February 24, 2006

"McElwain, you're in!" The autistic team manager of the Greece, NY, high school basketball team suited up for their final game, and, after never playing in a game before, when he went in for the final four minutes, scored 20 points (six 3-pointers and a 2)! General mayhem and well-deserved adoration for the boy ensues.
posted by es el Queso 18 years ago
  • Nice story....a pleasant change from the usual news, eh? I've worked with a lot of autistic/aspergers students, they are fascinating people. This fellow sounds more aspergers than autistic... but, either way, a great thing for him to experience, and good of the school/team/coach to be supportive.
  • Saw this on the news this morning. Quite a nice excuse to smile.
  • Well, this one is refreshing! Makes a pleasant change from the usual let-me-post-something-so we-can-all-bitch-in-unison-about-it kind of posts we seem to specializing in lately.
  • "let-me-post-something-so we-can-all-bitch-in-unison-about-it" I'll go first. What this kid did was simply amazing in the field of basketball. To bring up this crap about aspergers or autistic and wonder which flavor he has is like wondering about his hair color. You guys must be sit at home geeks to not appreciate what level of amazing skill we are dealing with here. But please continue on with your PC approach to this stoey.
  • Agreed, this was unusually optimistic. And very, very cool, too. That kid's going to remember that day for the rest of his life. Honestly, how many of us have been carried on other people's shoulders? I've been applauded for walking into a bar. I once made a guy laugh so hard he threw up. I'm the only man who ever made my wife climax. That's about it. No shoulders.
  • MonkeyFilter: "let-me-post-something-so we-can-all-bitch-in-unison-about-it" Hey, some play basketball, some post taglines.
  • *upon review of my post* An edit function would really be nice. I was too harsh in my post and a big fat mea culpa is in order. I just wish the news story dealt with the amazing feat....period. And it really is amazing. Check out NBA stats if you don't believe me.
  • I've got an autistic nephew. A few eeks ago, my sis took him to a restaurant. Her and hubby decided to shoot a game of pool. Nephew asks to try - he's never played pool before. (He's 9.) What happened next? The kid started making shots. Lots of them, including some crazy ones. They kept putting quarters into the table becasue they were having so much fun watching him play. So, yeah, I love this story, and can totally see this kind of thing happening.
  • stirfry...thanks for the apology, now I don't have to come beat you up!
  • It's a great story and has been all over our local news even before it ended up national. It's nice to see Rochester in the media without mention of Kodak for once.
  • Everyone knows that non-autistic people - AKA "stupid fucking normos" - can't jump.
  • How about dancing?
  • How about eating spaghetti without slopping sauce down your front as I tend to? /avoids spaghetti now
  • Thank you for being considerate enough to post an apology Stirfry.