HOUSTON – A 9-year old Houston boy can do something even world class professional athletes can’t do.

His talent has gotten the attention of some big names in basketball.

Jalen Howray is special in more than one way. He is autistic, and he has an amazing talent when it comes to basketball.

A superstar let Jalen know just how special he is when he dropped by his school in Galena Park on Tuesday.

“He touches my heart because he spins a basketball like nobody has spun a basketball before,” Harlem Globetrotter Kenny “The Blenda” Rodriguez said.

Rodriguez isn’t just being nice. Jalen is really doing something that most people can’t, including professional athletes.

He can spin a ball on his thumb. Most athletes have to start the ball spinning on their finger, and then transfer it to their thumb.

“I think I need to work on that myself to spin the ball right on the thumb instead of transferring from the finger to the thumb,” Rodriguez said. “So I think that’s pretty cool. When I first saw it I was like wow this guy is special. He’s unique. There’s no body on the team that can spin the ball the way Jalen spin’s the ball.”

“The Blenda”, as Rodriguez is called, came by Jalen’s school, Green Valley Elementary, to tell him just how amazing his trick is.

The basketball star put on an interactive show for all 700 students. He gave Jalen a brand new ball and tickets to the Harlem Globetrotters game in Houston on Jan. 28 at Toyota Center.

Jalen’s parents said he developed autism when he was a toddler.

“He was developing like a normal kid; then all of a sudden it just stopped,” Carla Howray said. “When it stopped, we, his parents, saw him regress to nothing. Zero words, zero speech, zero eye contact.”

A year ago, a basketball became more like a magical key, unlocking speech in Jalen and peeling away a layer from him that seemed to have him trapped inside himself.

“All of a sudden, his father was spinning a ball, and he saw it and it was like something just clicked, and he started spinning the ball with him,” Carla said. “So to see him come back, to see everything that was locked in come back, it’s just, I attribute it to God. It’s a miracle.”

“I don’t want to get emotional here on TV,” Wilford Howray added.

All of the attention made more than one little boy’s dream come true.

“I always wanted to be in the basketball spotlight myself,” Wilford said. “I’m 6’7″, almost 6’8″, so to have my son do it for me it’s a big excitement.”

“I think he’s more excited than Jalen is,” Carla said, laughing.

“I’m the happiest father in the world right now,” Wilford said, with tears in his eyes.

The Original Harlem Globetrotters —

FOX 26 Reporter John Donnelly contributed to this report

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