This time, though, as he attempted to dodge a speeding car rounding a bend, the tires of his 1996 Pontiac Grand Am caught a dirt patch. He slammed on the brakes, but momentum caused the car to roll over several times before coming to rest. Cocking, who wasn't wearing a seatbelt, found himself on the ground several yards away, thrown from the vehicle.

He didn't remember what had happened -- the impact had knocked him out briefly. A friend said he saw Cocking get up and walk back, with no assistance, toward the car. Turns out he had suffered a deep-knee contusion, slight back pain and aggravated an injury to his left shoulder he had suffered earlier in the year.

"I was worried about him; oh yeah, he was very lucky," said Joy D'Augustine, Brad's grandmother and a former basketball referee. "The good Lord was with him. Nothing but six or seven stitches."

Cocking was planning on hitting the weights hard, too, that day. The Chiefs' star shooting guard, a 2001 Daily Journal second-team all-star, was still tending to the shoulder, which he dislocated January in the waning moments a game with Atlantic City in January.

Buena had carried a one-point lead into the final 90 seconds, and Brad knocked down a 3-pointer to increase the lead to four. But moments later, in the commotion caused by players chasing a loose ball, his arm whipped back, dislodging the ball-and-socket joint in his shoulder.

Cocking felt the shoulder pop back a minute later, but his arm had gone numb. A stabbing pain shot through the shoulder, and he collapsed to the floor. Even more painful for Cocking was the fact that the Chiefs lost the game.

He missed six games but returned for the Middle Township game Feb. 8. It popped out again, however, necessitating surgery and ending his season, one that saw him average 17.4 points per game. It also meant he wouldn't be able to practice his jump shot for some time.

"I couldn't do anything after the surgery," he said. "That was the most pain I've ever felt in my entire life."

He didn't stay out of the gym for long. The right-handed shooter even started taking jumpers with his left hand. He said even started to develop an accurate shot. But he'd never use it in a game. His confidence, he said, isn't that high.

"He'd play with a cast if he could, if that was allowed," said Frank Giordano, his AAU coach. "It's a pleasure to coach a kid like that. He'll give you all he's got, and then some."

The knee and shoulder injuries forced him to miss Buena's earliest scrimmage, but he returned for the next two, though he admittedly felt winded early, something his coach and father, Gary Cocking, noticed, as well.

"Brad's starting now to get back into any type of basketball shape," Gary Cocking said. "The first scrimmage he played, it didn't look like (the accident) affected him at all; the other, it looked like he was out of shape. I think it'll take him time to get his whole game back, but I'm very pleased with his progress. He'll be back in form shortly."