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"The Ballad of Kiwi Gardner\n      by Sam Laird \n\n\n It\u2019s Memorial Day 2009.\u00A0Inside Cupertino High\u2019s dimly lit gymnasium, two traveling teams of teenage basketball stars tip off in the championship game of a weekend tournament. Local hoop-heads have pined for this matchup, which pits the underdog Bay Area Hoosiers against the Drew Gooden Soldiers, the West Coast\u2019s storied club basketball kings.\nThe Soldiers are sponsored by an NBA player. They count LeBron James among alumni and regularly showcase the nation\u2019s top hoops talent to elite college coaches. This year\u2019s edition features the Bay Area\u2019s best young players along with ringers brought in from out of state, prospects who will go on to be ranked among the country\u2019s best basketball recruits and who will play in All-American games.\nBut as the game gets underway, another player steals the show. The Hoosiers\u2019 tiny point guard is a slender high school sophomore from East Oakland named Kiwi Gardner. He stands just 5'7\" tall. A mop of short dreadlocks bounces atop his head. He throws no-look passes, leaves defenders lurching at crossover dribbles and spins to the basket, racking up points and assists.\nIn the stands, a cameraman catches it all on tape.\nWith less than a minute left, the Hoosiers are down by two. The Soldiers\u2019 point guard (current University of Arizona star Nick Johnson) trots the ball up court and drives toward the basket. Kiwi picks him clean. He\u2019s got a clear path to the rim for a game-tying layup.\nBut he looks back and decides to try something risky instead.\nWhat\u2019s an easy two-pointer to tie the game when you can pull up for three to take the lead? He lets the ball fly. All net. Fans go nuts. The Hoosiers hold on to beat the mighty Soldiers, and Kiwi is named tournament MVP.\nNot the traditional approach, but this, as fans around the globe will later learn, is Kiwi Gardner.\nAfter the game, the cameraman edits the game\u2019s best plays into a highlight mix. Two weeks later he uploads it to his YouTube channel, Yay Area\u2019s Finest. The end of the video zooms in on Kiwi\u2019s face. Bright eyes. Short dreads, burnt with rust-colored tips.\u00A0\nNo one knows it yet, but a YouTube star has just been born.\nOver the coming three-and-a-half years, dozens of videos featuring Kiwi will hit the web. Reverse dunks, dazzling dribbling displays, flair and showmanship -- Kiwi\u2019s clips will attract more than 8 million views on Yay Area\u2019s Finest alone, along with millions more on other channels. He\u2019ll become one of basketball\u2019s first YouTube sensations.\nBut basketball primarily exists outside of YouTube. And the coming years will prove Kiwi's offline world tougher to navigate.\nIt\u2019s a Sunday morning, October 2013.\u00A0Inside a small arena in Santa Cruz, Calif., men scrimmage on the fringes of the professional hoop dream. The Santa Cruz Warriors, NBA Development League (D-League) affiliate of the Golden State Warriors, host an open tryout for players hoping to win invites to their fall training camp and eventually make the roster.\nThe scene is both tantalizingly close to and a universe removed from the pro basketball you watch on TV. More than 100 current NBA players have spent time in the D-League, the NBA\u2019s official minor league. Yet most of those players grind along for\u00A0little more than $13,000, plus lodging and health benefits.\u00A0\nHere\u2019s Kiwi Gardner again, inside that Santa Cruz arena. Twenty years old now, he hasn\u2019t added any noticeable height, but his once-slight frame is roped with muscles and tattoos. The dreads, jet black now, hang shoulder-length, bobbing as he darts about the court.\nMore than two dozen players, several of them former collegians, try out for the Warriors on this warm autumn afternoon. Kiwi is the class of the group. He steals the ball in the backcourt, sprinting the other way for layups. He slashes to the rim, where he converts easy buckets or dishes to teammates. Santa Cruz coaches watch from the sidelines.