90 Facts About Kermit Washington

Kermit Alan Washington was born on September 17,1951 and is an American former professional basketball player.

Kermit Washington was not a highly-coveted player coming out of high school.

Kermit Washington averaged four points per game during his senior season at Coolidge Senior High School.

Kermit Washington improved rapidly once at American University, and became one of only seven players in NCAA history to average 20 points and 20 rebounds throughout the course of his career.

Kermit Washington averaged 9.2 points and 8.3 rebounds per game in ten National Basketball Association seasons and played in the All-Star Game once.

Kermit Washington was drafted by the Los Angeles Lakers with the fifth overall pick in the 1973 NBA draft.

Kermit Washington played sparingly his first three seasons, and sought the help of retired basketball coach Pete Newell before his fourth season.

Kermit Washington played for the Lakers, Boston Celtics, San Diego Clippers, Portland Trail Blazers and Golden State Warriors.

Kermit Washington's mother Barbara graduated from Miner's Teacher's College ; his father Alexander was an X-ray technician.

Kermit Washington's stay with his father did not last long, and he and his brother were passed around to various relatives on both sides of the family.

Kermit Washington was a poor student who hated school throughout most of his childhood.

Kermit Washington had to retake many of his classes in summer school to raise his grades.

Kermit Washington quickly became a solid student in biology but poor in all other subjects.

Kermit Washington rapidly improved his marks, making the honor roll in his senior year.

Kermit Washington came off the bench to average four points per game.

Kermit Washington's stepmother informed him that when he graduated from high school he would be thrown out of the house.

Kermit Washington trained for three hours a day toward the end of his senior season, and showed up uninvited at a playground game featuring top high school players from Washington and Pennsylvania, where he talked his way into the game.

Tom Young, who had recently left his job as an assistant coach at the University of Maryland to become head coach at American University, saw him play there, and although Kermit Washington did not perform particularly well, Young was impressed by his hustle and how he ignored the poor treatment he received from the people who organized the game.

Kermit Washington began weight training, and ran the steps in his seven-story dormitory building wearing a weighted vest to improve endurance.

Kermit Washington pursued him even though he often remained silent when she spent time with him.

Kermit Washington spent a lot of his free time practicing in the gym.

Kermit Washington played playground basketball in the summer, and was on several Urban League teams.

Kermit Washington averaged 19.4 points and 22.3 rebounds on his freshman team at American.

Kermit Washington averaged 18.6 points on 46.8 percent shooting and 20.5 rebounds in his first year of varsity basketball.

Kermit Washington still played a somewhat unaggressive or "soft" brand of basketball, and it was hurting his chances of being drafted by a professional team.

Coleman encouraged him to be more aggressive on the court, and Kermit Washington told him that it was not in his nature.

Kermit Washington averaged 21.0 points on 54.4 percent shooting and an NCAA-leading 19.8 rebounds in his junior season.

Kermit Washington was drafted after his junior season by the New York Nets of the American Basketball Association and offered a four-year contract for $100,000 a year, which astonished him.

Kermit Washington decided to stay at American with coach Young for his senior season because he felt he owed the school which had given him a chance when he was coming out of a difficult period in high school.

Kermit Washington was offered an invite to try for the 1972 Olympic basketball team after the season, but did not make the squad.

Kermit Washington was one of the best players in the country going into his senior season.

Kermit Washington was a second team All-American, and helped American into the National Invitation Tournament.

Kermit Washington became extremely nervous before the game and could neither eat nor sleep.

The game set American University attendance records, and Kermit Washington felt light on his feet when he was introduced before the raucous crowd.

Kermit Washington was thrown a party, and there was a campus wide celebration after the game.

Kermit Washington graduated with a 3.37 GPA and a degree in sociology.

Kermit Washington was a two-time Academic All-American, who taught courses in social sciences his senior year.

Kermit Washington was drafted fifth overall by the Los Angeles Lakers in the 1973 NBA draft.

Kermit Washington had a difficult time making the transition from college center to NBA power forward.

Kermit Washington had played in a primarily zone defense system in college and was not versed in man-to-man defense, which is more common in the NBA.

Kermit Washington arrived on a team which had legend Jerry West, who was in the waning stages of a career that would result in him becoming the silhouette seen on the NBA's logo.

Kermit Washington admits that he was terrified of West, and felt anxiety every time he made a mistake in front of him.

Kermit Washington continued to struggle in his second season, and discovered that finding individual coaching in the professional game at that time was difficult.

Kermit Washington was surprised by this request and unhappy with his new highly marginalized job within the organization, so Newell agreed to meet Washington for individual drills.

Kermit Washington scheduled the practices very early in the morning to test Washington's dedication, thinking a professional athlete would not bother to get up at that hour every day.

Kermit Washington showed up without complaint and Newell put him through intense training sessions.

