Matt Bonner

Matthew Robert Bonner is a former professional basketball player from the United States of America who played as a center. Bonner began his playing career for the Concord High School where he helped the team win three state championships during his four years at school. Along with basketball, Bonner was blessed with an exceptional family, all of whom supported him well through his journey through basketball.

Upon graduation from high school, Bonner went to the University of Florida and for the Gators, scored 1,570 points with 778 rebounds and 165 3-pointers. Along with a 3.96 GPA, Bonner was ranked amongst the top-10 players in six categories. Bonner won the Verizon Academic All-American of the Year award twice, in 2001-02 and then again in 2002-03.
He was picked for the All-SEC team 7 times, three years in a row for the Academic Pick, Once in the Third Team (Freshman Season), once in the Second Team (Sophomore Season) and twice in the First Team picked by Associated Press and all the coaches of the NCAA. Bonner also received two honourable mention All-American in 2001-02 and 2002-03.

At the 2003 NBA Draft, Bonner was picked at 45th overall, in the second round, by the Chicago Bulls. The very same day, he was traded out to the Toronto Raptors but was sent out to Europe by the franchise as they didn’t have a roster opening for the young American.
Bonner first went to Italy where he played for Sicilia Messina but the highlight of his year was a rather unpleasant bout of salmonella that saw him pick up a 104.5 degree fever. As if that were not bad enough, his team filed for bankruptcy midway through the season and the players stopped receiving any wages for their services. With two eviction notices, no heating and electricity, Bonner decided to stick out the year with the team even when the other players were leaving. He averaged 19.2 points in a difficult season and had 9.3 rebounds per game.

In 2004-05, Bonner returned to the USA to join the Toronto Raptors and finally, made his debut for the Raptors, playing all 82 games that season. Averaging 7.2 points per game, Bonner got the nickname, Red Rocket, having worn red coloured hair and riding public transport of a company who’s slogan is “Ride the Rocket”.

Bonner was ejected from a game in his rookie year when he threw Kevin Garnett into the crowd after pushing him from behind. A heated game saw an argument erupt between the two and even though Bonner was ejected from the game, the crowd developed a liking and chanted his name throughout the Air Canada Centre.

In the following season, Bonner scored at 7.5 points and grabbed 3.6 rebounds per game. Throughout his career, 3-point shooting had been something of a strong point for Bonner and nothing changed when he entered the NBA. Ranked 14th amongst all NBA players, Bonner became a regular 3-point shooter for the team.

At the end of the 2005-06 season, Bonner was traded out to the San Antonio Spurs in exchange for Radoslav Nesterovic. Bonner started out slowly for the Spurs and in the 2006-07 season, only played 56 games while averaging just 11-odd minutes per game. Bonner, a back-up for most of the season, ended up getting his first NBA Championship ring after the Spurs went on to win the title that year.

Over the next two seasons, Bonner slowly increased his contribution to the team and began making more appearances. His scoring rate almost doubled from 4.8 points per game in 2007-08 to 8.2 points per game in 2008-09. Bonner also improved his rebounding stats to 4.8 per game from just 2.8 the year before.