<table> </table> LAWRENCE | The telephone line went silent.</p><p>Elijah Johnson had been talking about his senior season at Las Vegas&#8217; Cheyenne High School and his desire to win a state championship. He had been talking about what it&#8217;s like to be Sin City&#8217;s most popular high school basketball player and dealing with the pressure that comes with what his coach describes as &#8220;rock-star status.&#8221;</p><p>Then Johnson was asked about his little brother, 8-year-old Marcel. Suddenly, Johnson was quiet. Thirty seconds went by, and no word from Johnson. Then he hung up.</p><p>The people close to Johnson, who signed a letter of intent Monday to play at Kansas, said that he was introverted. But this? Either he didn&#8217;t know what to say about Marcel, or he just didn&#8217;t feel like talking about his brother, who was born with autism.</p><p>Johnson&#8217;s silence in this case was fitting; Marcel doesn&#8217;t have the ability to speak. Elijah has had to learn how to communicate nonverbally with Marcel.</p><p>&#8220;He wrestles with him, he hugs him, he kisses him, he rolls on the floor with him, he takes him out to play,&#8221; said Marcus Johnson, the boys&#8217; father. &#8220;If he wants to play tickle, you better play tickle.&#8221;</p><p>More and more lately, Elijah has been trying to teach Marcel his passion. Not that tickling isn&#8217;t fun, but Elijah would always rather be playing basketball.</p><p>&#8220;I see (Marcel) when Elijah&#8217;s not around, trying to dribble the ball in my house,&#8221; Marcus Johnson said. &#8220;He&#8217;ll look at me and keep dribbling, like, &#8216;Hey, my brother taught me this, and I&#8217;m going to keep doing it.&#8217; Before, you&#8217;d try to throw him a ball, and he&#8217;d just look at you. Now, he reacts to it.&#8221;</p><p>Elijah is just trying to do for Marcel what his older brother, Marcus Jr., did for him. Long before he was a 6-foot-2 point guard, rated by Rivals.com as the No. 27 overall prospect in the Class of 2009, Elijah learned the game by losing to his brother as a 4-year-old boy in Gary, Ind.</p><p>&#8220;He was the one that got me started with basketball when I was young,&#8221; Elijah said, &#8220;beating me and not letting me give up.&#8221;</p><p>Marcus Sr. said: &#8220;His older brother used to make him cry. No mercy. I wouldn&#8217;t get involved. That was a brothers thing.&#8221;</p><p>With the Johnson family, just about everything is a sibling matter. Elijah was the youngest of the five children Marcus Sr. had in his first marriage. Elijah went from being the baby of the family to the eldest of his new family when Marcus Sr. had two children in his second marriage. In Gary, Elijah&#8217;s siblings look after him. In Vegas, Elijah returns the favor.</p><p>&#8220;From birth through eight years, Elijah got more than enough attention that was ever needed,&#8221; Marcus Sr. said. &#8220;Elijah was a daddy&#8217;s baby. He&#8217;s been under me to learn and do whatever I do. I had to watch my steps. He was watching.&#8221;</p><p>Marcus Sr. has preached a &#8220;family first&#8221; set of priorities to Elijah, which is sometimes difficult with his schedule these days. Elijah has a driver&#8217;s license now, so he&#8217;s harder to keep track of. Now that it&#8217;s basketball season, Marcus Sr. may not even see Elijah because he works the night shift as a bellman at Paris on the Vegas Strip.</p><p>Marcus Sr. has to work the night shift so he can be available during the day for Marcel while Marcel&#8217;s mother works as a teacher.</p><p>&#8220;Our schedules have to be set around Marcel,&#8221; Marcus Sr. said.