J-Mac night at the UNLV-Northern Arizona game

ASSOCIATED PRESS

Team manager Jason McElwain, who has come to be known as J-Mac, is hoisted by his teammates after he scored 20 points in the final minutes of the final home game of the 2006 season. J-Mac will make an appearance this week in Las Vegas.

By Ron Kantowski (contact)

Wednesday, Nov. 19, 2008 | 2 a.m.

I’ve got a bone to pick with J-Mac. You remember him, that autistic kid who scored 20 points in four minutes after coming off the bench as a student manager in a high school basketball game in upstate New York a couple of years ago.

I TiVo’d the ESPN highlights of that incredible performance and put a “Do Not Erase” tag on it. Now, every time people come over to the house, like at Thanksgiving, my wife makes me show them J-Mac’s video — and I’m moved to tears all over again.

If there’s one thing I can’t stand on Thanksgiving, it’s yams. If there’s a second thing I can’t stand, it’s crying in front of my wife’s Crazy Uncle Sid when J-Mac starts draining 3’s from another area code.

I think I’ll tell Jason McElwain that on Thursday night when he makes an appearance to promote autism awareness at the UNLV-Northern Arizona basketball game at the Thomas & Mack Center.

“Jason’s story is a great basketball story, but it’s an even better life story,” UNLV coach Lon Kruger said. “It brought hope to a lot of people. We’re honored to have him involved with UNLV basketball.”

Earlier Thursday, J-Mac and his mom, Debbie, will speak to teachers in the Clark County School District, which needs more instructors and support staff to work with autistic students and others with special needs.

I was thinking about going to those presentations, too. But then they’ll probably show J-Mac’s video on the overhead projector and ... well, you know the rest of the story.

If there’s another thing I can’t stand it’s weeping like a baby in front of school system superintendents and principals.

1. 4:02 to glory

It was Feb. 16, 2006, and Jim Johnson, coach of the Greece Athena High School basketball team and a man with a heart as big as lion, had this wild idea that he would put J-Mac, heretofore the team’s student manager, in a uniform and let him sit on the bench for the last home game of the season. What he didn’t tell anybody was that if Greece Athena got a lead, he planned on putting J-Mac into the game. With 4:02, it happened. J-Mac missed a 3-pointer. J-Mac missed a layup. But J-Mac didn’t miss again. Locked in a zone previously only inhabited by Dallas Cowboys third-string quarterback Clint Longley on Thanksgiving Day, 1976, he hit six 3-pointers and a 2-point basket. In four minutes, J-Mac scored 20 points and warmed an entire nation of hearts when the video was shown on ESPN. “He turned into a machine,” said reserve center Brian Benson, who was on the floor when J-Mac started raining 3’s. “It wasn’t just one. It wasn’t just two. It wasn’t just three ... he was on fire.” Said Johnson: “I wake up each morning, asking myself, ‘Did that really happen?’ Did I really witness that?’ ”

2. Just warming up

Yes, J-Mac did have a playing career before that night. A couple of years before he had dressed out for a junior varsity game. He was fouled on a 3-point shot and sank all three free throws. During the Greece Athena postseason banquet, he received a plaque that said he was the best free-throw shooter, by percentage, in school history.

3. Peyton forward

First, the “Today” show called. Then the Super Bowl-champion Indianapolis Colts called. When your posse includes Matt Lauer and Peyton Manning, you’re an A-list celebrity. J-Mac said Manning was “one of the nicest guys in sports” after spending an entire week at Colts training camp. On the night he threw out the first pitch at a Rochester Red Wings’ Triple-A baseball game, they gave out 3,500 J-Mac bobblehead dolls. “Oprah,” “Larry King,” “Good Morning America” ... J-Mac was in demand. His 20-point scoring spree beat out Kobe Bryant’s 81-point game and George Mason’s charge to the Final Four to earn as ESPY Award for the Best Moment in Sports for 2006. With help from his brother, Josh, J-Mac wrote a book; Columbia Pictures has signed to do the movie. Laura Ziskin, of the popular “Spiderman” series, will produce. If I were J-Mac, I’d have his people tell their people that Kirsten Dunst needs to be involved somehow.

4. One for the ‘W’ column

But if Spiderman’s leading lady isn’t available, J-Mac can always call his old buddy, the president. About a month after he sank all those 3’s, President George W. Bush made a surprise stop in Rochester. “Can I call you J-Mac?” the chief executive said. Surprisingly, J-Mac said yes. In all seriousness, he was moved by the experience, and vice versa. “Our country was captivated by an amazing story on the basketball court,” the president said. “It’s the story of a young man who found his touch on the basketball court, which, in turn, touched the hearts of citizens all around the country.” Then W and J-Mac went to the YMCA to “strategerize” on how best to attack a 2-3 zone and a soft economy.

5. Pure ‘bread’ shooter

When he’s not touring the country creating awareness of autism, J-Mac has a part-time job at Wegmans Food Market in his hometown, where he works in the bakery. Customers ask if the sourdough is fresh. Then they ask if he’ll autograph their grocery lists. He doesn’t play ball much anymore, although he says “the stroke’s still there.” So if I were UNLV’s Tre’Von Willis, I’d think about hitting a couple of 3’s against the Lumberjacks Thursday night. You never know when J-Mac’s liable to get hot again.