SIDEWAYS GLANCE THERE'S NO PUNCHLINE TO ONE OF THE NBA'S DARKEST MOMENTS.

Byline: - Tom Hoffarth

--The book: ``The Punch: One Night, Two Lives And The Fight That Changed Basketball Forever''

--The author: John Feinstein.

--The essential info: $25.95, Little, Brown and Co., 366 pages with index.

--The premise: On Dec. 9, 1977, in the second half of an NBA game at the Forum attended by 10,645, Lakers power forward and team enforcer Kermit Washington, who was caught in a shoving match with Houston's Kevin Kurnett. Kareen Abdul-Jabbar had moved in to help restrain Kunnert.

Suddenly, Washington turned and delivered a wallop to the face of Rockets All-Star Rudy Tomjanovich, who had come up behind Washington as a peacemaker.

``Oh my God,'' Chick Hearn told the TV and radio audience as it happened.

The blow sent Tomjanovich to the floor in a pool of blood, his skull out of alignment. He actually thought the scoreboard above the court fell down on him.

Abdul-Jabbar said: ``I'll never forget that sound, ... I heard this crack, ... like a melon landing on concrete.''

Referee Rick Middleton said: ``I got a good look at Rudy's face. ... I had to go over to the scorer's table and get my breath back. I was afraid I was going to be sick.''

Tomjanovich went through five operations to correct the damage. Washington was traded a few weeks later to Boston, but he never was the same.

Twenty-five years later, all the participants - including Rudy T., the current Rockets coach who has avoided reliving the incident - talk about what happened then, what's happened since and how the league can't ever let it happen again.

--The delivery: In true Feinstein fashion, every angle is examined, almost every witness interviewed and every detail is brought back to life.

After listening to a frustrated Washington interviewed on Jim Rome's radio show a year ago looking for some vindication and validation, Feinstein writes in the intro why he wanted to tackle this subject: ``Clearly it was a watershed moment in sports because it has become the symbol of what can happen when a fight breaks out among very strong, very athletic young men.''

Since '77 was pre-ESPN ``SportsCenter'' and the league barely had a national TV deal, Feinstein's reconstruction of the event makes it fresh again.

While the length of the book is a bit overwhelming - Feinstein could have easily done it in 50-to-100 less pages - the real disappointment is that no photographs of what happened are included. The eight pages of black-and-white pictures are stock photos.

A blurry image on the cover, taken from the TV video, is the only way anyone can visually go back in time. Then again, maybe it's something we shouldn't want anyone to have to see again. Feinstein's words are enough of a visual.

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no caption (book: ``The Punch: One Night, Two Lives And The Fight That Changed Basketball Forever'')