MoSpur
01-03-2008, 01:29 PM
http://www.mysanantonio.com/sports/basketball/nba/spurs/stories/MYSA010308.01C.BKN_Spurs_Johnson.en.29a8c24.html
Jeff McDonald
San Antonio Express-News
DENVER — The memories of Sept. 13, 2002, come floating back to DerMarr Johnson in snapshots both vivid and incomplete, like morning-after recollections of a bad dream.
Stopped at a red light in suburban Atlanta. Two friends asleep in his Mercedes-Benz. Turning down the radio.
Then, fire and fury. Panic and pandemonium.
Now he's running down the street in the ghostly gray light of pre-dawn, in frantic search for help. It would still be a few hours before doctors will tell him he has broken his neck.
Johnson doesn't remember exactly how his car came to be wrapped around that tree, leaving everyone in it seriously injured but miraculously alive. He doesn't remember the 10 seconds that would inexorably alter the course of his NBA career.
"I just fell asleep at a red light," Johnson said, "and must have hit the gas."
More than five years after the crash, Johnson came to San Antonio last week still looking to resurrect his career from its wreckage.
He fractured four vertebrae in the accident, an injury that kept him out of the NBA for a year and a half. Two years after making him the No. 6 pick in the 2000 draft, the Atlanta Hawks gave up on him, setting in motion a tumultuous period that would see him play in seven cities and four leagues in five years.
Searching for depth on the wing following injuries to Manu Ginobili and Brent Barry late last month, the Spurs became the latest team to take a chance on the former lottery pick, plucking Johnson off the scrap heap of the Development League.
Tonight's game at Denver will be Johnson's second with the team.
To the Spurs, Johnson is a low-risk, high-reward signee: A 6-foot-9 swingman with seven years of NBA experience, signed to a non-guaranteed deal worth the veteran minimum. At worst, he is an inexpensive fallback option while Ginobili and Barry nurse their way back to health. At best, he can become a cheap but valuable perimeter-shooting threat on a team that puts a premium on such players.
Johnson is a career 33.6 percent 3-point shooter, a number that jumps to better than 35 percent if you discount his disastrous 19 of 88 campaign in Denver last season.
"He's been in the league, he's a good shooter," Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said. "He knows the personnel of the league pretty well."
Johnson says he can still make good on his promise as a first-round draft pick. Given an opportunity with the Spurs, he aims to make his case.
"I haven't reached my peak yet," Johnson said. "I haven't played a lot of minutes, so I can still play a lot more years."
Friday the 13th
Until the day he broke his neck, Johnson never envisioned he would be 27 years old and still searching for a steady job in the pros.
"I had higher expectations of myself," he admits. "I'm living a dream, but it's been a struggle."
A first-round pick in the 2000 after leaving Cincinnati following his freshman year, Johnson seemed on a steady climb toward becoming an everyday NBA player.
In 2001-02, he averaged 8.4 points and 3.4 rebounds and started 46 games with Atlanta. He was poised to enter his third NBA training camp with high hopes of earning a regular starting job.
Then came the accident, and with it uncertainty.
Just before 5 a.m. that fateful Friday the 13th, Johnson was driving home from an evening at an Atlanta nightspot.
Before they reached Johnson's neighborhood, his passengers fell asleep. At a stoplight, Johnson joined the nap.
His next recollection is of one of his friends pulling him from the debris seconds before the car burst into flames.
"It was pretty scary," Johnson said.
Police toxicology reports later showed that alcohol did not play a role in the crash. Johnson's doctors, meanwhile, offered a sobering report.
They told him he probably wouldn't play basketball again.
Recovering from his injuries, Johnson did not play during the 2002-03 campaign, after which Atlanta declined to pick up his $3 million option.
Though he had survived his fiery crash, his career remained on life support.
Mile High letdown
After Atlanta let him go, Johnson wound up in New York, first as a member of Long Island's ABA team, then with the New York Knicks. He auditioned well enough during the Knicks' 2004 playoff run to earn a spot in Denver.
Each of his three season with the Nuggets was supposed to be Johnson's career breakthrough. Each season only brought more frustration.
He started 40 games in 2004-05, his first season with the Nuggets. Last season, he only played in 39, precipitating his departure from Denver.
"It kind of went downhill out of nowhere," said Johnson, who will make his return to Denver tonight when the Spurs play at the Pepsi Center. "I don't think it was anything I did. It just didn't work out in my favor for some reason."
Asked after Wednesday's practice what went wrong for Johnson in Denver, coach George Karl said it was a matter of guard numbers.
"You've got Kuba (Yakhouba Diawara), who can play. We've got Bobby Jones, who at times can play," Karl said. "It seems like teams get overloaded with guards."
Out of a job again, Johnson opened the 2007 season in the basketball bush leagues, first playing in Italy and then with the NBA Development League's Austin Toros.
He chose Austin, where he averaged 16.8 points and made 41.3 percent of his 3-pointers in 11 games, because of its affiliation with the Spurs. The team had been in talks with him since he left Denver.
Now, Johnson is back in the NBA hoping to stick. His fate remains in the Spurs' hands.
They have until Jan. 10 to decide whether to keep him. After that date, NBA rules require all non-guaranteed contracts to become guaranteed.
"Hopefully," Johnson said, "I can stay here for the rest of the season."
If he can pull that off — and given his rocky career path Johnson realizes nothing is certain — all the pain of his past might actually be worth it.
Every now and then, memories of that frightening morning five years ago come back to Johnson. The bad dream is never far away.
There is only one way he knows of to keep it at bay.