\nKiwi\u2019s circuitous past four years -- spent suspended between Internet immortality and the harsh realm of big-business basketball -- illustrate the modern disconnect between viral fame and tangible reward. He spent an abbreviated, ill-fated stint in the Big East, college basketball\u2019s toughest conference. The following summer, in jaw-dropping performances canonized online, he stole the show from seasoned professionals at the San Francisco Pro-Am. Then he played this past winter for a top junior college program, until leaving that team mid-season amid bizarre circumstances.\nHe\u2019s spent the current autumn traveling the West to put his game in front of NBA personnel: before Santa Cruz, there were tryouts in Los Angeles, Milwaukee and Portland. After, there will be three more in Northern California and Nevada. The D-League push is Kiwi\u2019s last-ditch attempt to create a post-high school basketball career befitting his YouTube legend.\nThe browser windows have closed and the real world has clamped down. Having renounced his college eligibility forever, it\u2019s pro ball or bust, a lifelong NBA dream. No Plan B.\n\u201CBasketball-wise, this is it,\u201D Kiwi tells me back in Oakland. The D-League\u2019s Nov. 1 draft is two weeks away. He drinks a Snapple at his favorite local fried fish and chicken joint, resting between workouts in sweatpants and a black Raiders beanie. \u201CIt\u2019s do or die now. I\u2019m putting all I got into this. All I got.\u201D\nKiwi represents a classic sports archetype.\u00A0He\u2019s also a completely new case. Charismatic, underdog basketball players have long become legends outside the game\u2019s mainstream. Until recently, however, none of those players had YouTube. And none had Travis Farris.\nFarris is the cameraman who filmed Kiwi hit that audacious three at the Memorial Day tournament in 2009. It was Farris who took Kiwi worldwide.\nFarris lives in San Jose, Calif. His YouTube channel is among an elite handful of online\u00A0basketball mixtape outlets. He works days at Bed Bath &amp; Beyond, then spends nights and weekends filming Bay Area high school games. He edits and uploads flashy, beat-and-dunk-driven basketball mixes to his channel, then collects ad revenue as part of YouTube\u2019s partner program.\nAfter watching Kiwi at that spring event, Farris knew he\u2019d found something special.\n\u201CThe whole tournament it was just like, \u2018Oh my god, he can do this? Now he can do\u00A0this? Then he dunks, too?!\u2019\u201D Farris says. \u201CThen in the championship he had that crazy moment. I just thought, \u2018You never see anything like this.\u2019\u201D\nSeveral months later, the 2009-2010 high school season began. Farris began driving the two-and-half-hour round trip to Manteca, Calif. (Kiwi\u2019s mother had sent her son to high school in the Central Valley town to create some separation from Oakland\u2019s criminal influences, as well as provide stability while she spent weeks away working on merchant ships.) Despite the distance, Farris says he made the long haul about 15 times to film Kiwi during his junior season. Smart move.\nIn one clip from that winter, 16-year-old Kiwi throws down a leaning, lefthanded dunk. That video has racked up more than 2 million views. His junior year highlight mix has more than 600,000. Highlights from a 52-point game have been watched more than 100,000 times.\nYay Area\u2019s Finest would explode in views, subscribers and popularity, growing from a simple hobby to a viable second job over the coming years. Farris\u2019 videos of Kiwi have been viewed hundreds of thousands of times in Taiwan and the Philippines, and tens of thousands of times in Hong Kong, Russia, the UK, Germany, France and Australia. One viewer ripped a Yay Area\u2019s Finest mixtape of Kiwi and re-uploaded it to YouTube\u00A0with a Chinese title. That clip now totals more than 2.4 million views. \u201C\u4ED6\u662FKiwi Gardner!!!!!\u201D reads one comment there.\n\u201CIt wouldn\u2019t be possible without Kiwi paving the way,\u201D Farris says of his business's growth. \u201CHe basically built the audience. He\u2019s unmatched as far as guys I\u2019ve covered.