It takes a special kind of person to get Matt Bonner’s likeness shaved into your head.
First off, you have to be a redhead. And you have to be a bigger fan of Matt Bonner than anyone but his mom. And you have to have a life where you can walk around with Matt Bonner shaved into your head and not get in trouble.
Patrick Gonzalez had two of those things, he was a red head and a bigger Matt Bonner fan than a junior high student probably should be. So he got Bonner’s likeness shaved into his head, the image is to the right (via Tas Melas at The Basketball Jones).
But he did not have a school who thought this was cool, as pointed out to us by Kelly Dwyer at Ball Don’t Lie. The Woodlake Hills Middle School threatened to suspend him. Apparently the principle hates all stretch fours, not just Bonner. I mean, I can’t think of another good reason to force the kid to shave his head.
But the school threatened suspension and Gonzalez gave in.
When Bonner himself heard about it, he stepped forward, reports the Express-News Spurs blog.Flattered by Gonzalez’s loyalty to him and the Spurs, Bonner arranged tickets and autographed several items of Spurs memorabilia for him.
“Couldn’t you just move him to the back of the class?” the red-headed 3-point shooting ace said after Thursday morning’s shootaround. “Then nobody would see it; it wouldn’t be a distraction. Otherwise, the nicest thing a fan has ever done for me is ruined.
“I’m not going to condemn the school. If anyone is in support of education and academics, it’s myself, my Mom being a teacher, and (because of) my own academic success. Like I said, they could have just moved him to the back of the class.”Still, I bet Gonzalez would trade the haircut for the gear… and now we know who Bonner’s biggest fan is.