The only thing DerMarr Johnson would have done differently is not turn down the radio in his Mercedes.

Had the radio been blaring, he would not have nodded off, driving home with friends in the wee hours last Sept. 13 on Cascade Road in Southwest Atlanta.

He would have not veered off the road, hit a tree, fractured four vertebrae in his neck and come within an inch of being dead or a quadriplegic. His friends pulled him out of the flaming car.

"I got off the exit near my house and turned down the radio because my friends were sleeping," Johnson said.

"It got too quiet. The next thing I knew, I was being pulled out of the car."

It is an incredible story, even more so when you watch Johnson, a 6-9 swingman from Cincinnati, in the Grizzlies minicamp at Rhodes College on Friday.