FanShot

Nice Kicks: Matt Bonner Chooses Sandwiches Over Shoes

2

Spurs center Matt Bonner sat at his locker before a recent game at the AT&T Center, deep in thought and staring at his feet, as if contemplating some key piece of preparation for the night ahead. "Which pair of shoes should I wear?" Bonner finally asked, holding aloft a pair of Converse and a pair of New Balance. Someone proposed he don one of each, a suggestion Bonner considered a few seconds before an eavesdropping teammate shattered the dream. A mismatched shoe selection would violate the NBA’s uniform dress code, Manu Ginobili interjected, and could cost Bonner $25,000 in fines. "Just think of how many sandwiches that is," Ginobili said, referring to Bonner’s famously favorite form of sustenance. Estimating (conservatively, he says) 700 sandwiches per year at $5 a pop, Bonner ? concludes it would cost seven years’ worth of hoagies to flout the NBA’s uniform rules for one night. "The punishment doesn’t fit the crime," he sighed, as the rest of the room disintegrated into laughter.