\u201D\nDuring a recent a drive around the neighborhoods\u00A0where he learned the game, Kiwi reflects on his and Farris\u2019 intertwined rise. Farris is \u201Cfamily to me now,\u201D he says. \u201CNo doubt about it.\u201D\nKiwi\u2019s in-person demeanor on this sunny Oakland afternoon contradicts the persona you see on YouTube. He\u2019s soft-spoken, but obviously sharp. His on-court exuberance is replaced by a measured cool. He seems relaxed but guarded, answering questions in a low-key, even tone as we cruise by his old basketball haunts.\nToday, Kiwi says, he can walk into any gym in America and young players will likely recognize him. Occasionally people approach him at Starbucks or the mall. He says the attention from Farris\u2019 mixes is \u201Cjust life, really.\u201D But he does admit it's pretty \u201Ccool.\u201D\nTwo years out of high school now, he\u2019s signed with an agent to turn pro after just nine games of organized post-secondary ball. Yet he insists YouTube fame has never affected the way he plays the game or sees himself. I\u2019m inclined to believe that. The flamboyance, the competitiveness -- perhaps those traits attracted Farris\u2019 camera more than than they were magnified by it. It\u2019s easy to forget Kiwi\u2019s a 20-year-old kid who\u2019s been in the public eye for years and now stands at a personal and professional crossroads -- before he can even order a beer.\nBut whatever online glory did or didn\u2019t mean to him in the past, as he stares at the basketball abyss, Kiwi says he\u2019d easily trade it all to grasp the future he\u2019s dreamed of since childhood.\n\u201CThere\u2019s only really one thing I wanna remember, you know?\u201D he says. \u201CThat\u2019s playing in the League [the NBA]. That\u2019s the only jersey, the only picture, the only film I want to remember.\u201D\nAfter Kiwi\u2019s electric junior year,\u00A0coupled with Farris\u2019 camerawork, launched him from anonymity to Internet basketball notoriety, he spent the following spring and summer playing for the Soldiers. They toured the country, facing off against America\u2019s best prospects under the watchful eyes of coaches from around the nation.\nAt an April tournament in Virginia, the Soldiers went up against Marquis Teague, then the nation\u2019s top-rated point guard prospect. Early in the game, Kiwi stripped Teague of the ball, speeding down-court for an easy layup. The Soldiers won by 50 points. Today Teague plays for the Chicago Bulls.\nThat summer put Kiwi on the national scouting radar, and he left California to spend his senior year at Westwind Prep, an Arizona boarding school that promised more exposure and competition against talented players from across the country.\n\u201CKiwi killed while he was there,\u201D says Rodger Bohn, a writer who covers high school hoops nationally for basketball bible\u00A0Slammagazine. \u201CIt was one of those things where they\u2019d play teams with guys ranked higher than him, guys with bigger reps than him. But at the end of the day, Kiwi would usually be the best player on the floor.\u201D\nKiwi committed in April 2011 to play for the Friars of Providence College. Providence plays in the Big East Conference, which until a reorganization earlier this year, was widely considered the nation\u2019s premier college basketball federation. He returned home to spend the summer preparing for the transition, working out and playing in the San Francisco Pro-Am with NBA players and Americans who have gone pro overseas.\nIn one game, an 18-year-old Kiwi scored\u00A0more than 50 points, slapping hands ith his astonished grown-up teammates after retiring to the bench.\nFarris\u2019 camera rolled on, the YouTube clips racked up more views and old media took note.\nWrote\u00A0ESPN\u2019s college basketball blog: \u201CIt all just adds to Gardner's growing legend, as the 5'7\" point guard is simply breathtaking to watch at times. He has the name, the hair and the stylish game to match.