When Anthony Ianni joined the Michigan State basketball team, he tried to keep his autism diagnosis a secret. But an incident stemming from a joke Daymond Green told led to his team finding out. Now, Anthony calls that incident 'a blessing in disguise.'
Growing up near East Lansing, Michigan, Anthony Ianni knew he was different from other kids. Through fifth grade, he had an aide with him in class. In middle school, he’d go to a resource classroom.
"So, for example, if somebody had told the 5-year-old me that 'It's raining cats and dogs outside,' well, a majority of the population knows that it’s pouring down rain. Where the 5-year-old me would have ran out the door, you know, going outside and hoping that a cat or a dog will literally fall into my arms.""I wanted to be the cool guy," he says."I wanted to be the guy that made people laugh.
At 4 years old, Anthony had been diagnosed with Pervasive Development Disorder, which Anthony describes as"a higher-functioning form of autism."Anthony also learned that doctors and experts had told his parents not to expect much from him. As a freshman at Okemos High School near East Lansing, Anthony was 6-foot-6. And he loved basketball. Anthony's parents had both worked for the Ohio University athletic department, so when Anthony was a toddler he'd go to practices and shoot on a lowered hoop."As it got to three seconds left on the clock, I would put my hands over my ears to block out any noise," he says."And then when the horn went off, I would kind of slowly just take my hands off my ears.
But keeping his autism diagnosis a secret in the Michigan State locker room was going to be difficult, especially considering the personality of the man who was quickly becoming the centerpiece of the Spartans team.Draymond Green quickly became a leader on the Michigan State team.
"He was a jokester," Coach Vork says."You've got to have thick skin when you're Draymond's teammate." Because of all this, Anthony says it could be hard for him during his first two years at Michigan State.'Why Didn't You Tell Me About Your Autism?'As Anthony remembers it, Draymond Green joked that the team had to do an extra set of leg presses. Coach Vork remembers it as Draymond and the rest of the team telling Anthony he had to re-do the VO2 max, a brutal aerobic test."And so the joke was going on and on and on," Anthony remembers.
"He said, 'He doesn't understand that joke. It's like you're picking on him, 'cause he doesn't see the gray area. It's black and white for him.'""When he walked up to me, I said, 'Oh, God, what's this conversation gon be about?'"Anthony recalls."Like, you know, 'Do I really want to talk to him?'
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