GREENWOOD – What you’re about to read on the incident Friday night at Center Grove High, when a Cathedral basketball guard with a history of seizures was shooting free throws while a Center Grove fan flopped on the floor 25 feet away, will upset some of you. Maybe all of you. You’ll be mad at the kid from Center Grove, the school, maybe even me.

What happened was one of those Rorschach tests, a real-life ink blot, and what we saw in that blot — and what happened next — revealed something about everyone involved, including me.

The first thing it revealed was this truth about the guard from Cathedral. His name is James Franklin, and he is, in a word, amazing. Another word: tough. Another word: basketball player. He’ll play in college next year, this 6-0 senior guard from Cathedral. He doesn’t know where he’ll play in college yet, and that’s part of this story.

More:Cathedral basketball player with epilepsy taunted during Center Grove game

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Franklin has a history of seizures, including one he suffered during a game as a sophomore against Northwest. That was Jan. 6, 2017. It was terrifying, the gym at Cathedral going silent as Franklin fell into his dad’s arms — James Franklin Sr. had seen the seizure coming; he knew the signs and came rushing out of the crowd when he saw his son’s arm began to twitch — and convulsed right there on the baseline.

Franklin played five days later. Scored eight points against Carmel. He had 10 points a few days later against Scecina, then 23 against Howe. He averaged 9.0 points, 3.2 rebounds and 3.1 assists that season he suffered a seizure during a game. Strong, this kid? Well, it’s like I said: Amazing. In an IndyStar story 1½ years ago, Franklin told preps Insider Kyle Neddenriep: “God made me this way for a reason. I’ll keep going through it until we find something to make it better. I’m used to it. It makes me stronger.”

Colleges have offered him scholarships, and taken them away because of health concerns after he underwent brain surgery in August 2017. That’s awful, but James Franklin keeps playing. He had 11 points in Cathedral’s 63-60 loss the other night at Center Grove, a high-level game featuring several future college players, including two headed to IU — Cathedral’s Armaan Franklin (no relation) and Center Grove’s Trayce Jackson-Davis — and James Franklin played as well as anybody on the court. How do I know that? Well, I was there.

And that’s where this story goes next.

How this whole thing happened

The kid from Center Grove was determined to disrupt Cathedral at the foul line.

The first time it happened, Armaan Franklin was shooting free throws. The kid from Center Grove hopped out of the stands and dropped into the splits, spread his arms and yelled. The kid was a few feet from the floor, just left of the basket. Franklin missed. Next free throw, same thing, with a twist: This time, the kid from Center Grove ripped off his shirt as Franklin shot. Another miss.

The next time it happened, the only other time it happened, James Franklin stepped to the foul line for two free throws. On the first one, the kid from Center Grove stood near the basket and pretended he was shooting, too. He dropped into an exaggerated crouch, swung his arms wildly and hopped as he “shot.” The real shooter, James Franklin, made his first throw.

One more to go.

On this one, Franklin’s second attempt, the kid from Center Grove flopped onto the ground behind the basket and started writhing and contorting. In the crowd, I’m watching this and recording it on video.I’d already seen the kid do the splits and tear off his shirt, and snapped a picture of it for Twitter, because it was weird and that’s what we do, sportswriters and non-sportswriters alike: We document the world and share it on social media. Next time, I’d decided, I’ll get him on video.

A few minutes later when James Franklin stepped to the line, I was ready.

God help me, I was ready.

The world erupted in anger

For the sake of argument, let’s assume the worst. Let’s assume the kid from Center Grove knew about James Franklin’s history of seizures and was mocking him.

Here’s a word for that: Disgusting. Here’s another: Cruel.

Now that we’ve assigned motive to the kid from Center Grove, let’s talk about what happened next: A social media onslaught directed at Center Grove, most of it aimed at the kid who did the writhing and contorting. Understand where we are, right now in this story: We’re assuming the worst, remember? We’re assuming the kid was being intentionally cruel to James Franklin.

The world responded by being intentionally cruel to the kid from Center Grove.

Understand, if the kid from Center Grove knew about Franklin’s history of seizures and was mocking him for that, he deserved to be punished. A severe chewing out from someone at Center Grove, like the coach or the principal or maybe both together, at a minimum. I mean, that’s just the start. Community service? A suspension? Perhaps. What it would look like, the appropriate punishment for something as awful as what happened Friday night, I don’t know.

But it wouldn’t look like this:

It wouldn’t look like thousands of people blasting this kid on social media, mocking his body, saying he doesn’t deserve to attend college and he’d better have his applications rejected by any school where he applies. It wouldn't look like threatening language directed at him on social media, threats of physical violence and even death.

