I don't think I could have made it more obvious. Of course there are disanalogies, and of course some people diagnosed as Autistic have extreme difficulties (non-verbal, "head bangers," etc.) but the analogy is there in that many people diagnosed as autistic do not want to be/ think it appropriate to talk in terms of a "cure".
I think Russ is someone who has always relied on being a better athlete then others and never really had to work hard. Now after a few years in the league his athletic ability is starting to slip and he never worked on his craft. Kind of like Kemp once he was not more athletic then everyone else, he fell off fast.
I don't believe I said you were a bad person. But if it came across that way my bad. I said that simply donating to 'autism speaks' as a way to say you support people who have a mental illness. Doesn't mean this thread is acceptable. It's like saying. 'I have black friends, so I can't be racist.' You also missed the point. If someone were to go to you and say. 'Eric I don't care that you're bipolar. It's a fake condition, man up, stop making shit up.' You might get angry, you might ignore them. You might go home and cry. But in one way or another it would affect you. As a society we don't do enough to bring awareness to the struggles people who have a mental health condition. For someone to minimize someone with bipolar-ism(is that a word?) is completely wrong. And it's likely to create fear in that person to not want to let people know they have such condition. Or worse, it's likely to create so much fear that someone who might seek help. Refuses to do so. The fact that you felt the desire to create this thread and ask the question. 'Is Westbrook autistic'. Comes across to many that you were minimizing those who are diagnosed with autism. Simply because you don't like Westbrook's response to the media. @kjironman1 made an excellent point in bringing up Sheed 'both teams played hard'. Marshawn Lynch is another 'I'm just here so I don't get fined'. You have to understand before you or I were born. When a child had a mental condition such as autism. Rarely did they get help. It was more 'Oh they'll grow out of it'. 'Oh that child is wild'. Then when they were punished for misbehaving. Yet those children couldn't understand why they were being punished. We've come a long way sense then. But just like with so many other social issues. We have a long, long way to go. On the basketball note. Sure winning by double digits is nice. But in all 5 games Portland was down double digits and had to fight and claw back. Thankfully they did, but no one picked Portland to win outside of Portland. Certainly wasn't easy. As to me easy is when players like Lillard/CJ can sit the majority of the second half because the game is out of reach.
Okay? I have an autistic cousin and I did find it offensive. Having someone related with autism doesn't give the qualification to deem it as generally insensitive or not. If it's insensitive to some, it's insensitive.
Here is zach Lowe take on this subject: The only important question for the Thunder after their third straight post-Kevin Durant flameout is whether this season signals the beginning of a long-term decline for Westbrook -- and what, if anything, they can do if they believe it does. It's not really that Westbrook -- after four knee surgeries in six years -- is perhaps the worst high-volume 3-point shooter ever. He is, but that's almost trivial -- a punchline. He has always been a bad 3-point shooter; he's just worse now, so bricky that opponents are braver taking an extra step away from him when he doesn't have the ball. And as has been the case for the entirety of his career -- see last season's version of this same fallout column -- Westbrook has never been much interested in making himself useful when he doesn't have the ball. The next questions get interesting for Westbrook, PG and ousted OKC NBA action is fantastic, except for the constant griping Paul George is the only long-range threat Thunder opponents guard off the ball. George running a pick-and-roll is the NBA's "Jon Snow wielding a sword alone against an entire charging army" meme. The real issue is that Westbrook's shot has deserted him inside the arc. He emerged as an MVP candidate in part because he became reliable -- 40 percent-plus -- on what he calls his "cotton shot" from the elbow. He hit 32 percent on jumpers from between 15 and 19 feet this season, per NBA.com. Of 104 players who attempted at least three pull-up jumpers per game, Westbrook ranked 104th in accuracy. Against Portland, he alternated between looking afraid to take them, and burying the Thunder under a pile of endless misses. His dunks are down, and he could not always summon the explosive midair fury that once busted conventional defenses. The Blazers dropped Enes Kanter far back in the pick-and-roll, and dared Westbrook to blow through him. Westbrook couldn't do it. His defense, overrated for years, came and went even in one of his most focused seasons. Portland's monster Game 5 fourth-quarter comeback started with a sloppy Westbrook closeout on CJ McCollum in the right corner, opening the door for an easy floater -- a sequence that would be repeated on the opposite side four-plus minutes later. He still dies on screens, loitering around half court. In his MVP season, the Thunder could not survive without him. This season, they were a disaster whenever Westbrook played without George -- while thriving in the opposite scenario. That continued in the playoffs; the Thunder were plus-13 in 39 George-only minutes against the Blazers. Portland obliterated them by 33 points in 32 Westbrook solo minutes, per NBA.com. Westbrook is still a very good player. I selected him third-team All-NBA. He's just not as good as he used to be. He lost some of what made him an MVP candidate, and refined none of the weak spots in his game. His mega-max contract runs through 2022-23, when Westbrook will be 34. The Thunder are capped out through at least 2020-21. Setting aside the James Harden trade -- yeah, I know -- Sam Presti has used magic to keep this thin, rickety roster afloat. He thinks years in advance, and tracks devalued young players -- Victor Oladipo, for instance -- because he knows they will carry trade cachet if an opportunity arises. He has somehow turned disgruntled players and bad contracts into semi-helpful things: Reggie Jackson became Enes Kanter became Carmelo Anthony became Dennis Schroder. When does the music stop? A poor shooter needs shooters around him. Oklahoma City has been thin on shooting for Presti's entire run. His track record suggests a fetish for long, defense-first tweeners, and some faith the Thunder can teach such players to shoot. They have failed. Andre Roberson was dynamic enough on defense to thrive in the highest-stakes moments, but he's hurt. Most of the other long-shot bets busted. Most late first-round picks bust. Most "second draft" prospects -- e.g., Dion Waiters -- just are what they are. If shooters who could survive on defense were easy to find, every team would have a bunch. But good teams stay good as their stars age because they nail a couple of long-shot bets. One of the Thunder's stars -- the remaining foundational Thunder star, the one they in many ways chose over Harden -- appears to be aging, and aging badly. Presti surely has a plan, even as he appears pinned in by cap realities. Let's see what it is.