\u201D\nWith his YouTube videos having already built him a following among hardcore fans and national media beginning to take note of his talent, Kiwi felt great as summer wound to a close. Providence had a brand new coach, Ed Cooley, set to start his first season. Kiwi was Cooley\u2019s very first recruit. He was off to play college ball against the nation\u2019s best, one step closer to his ultimate goal: the NBA.\n\u201CThe thing about Providence is it was the first choice,\u201D Kiwi says back in Oakland, his voice straining slightly at the recollection. \u201CI was there. It seemed perfect.\u201D\nWhile most Friars fans didn\u2019t expect Kiwi to be an immediate star, his YouTube fame and exciting style of play had preceded him to create buzz and anticipation, according to David Pean, founder and editor of the\u00A0FriarBlog\u00A0fan site. Kiwi enjoyed campus life, and Friars supporters took to his personable nature. A\u00A0@KiwiTranslator\u00A0Twitter account was born, offering comedic interpretations of the slang-ridden posts Kiwi made to his own profile.\nThen, in October, a bombshell.\nProvidence announced the NCAA had found a problem\u00A0with Kiwi\u2019s high school transcript, saying credits from one of his Westwind classes were not transferrable, rendering him ineligible to play as a freshman.\nProvidence appealed. The appeal was rejected.\nIn December, Kiwi was ruled out for the entire season. A financial aid package let him stay on as a student, but he couldn\u2019t practice or play with the team. Not being part of the team was hard, but he saw the ruling as a temporary setback and managed to have fun living life as a regular student through the frigid Rhode Island winter.\n\u201CIt was an amazing experience,\u201D he says. \u201CI loved it there. It was good. I was waiting on the year to come. I was eager to get back.\u201D\nOnce again, he returned home to California for the summer to work out and play in the San Francisco Pro-Am. Once again, Farris\u2019 camera rolled. Once again, Kiwi\u2019s mixes killed on YouTube. Kiwi Gardner games became events for Bay Area basketball fans, another testament to his popularity. He took home\u00A0league MVP honors\u00A0that summer.\n\u201CThis little 5\u20197\u201D kid who\u2019s never played a game of D-1 ball was drawing bigger crowds than NBA guys,\u201D Farris says.\nBut back east, things were changing at Providence.\nCooley had successfully recruited the nation\u2019s top-ranked point guard, a 6'3\" All-American, for the following season. He\u2019d also brought in one of the country\u2019s best shooting guards, and two other returning guards had flourished the previous season while Kiwi sat out. It made for a crowded backcourt.\nKiwi says he was just days away from returning to Providence to compete for playing time in his long-awaited first year of college ball when Cooley contacted him with a grim message.\n\u201CIt was weird. I don\u2019t know where it came from,\u201D Kiwi says. \u201CHe basically just said, \u2018We don\u2019t have any more room for you.\u2019\u201D\nA Providence athletic department spokesperson said a \u201Cmutual decision\u201D was made for the basketball program and Kiwi to part ways. But the severed ties left him in a tough spot; major colleges had long-since filled out their 2012-2013 rosters, leaving him with drastically limited options.\nKiwi landed at Midland College,\u00A0a junior college of 1970s buildings arranged on a circular campus, located in the windy plains of West Texas. The Chaparrals historically have a strong basketball program and play in one of the nation\u2019s most competitive junior college conferences. Kiwi\u2019s plan upon arrival was simple: Get better playing against good players, stay on track academically, then transfer back to a Division 1 program in a year or two.\nIn reality, he wouldn\u2019t last a season at Midland.\nOn the court, Kiwi put up mediocre numbers in his partial season. He says his relationship with coach Chris Craig was erratic: a lack of communication and drastic swings in playing time for no clear reason. He was among the team\u2019s best players, according toMidland Reporter-Telegram\u00A0beat writer Oscar LeRoy, showing top-notch athleticism and talent but sometimes struggling with turnovers and game management.