Should He Be Called Kermit the Fraud?

I finished reading Bill Plaschke’s piece on Kermit Washington [May 28] and couldn’t understand how Mr. Washington couldn’t get work in the NBA today when Latrell Sprewell got a second chance in New York (and appears to be making good, basketball-wise). Also, when you see that Bobby Knight still manages to keep a job, despite some of the revelations that have come out of the Indiana program of late. And don’t even go there with how many athletes leave their children, beat their wives or girlfriends, etc. Maybe Mr. Washington should’ve been in football.

What I hope Mr. Washington takes comfort in is the fact that he is probably doing more good in the work that he’s doing in Africa than he would ever do working in the NBA. And it will be for this that he will be rewarded for in the big picture called life. May God bless him, and eventually give him peace.

LYNETTE KELSEY

Riverside

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Mr. Plaschke, the blow that nearly killed Rudy Tomjanovich was not a jab, but a hostile, aggressive, leveraged overhand right thrown by a 6-foot-8, 240-pound, conditioned athlete. Such a bare-knuckle punch had not only the possibility, but the certainty of causing severe injury.

Nevertheless, my sympathy goes to Mr. Washington, whom I respected (punch notwithstanding) during his time with the Lakers, for his suffering since 1977. However, if his humiliation and shame are part of the price necessary for athletes to understand their responsibility of civilized behavior on and off the court, I don’t wish for Mr. Washington’s relief from his burden.

Rather than seeking a life in basketball, perhaps Mr. Washington could become an articulate, appropriate spokesman for nonviolence.

BILL HOFFINE

San Diego

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Nowhere in Bill Plaschke’s article does Kermit Washington express the slightest regret at throwing the most horrendous sucker punch I have seen in 50 years of viewing sports, other than that it affected his ability to shape his career in basketball. The article makes it appear Tomjanovich was rushing at Washington, when in fact he was simply running up the floor in the flow of the game, looking the other way. That incident still gives me chills. Washington should have been jailed.

JEROME S. KLEINSASSER

Bakersfield