...oh Russ, just living in his own world out here today! http://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/26604464/westbrook-rejects-critics-series-loss "If you want to determine my career and what I've done over two, three games, you go ahead," Westbrook said during his end-of-season exit interview with the media. "That don't mean s--- to me. It doesn't. I'm going to wake up, like I told you before, three beautiful kids, I'm going to wake up and smile, be happy, enjoy my life. Doesn't change anything about -- talk about if I'm playing bad or who's better, who's not. I know who I am as a person, and that's the biggest thing I can say about myself. I know who I am. I know what I'm able to do. I know my capabilities. I know what I've done. I know what I can and can't do. So I'm OK with that. I'm OK with who I am. I'll just be blessed to wake up every day and enjoy my life. The talk about -- I don't even know what talk you're talking about, but whatever that is, you guys can keep talking about it, and I'm going to keep living my life." "There used to be conversations if I was a ball hog, but now I lead the league in assists for the past three years or whatever it is, that's getting squashed out," he said. "So now the conversation is about shooting. Next year I'm going to become a better shooter. After that it'll be probably, f---, my left foot is bigger than my right one. Who knows." and this gem... ...more stuff from PG in this article too: "It's a tough position to be in because I know being around him, like I know where it's coming from," teammate Paul George said when asked if he ever cringes at Westbrook not doing himself any favors in terms of perception. "Like it just doesn't come off the right way. But I know where it's coming from. You know, he's a guy of principles. Everything he does is off principles. He's going to take care of himself and he's going to look out for himself, and that's what you've got to love about him, to be honest." George, who has become close friends with Westbrook since they became teammates two years ago, said that with Westbrook, so much of it is mistaking the basketball player as the person. "I think Russ is honestly just as normal as anybody else," George said. "I think anything he does is just amplified, and, you know, if anybody knows Russ on a personal level, you know that he's as real as it gets. He's 100 percent. He's as pure as a person that you can find. If you're watching him from afar, you might mistake that for him being a certain type of way. But honestly, man, he's one of the best human beings I've ever been a part of." "I had a choice and a decision to go anywhere I wanted to in my career, and I chose to come back here," George said. "I mean, come on, that says a lot on its own, what kind of person Russ is."
But haven't we learned now that autism ISN'T, per se, a mental illness? I did the research and it is classified as a disorder which can be treated. Just like bipolar disorder can. But homosexuality is not a disorder so bringing that into the discussion was the only thing in this thread that was in poor taste, in my mind. Comparing me to racists made no sense. What am I? An autism-ist? I just WONDERED aloud IF he MIGHT be autistic. I didn't diagnose him. If I brought this up in a conversation with someone in person, I don't think anyone would have tried to correct me at all. Cuz I was just wondering. Not committing to any conclusion. Aren't we having a discussion here as friends? Or we proudly announcing stuff to the universe? I was thinking this place is just like hanging out and talking. Seems an appropriate response might have been "No, I don't think he is autistic and here's why" and that's that without piling on. As I said, I wouldn't be offended by anyone speculating on someone's mental health or sexual orientation. At all.
Which is probably why they change the name of their organization to "Autism Speaks." Their goal is to get people diagnosed and get people treated so that they can function to the best of their abilities. What's wrong with that? I've given a lot of money to that cause (through Catan tournaments that I hold in NYC) but if there's something wrong with that, perhaps I should be funneling that money elsewhere.
Holy shit Eric... You offended me. You offended others. YOU. I know people who have lost their income for referring to a child as autistic to a parent with an autistic child. I wasn't comparing you to racists, I was pointing out people who claim they're not racist claim they can't be racist because they have black friends. You claimed you weren't minimizing mental health issues because you donated to autism speaks. Your question, your thread was in poor taste and you're getting upset because people are calling you on it. You even went as far to start saying things like. 'Oh I'm going to stop posting as much on this forum because reading people calling me out sent me into a depression.' Aka you tried to gain sympathy. I've tried to be nice and spell this out for you but I'm done. You offended people with your thread. No one else. Grow up and own it. Also it's a clown comment to get uppity over me using the term mental illness instead of mental disorder. Stop trying to win on the internet and accept the fact that YOU offended people. That YOU were minimizing mental health. Accept it and be better in the future. Or don't and continue to try and 'win' on the internet. But if you do keep trying to win on the internet. I'm going to start posting memes at you.
