Autie on Larry King

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Did anyone see this? Some kid on a high school basketball team scored many key points to win the big game. For some reason, it cracked me up. They had a long, dramatic montage of him making layups and inside shots in someone's driveway, to some cheesy music. More amusing (or frightening, really), was video from the end of his big game, when everyone in the stands came charging out onto the court, screaming, and mobbed him. I'm sure he loved that.

Last edited by jfberge on 28 Feb 2008, 2:44 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Was that the high school kid with Autism who lives in Rochester, New York?...that was a great basketball game!

J-Mac, aka Jason MacElwain, the autistic basketball phenom. An autistic who "overcame" autism. Interestingly, I read that, unlike many or most autistics, he was actually liked by his fellow students. Would he have been so well-liked if he had not been interested in a sport? Is his Larry King appearance anywhere on the internet?

Here are 2 of the links from CNN. J-Mac is HFA and has helped coach the basketball team. He said that he wants to be a coach for a team as an adult. He has gotten alot of attention lately and is a guest speaker at various autism events. He also has a book out.
Even though it may look frightening to have all of these people come running to him after that basketball game (you can find it on you tube) he seemed to genuinely be happy. He has helped coach at games and he seems to be used to the fact that there is "noise" and lots of people there. I watched Larry King last night but missed the begining. Hopefully, it will be on as a rerun sometime this weekend.

http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/bestof ... autism.cnn

http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/bestof ... m.long.cnn

You're right. I wonder how he manages to cope with that. I imagine he's found some way to redefine things internally. Sort of a splitting. At least he had some idea that he would likely be mobbed by people that night. That kind of thing would freak me out.

Apparently the Japanese have a yearly ritual involving a "spirit man" who is mobbed by crowds of people trying to touch him (touching him transfers your bad luck to him). There was a segment on "Taboo" about it, and the "spirit man" was unconscious, bruised, and naked by the time he was pulled from the crowd. Yagh!