Four magical moments on a basketball court changes life of teen with autism

Maybe the last time you saw Jason “J-Mac” McElwain was that video that went viral five years ago showing the teen with autism scoring 20 points in the final moments of his high school basketball team’s game in suburban Rochester.

Since those four incredible minutes on the Greece Athena High School basketball court on Feb. 15, 2006, the now 22-year-old McElwain has written a book about his life, was interviewed by Oprah Winfrey, met President George W. Bush and was told by Laker legend Magic Johnson that he wants to make a movie about him.

And he’s become an inspirational speaker.

On Thursday night, he told about 100 people at the Jefferson Rehabilitation Center’s annual dinner at the Best Western Carriage House Inn about how the stars aligned that night and how his life changed forever.

When he was young, McElwain was a special education student and had to attend a different school than his older brother, Josh, and the other boys in his neighborhood. He didn’t understand why, he told the members and supporters of the agency that provides services for more than 100 people with developmentally disabled.

“I just wanted to be one of the boys,” McElwain told the crowd.

After years of asking why he was different, his mom finally told him when he was 10 that he had autism.

But he loved sports, especially basketball, and spent most of his nights shooting hoops in the family driveway. Night after night, he dreamt about making the last shot of the game.

Just 5-foot-6-inches, he worked hard to make his junior varsity team at Athena, but did not make the team. Instead, he became the team manager, running drills and the clock in practice, passing out water bottles and doing whatever he was asked. On game nights, he sat on bench — always in a white shirt and tie — and enthusiastically supported the team.

“I jumped at it,” he remembered. “I wanted to be like the other boys.”

Before the start of McElwain’s senior year, varsity coach Jim Johnson — who nicknamed him “J-Mac” because he had a difficult time pronouncing his last name — told him that he’d let the loyal manager put on a uniform for the last game of the season and would try to get him in to play.

On that night in 2006, McElwain went in with four minutes left after Greece Athena had taken a 20-point lead in a divisional title game against rival Spencerport. He missed his first two shots, but then made his next six 3-point shots and a two-pointer for 20 points. After the final buzzer, the crowd rushed the court and his teammates carried him off to the locker room.

“Now, I had my dream,” he said about making the last shot of a big game. “I kept shooting and the ball kept going in.”

But he insisted Thursday night that the bigger moment was when Athena went on a few weeks later to win the Section 5 title, even though it was four short minutes that changed his life forever.

His favorite moment afterward wasn’t meeting President Bush, going on the Oprah show or writing a book, “The Game of My Life: A True Story of Challenge, Triumph, and Growing.”

Instead, it was in 2006 when he won a prestigious ESPY Award for the Best Sports Moment of the Year. He’s also proud that he worked as an equipment manager for the NFL’s Indianapolis Colts.

“Peyton Manning is the best guy in sports,” he said, “because of his character and how hard he works to be the best he can be.”

These days, he’s preparing for his fourth year as the junior varsity basketball coach for his alma mater, where he also coaches track and cross country. He’s also currently training to run a marathon in Rochester.

Much of his time away from sports is spent as a baker at a Wegmans Food Market store near his home, where he gets to bring some of “the best bread” home to his family.

“My dad likes it because it saves him money,” he joked. “But I think he wishes that I work in the meat department.”

He’s also looking forward to Columbia Pictures making a movie about the game of his life. It will be produced by Magic Johnson.

Even with his inspirational story, a modest McElwain does not believe he’s a hero. No, it’s the special education teachers, the coaches and his family who are, he said. Kids should be inspired by people like that, he said.

They should also learn from what Johnson told him.

“If you can’t dream, it won’t come true,” he said.

And the biggest thing he’s learned from all that has happened since those “four magical moments”?

“All along, I was one of the boys,” he said.