A former Michigan State athlete has written a memoir about his time playing with autism in one of college basketball’s most venerable programs
One day in the weight room, Michigan State University basketball player Anthony Ianni couldn’t take any more ribbing from his teammate, future NBA champion Draymond Green. Although Green had intended it as a good-natured joke about Ianni supposedly needing extra conditioning, Ianni took it seriously. Green said if Ianni couldn’t take a joke, he shouldn’t be on the team. A shoving match ensued. That’s when the team’s strength and conditioning coach, Mike Vorkapich, explained to Green that Ianni is on the autism spectrum, which makes it hard for him to understand when someone is joking and when they are not. Ianni had kept his autism from most of his teammates. He was initially upset about the disclosure, but it cemented lasting understanding and friendship. The first college basketball player in Division I identified as being on the autism spectrum, Ianni is now a Michigan State graduate and a motivational speaker. He shares his life story in a new memoir, Centered: Autism, Basketball, and One Athlete’s Dreams, written with Rob Keast.
“A couple days later, [Green] came back to me,” Ianni remembers. “He asked, ‘Why didn’t you tell me about it?’ I said I did not know how he was going to respond. So often, people in my life, they found out and treated me differently. He looked at me and said, ‘Kudos to you, look at how far you’ve come.’ From that day forward, it changed our relationship forever, not just as teammates but friends.”
