Brooklyn's Chris Chiozza drives to the basket against the Hawks' Brandon Goodwin on Feb. 28 in Atlanta. (Photo by Todd Kirkland/Getty Images)

UNIONDALE, N.Y. — Chris Chiozza sits in a folding chair looking out at the court at Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum. Practice has just ended for the Long Island Nets, but he doesn’t know his plans for the rest of the day.

Chiozza is a two-way player with the Brooklyn Nets organization. Brooklyn has a game at Madison Square Garden against the Knicks at 6 p.m on Jan. 26. But the following day, Long Island has a home game against Grand Rapids.

“They haven’t told me I’m going to be up tonight, but you never know,” Chiozza said. “They could call me at 3 p.m. and say, ‘We need you there tonight.’”

Two-way players are stuck in basketball purgatory. The NBA introduced the concept in 2017, allowing players to technically be on an NBA roster but limiting them to 45 days with their NBA team — the rest of the time must be spent in the G League. Each team has two slots for two-way players, giving teams a chance to add two young players to their roster and give them opportunities to earn NBA experience.

At practice on this Sunday, both Chiozza and Jeremiah Martin — the Nets’ other two-way player — are with Long Island. Chiozza and Martin are both from Memphis, Tennessee, and starred for their local high schools. Both went undrafted — Chiozza out of Florida in 2018 and Martin from Memphis in 2019 — when they declared for the NBA draft and opted for roster spots in the G League.

But here they are: on the same team, as close to a coveted guaranteed NBA contract as they’ve ever been.

From South Dakota to the Big Apple

A few months ago, Martin was nowhere near New York. After going undrafted in June out of Memphis, he signed a summer league contract with the Miami Heat. He earned an Exhibit 10 deal (a minimum one-year deal that guarantees a camp invite), but was waived before the season and sent to the Heat’s G League affiliate — 2,000 miles away in Sioux Falls, South Dakota.

“It’s not like every other G League city,” Martin said. “It’s probably one of the worst ones. Nothing out there.”

The silver lining to living in Sioux Falls was the lack of distraction. There were no parties, no social obligations.

“You get to focus on basketball. You’re blocking out all the extra things you could do,” Martin said. “When you’re out in Sioux Falls, you got your teammates and grind, basically.”

His escape came courtesy of a two-way contract from the Nets in mid-January. He had a couple of offers, but chose Brooklyn because he liked the fit. Long Island is a short trip from Brooklyn, allowing team executives to watch him play. That rarely happened in South Dakota.

“It’s in Sioux Falls, and nobody is flying out there just to see a game,” Martin said.

Martin is 6-foot-3, a hard-nosed, physical guard. He was never highly recruited, always flying under the radar. Sweat drips from his forehead onto his jersey as he speaks after practice. If he is going to pave a steady career in the NBA at age 23, it will be more out of sheer effort and determination than natural talent.

“You’re blessed to be able to have your name on the roster of an NBA team,” Martin said. “That’s every kid’s dream. I’m not saying every kid is dreaming about being a two-way player, but at the same time, it’s still great because you’re in the league.

“They picked you for a reason. They don’t just pick you for no reason. They see something in you. They want to develop you. They think you can help their team.”

View photos Jeremiah Martin poses for a portrait during Heat media day on Sept. 30, 2019, in Miami. (Photo by Michael Reaves/Getty Images) More

‘They know what they’re in for’

Chiozza, 24, is just a year older than Martin, but has moved around considerably more.

The point guard joined the Washington Wizards’ G League affiliate in D.C in 2018. After playing well, Chiozza started garnering interest around the league. Around the same time, in February, he was named to the USA’s FIBA World Cup qualifying team. But the day before Team USA’s first game, the Houston Rockets called and offered him a 10-day contract. He split time between Houston and its G League affiliate in Rio Grande, Texas, for the remainder of the season, receiving sparse playing time with the big club.

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