Newell had Kermit Washington watch tapes of Paul Silas, who was a rebounding forward for the Boston Celtics, and convinced him to have more confidence in his offensive game.

Kermit Washington played well, averaging 9.7 points and 9.3 rebounds; however, he struggled with tendinitis in his knee the entire season.

Kermit Washington's wife pleaded with him to sit out some games, but he took painkillers and kept playing.

Kermit Washington finally tore the patella tendon in a late season game against Denver.

Newell was the person to bring Washington out of the despair Kermit felt when he heard his playing career was probably over.

Newell forced him through even more grueling training sessions the following summer, after some of which, Kermit Washington strongly considered quitting.

Kermit Washington's leg had atrophied from the injury and he was scared of re-injuring it during their training sessions.

Kermit Washington came back to play the following season and performed well; through the first 25 games he was averaging career highs in points and rebounds.

Kermit Washington had been featured in the NBA preview edition of Sports Illustrated before the season and was praised therein for his intimidating nature and fighting skills.

Kermit Washington got into a brawl with several Buffalo Braves players a few games later.

Houston's Kevin Kunnert and Kermit Washington both contended for the rebound, which Kunnert eventually got and passed out to teammate John Lucas.

Not knowing that he intended to break up the fight, Kermit Washington hit Tomjanovich with a short right-hand punch.

Kermit Washington yelled something inaudible about Kunnert, and they were broken up by two security personnel.

Kermit Washington's skull was fractured in such a way that Tomjanovich could taste the spinal fluid leaking into his mouth.

Kermit Washington later recalled that at the time of the incident, he believed the scoreboard had fallen on him.

Kermit Washington was fined $10,000, and suspended for 60 days, missing 26 games; then the longest suspension for an on-court incident in NBA history.

Tomjanovich missed the rest of the season, and the Rockets felt Kermit Washington should have been suspended for the same amount of time.

However, Kermit Washington's punch resulted in the league enacting strict penalties for on-court fights.

The league added a third referee to its game crew after the season; this referee would have trailed the play and could have called a foul when Kermit Washington grabbed Kunnert's shorts, thereby potentially stopping the play and preventing the melee that succeeded it.

Kermit Washington received no support from the Lakers front office, aside from a single call the day after the fight from Cooke, and was sent torrents of hate mail filled with racial epithets.

Kermit Washington was advised by police not to order room service when he played again, as it was feared he would be poisoned.

Kermit Washington's wife recalls she and her children were treated like pariahs after the incident.

Kermit Washington's obstetrician refused her service because she was Washington's wife, and her friends asked her what kind of person Washington was that he could commit such an act.

Later in the year Kermit Washington went to Newell's home with a big screen television which he insisted Newell accept.

On December 27,1977, just two weeks after the incident, Kermit Washington was traded to the Boston Celtics.

Kermit Washington pulled himself together, and began running up and down the flights of stairs of the 29-story hotel.

Kermit Washington's acceptance was aided by a glowing article Bob Ryan of The Boston Globe wrote on the player after researching his life and spending some time with him.

Tomjanovich scored 26 points and collected 11 rebounds while Kermit Washington had six and two.

Portland had strongly desired Kermit Washington, and their general manager Stu Inman, was a close friend of Pete Newell's.

Inman had worked hard through Newell to let Kermit Washington know that they intended this to be the last time he was traded, which Kermit Washington desired since the media coverage and re-locations had been hard on Pat and the children.

Kermit Washington shared time at the Trail Blazers power forward spot with Maurice Lucas at first, but after Lucas' trade to the New Jersey Nets, he became the full-time starter.

Kermit Washington played three seasons in Portland, during which he earned a spot in the 1980 NBA All-Star Game, after some of the top players sat out due to injury.

Kermit Washington was named a team captain for the following season.

Since retiring, Kermit Washington has run restaurants and is a founder and operator of a number of charitable organizations.

Kermit Washington has served in a coaching role with Stanford University, and worked at Pete Newell's "Big Man Camp" for 15 years.

Kermit Washington has sought to portray himself as a victim of the fight and appears to have exaggerated some of the misfortunes that came his way as a result of it.

Kermit Washington told The New York Times that he has been refused work as a coach time and again.

Kermit Washington stayed at Stanford and later quit his assistant coaching position, and he subsequently worked as strength and conditioning coach for the Portland Trail Blazers.

Kermit Washington claimed that American University cut off contact with him after he punched Tomjanovich.

However, when he tried to become athletic director of American in 1995, the school offered to hire him as assistant to the athletic director, since Kermit Washington had no front office experience.

Kermit Washington had never really been nurtured, never really been loved.

On May 25,2016, Kermit Washington was indicted for embezzling roughly $5,000,000 meant for children in Africa.

Kermit Washington used the charity to launder money he received as kickbacks.

Kermit Washington failed to report this money as income on his tax return.