Benson, I somehow doubt he got _the_ last laugh. Man averaged 9pts, a complete and utter irrelevance of a career.
Kareems hands are so big lol
Fun fact - Kareem missed 20 games because the injury (he was not suspended). This was the most number of games Kareem ever missed in a year.
We need to get back to this
Kareem looks like a pilot
Cheap shot
Authority figures have had it wrong for a long time. Retaliation should either be only lightly punished or not punished at all. Am I in that extreme of a minority that thinks instigating should bear the brunt of punishment?
I think you’re completely wrong about what most people believe.
Your position would be the most common, by far.
that’s how you get an all out brawl
because Benson instigates Kareem, Kareem retaliates, but then Benson team mate is retaliating while defending his team mate and you get a chain of people simply “defending their own”
I’ve had friends complain to me that I “hit too hard” or overreact when they punched me on my arm while I’m doing other things and I was like “dude, I don’t have a strength meter, you hit me, it hurt, I hit you back, don’t hit me or go fuck yourself” and it was 100% friendly, I wouldn’t have punched them in the face or escalated, but what if they felt aggravated and wanted to throw hands?
it’s very simple, even more in a sport where they make millions, have image to protect, sponsors and so on, it’s not about fairness but to protect the league and the players, if everyone was Draymond you’d have a lot more injured players
100% and it’s why bullying is so common in schools, often everyone involved is punished instead of the instigators
No it’s not lol
So when is it instigating and when is it not, exactly? Because if you can’t tell with 100% certainty every time this doesn’t work at all.
The priority is to stop things getting out of control, not to punish the biggest asshole worst.
Depends on the retaliation. The worst thing you can do for keeping control of the game is to make it turn into a back and forth between both players/teams. That’s how you get a fight or worse.
First thing that came to mind even though it’s a different sport was Josh Norman vs OBJ. It kept going and going and going until they completely lost control of the game. Those guys were actively trying to hurt each other after a point because they took too long to do anything about it.
Kareem sky hook unstoppable
Benson ended his career with 9ppg average, and this is all he’s really known for anymore
I’m not a basketball guy by any means. Imagine my surprise to learn that guy getting punched was 6 foot 11… He looks small next to Kareem. Like more than the 3 inches difference they are listed at.
Didn’t Kareem spar with Bruce Lee?
wait a minute dude elbows kareem in the bread basket, and are bashing kareem over the punch? classic reddit fashion
Bet Kareem only got a foul for that
$5K fine (huge at the time)
Nothing will ever beat Willis Reed fighting the entire Lakers bench by himself and beating the case
Roger Murdock almost with the Oveur hand right.
Meanwhile, Kent Benson became a Trivial Pursuit question.
Kent Benson! What was your “welcome to the NBA moment?
Greatest player in the world punched me in the face.
Would have been great if Roger Murdoch had dropped a Kent Benson reference in Airplane.
I love that he has a second to let the gonads breathe, thinks about it, comes up with the perfect angle and pop.
i tried to box out an older guy at the gym once and he just stood there like a brick wall, then posterized me next possession. benson got a punch from kareem, i got a dunk on my head.
The good old days
Welcome to the league rook
Kent, what was your welcome to the NBA moment?
I’m still shocked that Kareem had all that training with Bruce Lee but broke his hand.
You mean the Bill Walton who only carried a mid ass Blazers team to their only Championship and won Finals MVP?
Kareem fought Bruce Lee, don’t fuck with him