Skip to main content

NBA player blames his iPhone for his shooting woes last season (really)

Best Phablets Apple iPhone 6 Plus
Image used with permission by copyright holder
Matt Bonner isn’t exactly an unknown in the NBA, seeing how he’s been in the Association for over a decade. With that said, the 6-foot-10 free agent blamed his shooting woes last season not on fatigue, but on his iPhone 6 Plus, the Concord Monitor reports.

Bonner, known in many circles as the “Red Mamba,” is a career 46.3 percent shooter from the field, with the center shooting 41.3 percent from the three-point line. However, during the 2014-15 season, Bonner shot just 40.9 percent from the field, with his three-point shooting decreasing to 36.5 percent, leading some to wonder where his shooting touch went.

In an interview with the outlet, Bonner revealed that he had tennis elbow issues last season in his non-shooting arm, which proved to be such a big distraction that he couldn’t shoot the ball without cringing. “I hate to make excuses, I was raised to never make excuses, but I went through a two-and-a-half-month stretch where I had really bad tennis elbow, and during that stretch it made it so painful for me to shoot I’d almost be cringing before I even caught the ball like, ‘Oh, this is going to kill.'”

As for how Bonner got such an injury in his non-shooting arm, he theorized that his iPhone 6 Plus helped develop his tennis elbow. Wait, what?

“Everybody is going to find this hilarious, but here’s my theory on how I got it,” said Bonner. “When the new iPhone came out it was way bigger than the last one, and I think because I got that new phone it was a strain to use it, you have to stretch further to hit the buttons and I honestly think that’s how I ended up developing it.”

Regardless of whether Bonner was talking about the iPhone 6 or iPhone 6 Plus, we’d recommend him just getting an iPhone 5S or any relatively small phone if it means he’ll get paid more. At least Bonner has one thing going for him: his iPhone didn’t randomly explode while it was charging.

Editors' Recommendations

Williams Pelegrin
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Williams is an avid New York Yankees fan, speaks Spanish, resides in Colorado, and has an affinity for Frosted Flakes. Send…
Here’s how Apple could change your iPhone forever
An iPhone 15 Pro Max laying on its back, showing its home screen.

Over the past few months, Apple has released a steady stream of research papers detailing its work with generative AI. So far, Apple has been tight-lipped about what exactly is cooking in its research labs, while rumors circulate that Apple is in talks with Google to license its Gemini AI for iPhones.

But there have been a couple of teasers of what we can expect. In February, an Apple research paper detailed an open-source model called MLLM-Guided Image Editing (MGIE) that is capable of media editing using natural language instructions from users. Now, another research paper on Ferret UI has sent the AI community into a frenzy.

Read more
There’s a big problem with the iPhone’s Photos app
The Apple iPhone 15 Plus's gallery app.

While my primary device these days continues to be my iPhone 15 Pro, I’ve dabbled with plenty of Android phones since I’ve been here at Digital Trends. One of my favorite brands of phone has been the Google Pixel because of its strong suite of photo-editing tools and good camera hardware.

Google first added the Magic Eraser capability with the Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro, which is a tool I love using. Then, with the Pixel 8 series, Google added the Magic Editor, which uses generative AI to make edits that wouldn’t be possible otherwise. There are also tools like Photo Unblur, which is great for old photographs and enhancing images that were captured with low-quality sensors.

Read more
Why you should buy the iPhone 15 Pro Max instead of the iPhone 15 Pro
Someone holding an iPhone 15 Pro Max outside on a patio, showing the back of the Natural Titanium color.

If you want the best iPhone money can buy in 2024, you have two options: the iPhone 15 Pro and the iPhone 15 Pro Max. They have the same chipset, similar display technology, nearly identical cameras, etc. It's a really close battle, save for the fact that the iPhone 15 Pro is $200 cheaper.

It might be tempting to save some cash and choose the iPhone 15 Pro, but I recommend you splurge for the larger (and more expensive) iPhone 15 Pro Max. Why? Let me explain.
It's a big iPhone you won't hate using

Read more