Josh Hamilton’s story is amazing and inspirational. It’s one he doesn’t seem at all ashamed of and one he is proud to share, which only makes him more amazing and inspirational.

He’s gone from a dazzling high school phenom who was picked No. 1 in the 1999 MLB draft out of Athens Drive High, to down-and-out drug addict, to born-again Christian, to toast of the All-Star Game festivities last week at Yankee Stadium.

For many, watching Hamilton’s coming out party, which began last year with the Cincinnati Reds and continued this season when he was traded to the Texas Rangers, has brought about a question to which there really is no answer: What if he never got in that car accident in 2001?

If that car accident never happened, it’s assumed that Hamilton’s life wouldn’t have taken the detour it did. If he’d stayed healthy, he would have been in the majors within a few years. He would have put up numbers like he is now — .309 batting average, 21 home runs, 95 RBIs as of Sunday — for the last several seasons. He would be the cornerstone of the Rays’ revival — 57-40 as of Sunday, first place in the AL East, 1.5 games ahead of the Boston Red Sox — and an All-Star several times over.

Even Hamilton figured as much. Shortly after he was drafted in 1999, he told the media assembled outside his home: “I’m thinking three years in the minors, then maybe 15 years in the majors. Then I’ll have to wait five years to get into the Hall of Fame.”

But everything changed with that accident, the one where a dump truck ran a red light in Bradenton, Fla., and plowed into the pickup truck his mother Linda was driving and he was a passenger in, the accident that required his parents to move back home to Raleigh, the one that left him off the baseball field for the first time in his life, the one that gave him more free time than any unsupervised 20-year-old millionaire should have, the one that left him with an injured back, an injury that was followed by several more, the injuries that led him to the tattoo parlors, then the drinking, then the drugs, then addiction, then out of baseball altogether for three and a half years.

What if that dump truck had stopped, and Hamilton and his mom had just gone on their way? Hamilton’s prediction might be halfway toward coming true.

By all accounts, he was an All-American kid, the Golden Boy. He kissed his grandmother and mom before every game he played as a youngster. Tampa Bay management said what separated him from other top prospects in 1999 was his character. He was as sure a thing as a sure thing can be.

Then again, if that accident never happened, maybe we never hear from Josh Hamilton again. Maybe his talents don’t mature, his future doesn’t materialize. Who’s to say he wouldn’t have burned out in his early 20s? Who’s to say, despite being a can’t miss prospect, he would have just missed?

Remember when Ryan Leaf was just as good as Peyton Manning? How about Kwame Brown, the No. 1 pick in the 2001 NBA draft who wouldn’t be picked first in a YMCA pick-up game today? Has anyone heard from Matt Bush, Bryan Bullington or Matt Anderson, recently? They, like Hamilton, were No. 1 picks in the MLB draft during the last 10 years.

Hamilton not making it seemed impossible then, and it seems even more so given what he’s doing after that three-year layoff from the game. However, when he was 18 and the Rays gave him a $3.96 million signing bonus, it was impossible that he’d become a drug addict.

The general assumption is Hamilton lost years of his career — not to mention years of his life — to the drugs and the booze. I believe Hamilton lost those years so that he could prosper now.

Hamilton wasn’t meant to be Ken Griffey, Jr., the No. 1 pick in 1987 who’s been in the majors for nearly 20 years and will be a first-ballot Hall of Famer after he retires. Nor was he supposed to be Josh Allison, the No. 1 pick in 2003 whose life and promising career were derailed by drug addiction (he’s since recovered and is now playing in the Single-A Florida State League).

Though we’d all like to marvel at what might have been with Hamilton, that speculation accomplishes nothing. Appreciate him for who he is, what he’s become and what his future holds, regardless of the past. If he hadn’t taken the path he took, he might not even be here today.