‘Why didn’t you tell me?’: Anthony Ianni’s journey through sport with autism

A former athlete has written a memoir about his time playing with autism in one of American college basketball’s most venerable programs

Book cover: Centered: Autism, Basketball, and One Athlete's Dreams by Anthony Ianni

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.