By Beacon Staff
Joining the Fort Madison Middle School basketball team wasn’t an easy decision for 14-year-old LaVontré Gray.
Gray has autism and has a hard time dealing with large crowds.
“He’s a gentle giant. He just wants to be accepted,” said his mother, Jocelyn Cook.
Standing 6 feet 2 inches and wearing a size-18 shoe, Gray was determined to join the team.
In early February, after missing part of the basketball season due to COVID-19, Gray finally played his first game. By the next day, he was a viral Facebook star.
“I had nurses coming up to me saying, ‘I saw your son,’” said Cook, who is also a nurse. “I hadn’t even talked about it to anybody yet.”
The clip went viral, not because of Gray’s actions, but because of the kindness of his teammates and the opposing team. The ball slipped out of his hands, and one of his teammates bounces it back to him quickly.
Gray takes several shots without success, so members of the opposing Burlington team start batting the ball back and passing it directly to Gray. The referee even gets in on the action, hiding her hands behind her back after knocking the ball back to Gray.
“Help him out!” someone yells from the crowd.
Then, it happens. Gray shoots a basket. It goes in. And the crowd goes wild.
“It just made me happy,” said Cook. “It takes a lot for him to be in a big group like that.”
As much as Gray enjoys basketball, he’s not fostering any hopes of becoming a sports star. According to his mother, he’s much more likely to become a cook.
“He makes YouTube tutorial videos. He loves to cook,” Cook said. “He loves to travel and swim.”
But Gray will never forget the day he made the big basket.
“He loved it,” Cook said.