​The text messages come from a basketball locker room in Blaine, Minnesota, site of the 2026 Special Olympics USA Games. The texts hit my phone before and after games, brief morsels of information from the exceptional young man trying to lead Indiana’s state champions from Special Olympics Boone County to a national title.Monday, June 22, 10:22 a.m.Our first game is today against Florida please wish me luck gonna need it!! Hope you’re doing okay love you my friend!!AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementThat’s John Wheeler, all of that right there: Humble, loving, transparent.This also is John Wheeler: Basketball player. Winner. Played for the Morristown junior varsity as a sophomore in 2008, but was cut during varsity tryouts as a junior in 2009. Thought he was done playing competitively, but then he remembered Michael Jordan had once been cut from the varsity in Wilmington, N.C.“We all know the story,” John has told me before. “Michael Jordan got cut from his high school team, he came back, it motivated him, he became the player we all know today. Same situation for me, except obviously I don’t play in the NBA. I used that to motivate me, and that’s how I got to Special Olympics.”Monday, June 22, 4:16 p.m.49-41 we won Gregg had 16 pointsAdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementSee what he wrote? Team first, then his results. That’s John Wheeler, all of that right there. He wasn’t even going to play this year, because – for the second time since 2009 – he thought he was done. He’s 34, and he’d won his share of gold medals (22 in all, including softball, flag football and volleyball), even hit a game-winning shot during Special Olympics Indiana’s march to the 2022 Special Olympics gold medal in Orlando.“Number one, I figured I had my fun,” John says, “and the least I could do was help the team, help them get ready any way I can. That was the No. 1 reason I stopped playing – because it was their time to shine.”What was the second reason? That’s what I’m asking John. He pauses.“Hmmm,” he says.AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisement“Well,” he says, “I guess that was the reason.”Tuesday, June 23, 11:40 a.m.34-32 we lost I missed the shot to win itHe left out some details. That’s also John Wheeler, that right there.The details John left out of that text message? Excuses, he’d say. John had a shot for the win – and he missed it. Indiana had the ball, out of bounds, one second left. Down two. No timeout, because everyone knows who’s taking the shot: John Wheeler. He catches the ball on the baseline, launches a 3-pointer, and it rims out.His coach, Francois Hurtubise of Zionsville, fills in the details for me. These were unified games, meaning basketball rosters were a mixture of five Special Olympics athletes and five “partners,” as they’re called, people without an intellectual disability. Well, the roster was supposed to be an even mix of athletes and partners, but Indiana’s roster h