"I've just got to get in the right situation, get in the rotation," Johnson said. "And do some things to let people know I still can play."
Jeff McDonald
San Antonio Express-News
DENVER — The memories of Sept. 13, 2002, come floating back to DerMarr Johnson in snapshots both vivid and incomplete, like morning-after recollections of a bad dream.
Stopped at a red light in suburban Atlanta. Two friends asleep in his Mercedes-Benz. Turning down the radio.
Then, fire and fury. Panic and pandemonium.
Now he's running down the street in the ghostly gray light of pre-dawn, in frantic search for help. It would still be a few hours before doctors will tell him he has broken his neck.
Johnson doesn't remember exactly how his car came to be wrapped around that tree, leaving everyone in it seriously injured but miraculously alive. He doesn't remember the 10 seconds that would inexorably alter the course of his NBA career.
"I just fell asleep at a red light," Johnson said, "and must have hit the gas."
More than five years after the crash, Johnson came to San Antonio last week still looking to resurrect his career from its wreckage.
He fractured four vertebrae in the accident, an injury that kept him out of the NBA for a year and a half. Two years after making him the No. 6 pick in the 2000 draft, the Atlanta Hawks gave up on him, setting in motion a tumultuous period that would see him play in seven cities and four leagues in five years.
Searching for depth on the wing following injuries to Manu Ginobili and Brent Barry late last month, the Spurs became the latest team to take a chance on the former lottery pick, plucking Johnson off the scrap heap of the Development League.
Tonight's game at Denver will be Johnson's second with the team.
To the Spurs, Johnson is a low-risk, high-reward signee: A 6-foot-9 swingman with seven years of NBA experience, signed to a non-guaranteed deal worth the veteran minimum. At worst, he is an inexpensive fallback option while Ginobili and Barry nurse their way back to health. At best, he can become a cheap but valuable perimeter-shooting threat on a team that puts a premium on such players.
Johnson is a career 33.6 percent 3-point shooter, a number that jumps to better than 35 percent if you discount his disastrous 19 of 88 campaign in Denver last season.
"He's been in the league, he's a good shooter," Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said. "He knows the personnel of the league pretty well."
Johnson says he can still make good on his promise as a first-round draft pick. Given an opportunity with the Spurs, he aims to make his case.
"I haven't reached my peak yet," Johnson said. "I haven't played a lot of minutes, so I can still play a lot more years."
Friday the 13th
Until the day he broke his neck, Johnson never envisioned he would be 27 years old and still searching for a steady job in the pros.
"I had higher expectations of myself," he admits. "I'm living a dream, but it's been a struggle."
A first-round pick in the 2000 after leaving Cincinnati following his freshman year, Johnson seemed on a steady climb toward becoming an everyday NBA player.
In 2001-02, he averaged 8.4 points and 3.4 rebounds and started 46 games with Atlanta. He was poised to enter his third NBA training camp with high hopes of earning a regular starting job.
Then came the accident, and with it uncertainty.
Just before 5 a.m. that fateful Friday the 13th, Johnson was driving home from an evening at an Atlanta nightspot.
Before they reached Johnson's neighborhood, his passengers fell asleep. At a stoplight, Johnson joined the nap.
His next recollection is of one of his friends pulling him from the debris seconds before the car burst into flames.
"It was pretty scary," Johnson said.
Police toxicology reports later showed that alcohol did not play a role in the crash. Johnson's doctors, meanwhile, offered a sobering report.
They told him he probably wouldn't play basketball again.
Recovering from his injuries, Johnson did not play during the 2002-03 campaign, after which Atlanta declined to pick up his $3 million option.
Though he had survived his fiery crash, his career remained on life support.
Mile High letdown
After Atlanta let him go, Johnson wound up in New York, first as a member of Long Island's ABA team, then with the New York Knicks. He auditioned well enough during the Knicks' 2004 playoff run to earn a spot in Denver.
Each of his three season with the Nuggets was supposed to be Johnson's career breakthrough. Each season only brought more frustration.
He started 40 games in 2004-05, his first season with the Nuggets. Last season, he only played in 39, precipitating his departure from Denver.
"It kind of went downhill out of nowhere," said Johnson, who will make his return to Denver tonight when the Spurs play at the Pepsi Center. "I don't think it was anything I did. It just didn't work out in my favor for some reason."
Asked after Wednesday's practice what went wrong for Johnson in Denver, coach George Karl said it was a matter of guard numbers.
"You've got Kuba (Yakhouba Diawara), who can play. We've got Bobby Jones, who at times can play," Karl said. "It seems like teams get overloaded with guards."
Out of a job again, Johnson opened the 2007 season in the basketball bush leagues, first playing in Italy and then with the NBA Development League's Austin Toros.
He chose Austin, where he averaged 16.8 points and made 41.3 percent of his 3-pointers in 11 games, because of its affiliation with the Spurs. The team had been in talks with him since he left Denver.
Now, Johnson is back in the NBA hoping to stick. His fate remains in the Spurs' hands.
They have until Jan. 10 to decide whether to keep him. After that date, NBA rules require all non-guaranteed contracts to become guaranteed.
"Hopefully," Johnson said, "I can stay here for the rest of the season."
If he can pull that off — and given his rocky career path Johnson realizes nothing is certain — all the pain of his past might actually be worth it.
Every now and then, memories of that frightening morning five years ago come back to Johnson. The bad dream is never far away.
There is only one way he knows of to keep it at bay.
"I've just got to get in the right situation, get in the rotation," Johnson said. "And do some things to let people know I still can play."