He won two NBA Championships with the Houston Rockets (1994, 1995) and coached Team USA to the gold medal in men's basketball at the 2000 Summer Olympics.

[5] In college, Tomjanovich set Michigan Wolverines men's basketball career rebounding records that continue to stand.

He is the fourth-leading scorer in Rockets history behind James Harden and Hall of Famers Calvin Murphy and Hakeem Olajuwon.

The blow shattered Tomjanovich's face and inflicted life-threatening head and spinal injuries, leaving him sidelined for five months.

The incident and its aftermath are recounted in the John Feinstein book The Punch: One Night, Two Lives, and the Fight That Changed Basketball Forever, as well as in Tomjanovich's 1997 autobiography A Rocket at Heart: My Life and My Team.

Always self-deprecating, he nonetheless heaped tremendous pressure on himself and his assistants to be prepared for each game, several times being hospitalized for exhaustion.

After winning back-to-back titles, Tomjanovich deflected much of the praise and eschewed the "genius" label assigned to other champion coaches like Chuck Daly and Phil Jackson.

Among the stars who requested and were granted trades to Houston during his tenure were Clyde Drexler, Charles Barkley, and Scottie Pippen.

In 1998, Tomjanovich volunteered to coach the U.S. men's senior basketball team at the FIBA World Championship in Greece.

In his 11-plus season tenure as Rockets head coach, he posted a 503–397 (.559) regular-season record and a 51–39 (.567) playoff mark.

In 2004, Tomjanovich signed a five-year, $30 million contract to replace Phil Jackson as coach of the Los Angeles Lakers.

[13] He resigned after 43 games, citing mental and physical exhaustion unrelated to his past bout with bladder cancer.