\n\u201CHe played hard when he was here,\u201D LeRoy says. \u201CThere's no doubt about that. The potential was there for him to become really a very good player.\u201D\nMidland was a far cry from the Big East\u2019s massive budgets, NBA talent level and national TV broadcasts. It was even a world removed from Farris\u2019 handheld camera and highlight mixes. Other than old YouTube footage, Kiwi had by and large fallen off the basketball map.\nFrustrated, he would call Marvin Lea, with whom he\u2019d bonded at Westwind Prep in Arizona. Lea played four years of college ball at Pepperdine and was a Westwind teacher when Kiwi attended the Arizona prep school. Today he\u2019s a basketball trainer who\u2019s worked with NBA players Kawhi Leonard and Tony Snell. Now living in Southern California, he became a mentor and father figure for Kiwi during their time at Westwind.\n\u201CHe was like, \u2018Man, it\u2019s weird over here,\u2019\u201D Lea recalls of their phone conversations.\nHe\u2019d been telling me all year, \u2018It\u2019s nutty. there\u2019s something weird here.\u2019\nIn mid-January, Coach Craig suspended Kiwi from the Midland team indefinitely for an unspecified violation of team rules. By the end of January, Kiwi had left the team.\nTwo months later Coach Craig resigned as Midland coach, days after tweeting about end-of-the-world prophecies and posting dozens of pages of handwritten notes to his personal blog, calling Barack Obama \u201Cthe Antichrist\u201D and Mitt Romney a \u201Cfalse prophet,\u201D according to\u00A0local news reports. In July, Craig drew attention for \u201Ccalling himself an \u2018Islamist jihadist\u2019 and threatening the demise of Mormons and Catholics at sites across Arizona and Colorado,\u201D according to\u00A0The Coloradoan. In August, he was\u00A0arrested\u00A0for drug possession.\nOver fish, chicken and fries, I ask Kiwi why he left Midland rather than stick it out the rest of the season and find a new school. In retrospect, he says, the biggest factor was dissatisfaction with a college basketball experience that in two years had dealt him mostly letdown and disappointment.\n\u201CI\u2019m thinking to myself, \u2018What am I playing for?\u2019\u201D he says. \u201CI wasn\u2019t playing for me. I was playing for a scholarship. And I didn\u2019t like that, just knowing what a scholarship did for me last time. It didn\u2019t really do much. That scholarship was taken easily, and then I was left with nothing. So playing for that same thing, it just\u2026\u201D He trails off.\nAfter leaving Texas, he returned home briefly. On Feb. 13, his mother and grandmother drove him the three hours from Oakland to Fresno. Lea was there to watch his trainee Snell play one of his final college games, against Fresno State. Kiwi\u2019s mother and grandmother handed him off to Lea outside Save Mart Arena. After the game, Kiwi rode with his old Westwind mentor back down to Los Angeles for a new start.\nThis past spring Kiwi Gardner \u2014 all 5 feet 7 inches of him, and having played only a handful of officially organized basketball games over the past two years -- declared for the 2013 NBA Draft. He went unselected in the June 27 draft, but that came as a surprise to no one, including himself, Lea and his new agent, Noah Betzing. Signing with Betzing made Kiwi a pro in the eyes of basketball\u2019s powers-that-be, ruling any potential return to college out of the question.\nAfter his mother and grandmother dropped him off with Lea, Kiwi trained for up to eight hours per day over the spring and summer in Los Angeles. Cardio. Weights. Beach runs. Jump shots. Situational work. More jump shots. He stayed with Betzing or Lea between occasional trips back to the Bay Area, while chronicling the journey on\u00A0his own new YouTube channel.\nDeclaring for the NBA Draft was just part one of Kiwi and team\u2019s D-League plan. In theory, if he got into a minor league training camp, then made the roster, worked his way up the depth chart and played well enough to garner interest from the NBA this season, declaring would make him eligible for a mid-season call-up. But first, the matter of getting into a D-League training camp.