Listen, you don’t like what the kid did? Neither do I, if he was being intentionally cruel to James Franklin. And in the old days, before social media, a handful of people would have torn into this kid verbally, and that would have been appropriate.

But do you understand that it’s not right for thousands of people to attack this kid on social media? I don’t know what the proper number is, but it’s not this. Not this onslaught, this torrent of fury directed at the kid by so many strangers.

On the one hand, it’s wonderful — it’s right — that people are supporting James Franklin. He’s the aggrieved person in this story. He’s the victim of something terrible, if we’re going to assume the worst and believe the kid from Center Grove was mimicking a seizure.

But it’s not wonderful what is happening to the kid from Center Grove. It’s not fair, not justice. If he was being cruel, he deserves punishment, serious punishment. But he doesn’t deserve this. I hope, with a few days to cool down and an understanding of the amount of hate coming that kid’s way, you see why I’m saying that.

What if we’re wrong?

This story matters to me in a way it probably doesn’t matter to anyone else in the world, because I’m the one who basically got this ball rolling. It was my video that people from Cathedral saw and retweeted with comments framing the discussion:

Look at this kid from Center Grove, making fun of seizures.

Those folks reacted as they reacted, and I don’t blame them one bit. James Franklin is one of theirs and he’s an amazing young man, someone to be celebrated, not mocked. They saw mocking. They reacted. Understandable. Especially after Franklin told his mom, Tamieka, he’d heard Center Grove fans chanting, “Have another seizure, have another seizure.”

Next day, this whole thing took off, got ugly, got scary. And because it started with my tweet, I investigated further. I wanted to know more about James Franklin, and learned about the college scholarships, his popularity on the team, his leadership at Cathedral on and off the court.

Franklin’s history of seizures wasn’t on my mind as Friday night unfolded. As I’ve said, our Preps Insider Kyle Neddenriep had written about Franklin about 1½ years ago, and while I’m sure I read that story on Feb. 17, 2017, I can assure you of this: I wasn’t thinking about it on Nov. 30, 2018.

I saw a kid from Center Grove ripping off his shirt and doing the splits. I saw a kid from Center Grove mimicking the way James Franklin shot free throws. I saw a kid from Center Grove flopping on the court … like a fish. That’s what I saw. That’s what I assumed.

Was I wrong? Was he imitating a fish, or a seizure? I have no idea. But here’s what I’ve learned, because I’m a dad of two young men — ages 23 and 20 — and I wanted to know more about the kid from Center Grove, just as I wanted to know more about James Franklin. And now I know this:

The kid from Center Grove serves as a youth group leader at his church. He applied, and was chosen by Center Grove administrators, to be a mentor to elementary school kids. He’s a counselor at summer camp. Had a leading role in a recent school play. Is a nationally ranked power lifter for his age group. Wants to be an engineer. Is adopted.

Does that automatically mean he’s innocent, that he was copying a fish, not a seizure? Of course not. Good people — and the kid from Center Grove sounds like good people — do stupid, offensive stuff all the time. If we had more room here, I’d tell you about all the times I’ve been stupid and offensive. Another day perhaps.

Today, this is what I know: The kid from Center Grove is telling school administrators his version: He was imitating a fish. He and a buddy had a skit planned out — the buddy was the fisherman, the kid in question the fish — but something happened and the buddy didn’t come to the game. So the kid in question went out and did it on his own: flopped, contorted, writhed like a fish out of water. That’s his version. Is it the truthful version? Again: I don’t know. None of us knows.

People tend to see the world in black and white, because gray is hard. Gray requires too much thinking, wondering, acknowledging that we don’t always have all the answers, and this story has so much gray. Some things, though, are clear, so we know this: The Franklin family was upset after the game, and rightfully so, and they told the kid from Center Grove about James’ history of epilepsy. And we know this: the kid from Center Grove apologized. Said he didn’t know that. Said he felt terrible.

Whether you believe the kid, that’s your call. I’m not telling you what to think. I’m asking you to consider what happened Friday night at Center Grove High, and then to consider what happened on social media afterward — what keeps happening to the kid from Center Grove — and ask yourself this:

Did we go too far?

And while we’re asking questions, here’s another, directed to the college basketball coaches — plural — who have rescinded scholarship offers to James Franklin after his brain surgery: What on earth were you thinking, and when are you going to do yourself a favor and offer this great player, this amazing kid, a spot in your program?

Find IndyStar columnist Gregg Doyel on Twitter: @GreggDoyelStar or at facebook.com/gregg.doyel.