So he became the team manager instead.
For three years, he hardly missed a game. He wore a white shirt and black tie, set up the clock, handed out water and cheered louder than anyone.
Near the end of the 2006 season, Coach Jim Johnson gave him a jersey, number 52, for the last home game of the year. He told Jason he would try to get him into the game, but he couldn’t promise.
That night, February 15, 2006, Greece Athena played Spencerport. Students in the stands had made signs with Jason’s face on them, just in case.
With 4 minutes and 19 seconds left, and his team far ahead, the coach pointed down the bench. Jason was going in.
His first shot was a three-pointer. It missed. Then he missed a layup.
And then something happened that nobody in that gym will ever forget. Jason made six three-pointers and one more basket. That was 20 points in about four minutes, more than anyone else scored all game. His teammates just kept passing him the ball.
When the final buzzer sounded, the crowd poured onto the court and lifted him up.
“I was hot as a pistol,” Jason said.
A student had caught it all on video, and soon the whole country had seen it. President George W. Bush stopped at an airport near Rochester just to meet Jason, and said he wept when he saw it. Jason won an ESPY award for the best sports moment of 2006.
Years later, he was back on the Greece Athena bench, as an assistant coach for the man who gave him his chance.
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