\nThe D-League is rife with former college stars and even veteran pros fighting for one last NBA contract. Generally speaking, open tryouts are the hardest way to make it. Hardest, but not impossible.\nThe Santa Cruz Warriors invited a player named Daniel Nwaelele to training camp after last year\u2019s open tryout. He made the team, did well last season and spent time in an NBA training camp this fall before being cut. Another player named Stefhon Hannah broke into the D-League via an open tryout and has been its defensive player of the year the past two seasons. A player named DJ Kennedy caught on with the D-League\u2019s Erie BayHawks through a local open tryout and actually climbed all the way up to the NBA, where he appeared in two regular season games for the Cleveland Cavaliers in 2012.\nNwaelele, Hannah and Kennedy were all four-year college players, however.\nBesides being undersized for pro ball,\u00A0Kiwi must face another hurdle in trying to impress D-League teams: YouTube highlights are entertaining and build an independent fan base, but pro scouts and coaches want to see on-court refinement typically learned in college ball. At the Santa Cruz tryout, it\u2019s obvious Kiwi\u2019s making a concerted effort to prove he\u2019s more than just a preternaturally talented whirling hoops dervish.\nAfter a couple hours of scrimmaging, the Santa Cruz coaches send most of the players home and invite 15 to stick around for one last run. Kiwi is among them.\nWith 5.8 seconds left, the final scrimmage is tied. Kiwi receives the sideline inbounds pass near half court, draws the defense and assists for a game-winning layup.\n\u201CBallgame, baby!\u201D he yells to no one in particular. \u201CGood call, coach! Way to execute, fellas! Way to\u00A0listen!\u201D\nBut with just over a week until the Nov. 1 D-League draft, there\u2019s been no word from the Warriors, nor any of the other teams Kiwi tried out for. A direct invite to a training camp would remove him from the draft pool and eliminate one step of his roundabout dream chase. Otherwise, it\u2019s sit and sweat through eight rounds of drafting.\nAnd what if no one does call? Then what? Get some student loans and go back to school as a normal student? Get a regular 9-to-5 job?\n\u201CProbably not a\u00A0regular\u00A0job, but a job, something that\u2019s gonna provide for me financially in this real world we\u2019re riding in,\u201D he says, as we drive down East Oakland\u2019s notorious main drag, International Boulevard. \u201CHopefully it\u2019s close to the game. Hopefully it\u00A0is\u00A0the game. But certain situations require different things, as far as life goes. You\u2019ve got to livein reality. I\u2019m a realist.\u201D\nThe days march on.\u00A0\u00A0\nIt\u2019s Halloween. Judgment day is little more than 24 hours away.\u00A0Kiwi has retreated to Sacramento to stay with a high school friend and, he says, \u201Ctry to get some alone time.\u201D He gets to the gym for a couple workouts each day, his high school buddy rebounding jump shots, and watches NBA games on TV.\n\u201CI\u2019m nervous,\u201D Kiwi tells me with one day to go. \u201CI\u2019m just waiting and seeing now. It\u2019s all definitely been on my mind. It\u2019s kind of hard not to think about, with it playing such a big role in my life.\u201D\nThe tryouts in Santa Cruz and other points around the West are all over. No direct training camps invites have come, so there\u2019s nothing left to do but hope for the draft. But when it actually arrives, Kiwi says, he\u2019ll be too tense to follow online. He\u2019ll try to keep his mind off it -- but make sure to keep his phone nearby for any good news.\nTomorrow\u2019s draft is Kiwi's final shot. Getting the call from a team would mean his dream to play pro ball stays alive at least a few more weeks.\nThe Nov. 1 draft\u2019s first selection is Grant Jerrett, a 6-10 forward with a deadly outside shot from the University of Arizona. In the third round, the Delaware 87ers pick Aquille Carr, a tiny point guard from Baltimore whose own\u00A0highlight mixes\u00A0catapulted him to viral fame a couple years after Kiwi. Carr skipped college, then landed in the D-League draft after a short stint attempting to go pro overseas.