Myron Gardner arrived in the NBA from Arkansas-Little Rock with a reputation as a competitor. In the Heat's 2026-27 season opener against the Timberwolves, the reserve shooting guard made sure the entire league knew it — for better and worse.
Gardner got under the skin of Minnesota superstar Anthony Edwards with enough trash talk to, by multiple accounts, actively fuel Edwards' fire during Miami's 106-131 loss on October 21. Edwards himself acknowledged afterward that the Heat reserve had stoked his competitive engine — a remarkable admission that a bench player had gotten inside the head of one of the NBA's premier players. Gardner logged just three minutes and four points on the night, but the real footprint he left wasn't in the box score.
The episode drew a measured response from Heat coach Erik Spoelstra, who praised Gardner's competitive spirit while making clear that antagonizing the opponent's franchise cornerstone isn't exactly the team's preferred strategy. Spoelstra advised Gardner to "be better," a phrase that lands somewhere between a compliment and a correction. The coach's framing — loving the spirit, not the application — suggests Gardner isn't in the doghouse so much as being redirected.
For a reserve logging single-digit minutes, generating that kind of national attention is genuinely notable. CBS Sports and Sports Illustrated both picked up the story, a level of coverage most fringe rotation players never sniff. It's the sort of moment that can define early perception of a young player in the league: memorable, a little chaotic, and polarizing enough to stick.
Gardner's week didn't end there. He appeared in two additional games — a two-minute stint in a loss to the Pistons on October 24, where he blocked a shot and finished with a plus-2, and another brief appearance against the Hornets the same day. The stat lines are thin, but the opportunity to stay on the floor is the story at this stage of his career.
The other active Little Rock alum in the NBA, Markquis Nowell of the Houston Rockets, had no notable activity surface during this period.
Gardner's arc in Miami is still being written. But in the first week of a new season, the former Trojan made the kind of noise that doesn't show up in the traditional ledger — and now has to prove he can channel that edge without making himself a target for opponents looking to settle scores.
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