Rudy Tomjanovich
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| Player information | ||
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| Full name | Rudolph Tomjanovich Jr. | |
| birthday | 24th November 1948 (age 71) | |
| place of birth | Hamtramck , Michigan , USA | |
| size | 203 cm | |
| position | Forward | |
| college | Michigan | |
| NBA draft | 1970 , 2nd pick, San Diego Rockets | |
| Clubs as active | ||
1970–1981 San Diego / Houston Rockets
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| Clubs as coaches | ||
| 1983–1992 Houston Rockets (assistant coach) 1992–2003 Houston Rockets 2004–2005 Los Angeles Lakers
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Rudolph Tomjanovich Sr. (born November 24, 1948 in Hamtramck , Michigan ) is a retired American basketball player and coach of Croatian descent. He was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame as a coach in 2020 .
Career
player
From 1970 to 1981 Tomjanovich played in the North American professional league NBA for the Houston Rockets (until 1971 San Diego Rockets ). He was considered very talented while playing basketball and received five All-Star nominations. He ended his career after 11 seasons for the Rockets, scoring 17.4 points, 8.1 rebounds and 2.0 assists per game in 768 NBA games. Today, after Hakeem Olajuwon and Calvin Murphy, he is the third best point collector in Rockets history. In his honor, the Rockets withdrew his jersey number 45 and have not given it to other players since then.
Trainer
After his career, Tomjanovich was initially assistant coach of the Rockets from 1983 to 1992. From 1992 he was hired as the head coach of the Rockets and led the team to the first NBA championships in the club's history in 1994 and 1995. Between 1998 and 2000 Tomjanovich also coached the US national team and led them to bronze at the 1998 World Basketball Championship and gold at the 2000 Olympic Games .
In 2003 he resigned from his coaching position with the Rockets for health reasons. Briefly, he took over the head coach of the Los Angeles Lakers in the 2004/05 season , but ended his career after half of the season for good.
"The Punch"
An incident on December 9, 1977 put a brake on his steep career as a player. That day the Los Angeles Lakers played against the Houston Rockets. After a tough foul, the Lakers' Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and a teammate Tomjanovich clashed. As announced by the Lakers at the time, Kermit Washington wanted to protect Jabbar, while Tomjanovich wanted to mediate. Washington wanted to protect himself as he had had traumatic experiences with attacks from behind in his youth in a rough area of Washington DC, and responded to the storming Tomjanovich with a punch. This broke Tomjanovich's jaw and his nasal bone. He fell to the ground and fractured his skull.
Tomjanovich made a full recovery, but never returned to the form he was in immediately before the incident. Washington was suspended for 60 days, fined $ 10,000 and suffered additional pay losses of over $ 50,000. Washington's career came to a standstill after this incident, he came to Boston two weeks later as part of a player swap. He was hostile from many sides and was never able to achieve his goals in the political field. Washington said he wanted to get on a time machine to undo what happened. Tomjanovich announced in 2008 that he had forgiven him.
Web links
- Rudy Tomjanovich on NBA.com
- Rudy Tomjanovich on realgm.com
- Rudy Tomjanovich on sports-reference.com
- Rudy Tomjanovich as a player on basketball-reference.com
- Rudy Tomjanovich as coach on basketball-reference.com
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Tomjanovich, Rudy |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Tomjanovich, Rudolph Sr. (full name) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American basketball player and coach |
| DATE OF BIRTH | November 24, 1948 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Hamtramck , Michigan |