\nThe fourth round passes. Kiwi\u2019s name goes uncalled.\nThe fifth round passes.\nThe sixth round passes.\nFinally, in the seventh round, the Santa Cruz Warriors use their final pick on Kiwi. Tweets and texts pour in. Kiwi would have been ecstatic for a shot with any of the D-League\u2019s 17 teams, but a chance to play for his favorite NBA squad\u2019s minor league affiliate less than two hours from his own hometown? That would be a dream come true.\nAfter nearly two weeks of practice,\u00A0Santa Cruz hosts the Reno Bighorns on Nov. 14. The first of two pre-season exhibition games, it will be a crucial measuring stick as the Warriors look to whittle their 14-man training camp roster down to a regular season maximum of 12. For fringe players like Kiwi, playing well is essential.\nWith two minutes and 29 seconds left in the first half and the Warriors losing by 10 points, Santa Cruz coach Casey Hill finally puts Kiwi in the game. Wearing number 17 and with his long dreads pulled back in a tight ponytail, Kiwi sets a hard screen on his very first play. It frees a teammate to swish an open three-pointer. Soon after, Kiwi dives on the floor to wrestle a rebound away from a bigger Reno player. He\u2019s a terror on defense, too, dogging his man up and down the floor. \u201CAtta boy, Gardner!\u201D a middle-aged man bellows from the stands near mid-court.\nKiwi scores his first bucket on a fastbreak layup, with about 30 seconds left to pull the Warriors within three points. The Warriors end the half down by just two -- an eight-point swing since Kiwi checked in. Kiwi swaggers off the court to the locker room, jutting his chin with an exaggerated nod toward teammates and fans.\nSanta Cruz goes on to win 113-92. Kiwi finishes with three points, two assists, two rebounds and zero turnovers in just under 10 high-energy minutes. The evening has, by all measures, been a resounding success. Kiwi signs autographs for fans after the game.\u201CKiwi Gardner continues to amaze us as a coaching staff,\u201D Hill tells reporters outside the locker room. \u201CWhen you get a streetballer coming into the D-League, the biggest thing you have to do is help him play within himself, play within the structure. He does a really good job of that.\u201D\nOne week later, on Thursday, Nov. 21, Santa Cruz is set to release its opening night roster. Though the team played its final pre-season game nearly a week earlier, a game Kiwi missed due to illness, the Warriors have been keeping Kiwi and the other hopefuls on pins and needles. Thursday is the league deadline; anyone who isn't on the roster won't be on the team this year. Two players from training camp are gone, having been sent home to ponder their basketball futures. Another is in Oakland with the Golden State Warriors after a call-up to the big-league squad.\nAnd the fifth name on the roster is Kiwi Gardner.\nWhen we talk on the phone that afternoon, Kiwi is nonchalant about the news, calling it a \u201Cpretty regular\u201D day. Actually, it\u2019s the culmination of two tumultuous years, plus months of grinding uncertainty.\nBut the D-League\u2019s non-guaranteed contracts mean that he will, in a sense, perpetually have to try out. \u201CCoach Hill told me to just keep doing what I\u2019ve been doing, keep playing hard, and that\u2019s why I\u2019m still here,\u201D he says. \u201CI just can\u2019t get complacent. I need to be here.\u201D\nI ask if a Thursday night celebration is in order after the good news, but Kiwi demurs. He\u2019ll probably try to stay hydrated and rest for opening night.\nIt may be the minor leagues, the pay isn\u2019t much and the NBA is still several hard steps away, but Kiwi Gardner is finally a professional basketball player. And tomorrow? He's got to go to work.\n\u00A0      The Ballad of Kiwi Gardner\n      by Sam Laird                                                 Share                Tweet                                                                                          "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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