SPOKANE, Wash. — Five-year-old Colin Neil is a big Gonzaga fan with a room filled of Zags swag.
His favorite part of Gonzaga basketball is when they win. His favorite player ever was not a star on the team, though.
That would be former forward Jeremy Jones.
"He seems like a nice guy," Colin said.
Jones averaged about three points a game last season and had one career start to his name. Nonetheless, he's Colin's favorite.
"He would get so excited and cheer every time Jeremy Jones would come into the game," his mother, Brianne Reed, said. "He tells his barber he wants a Jeremy Jones haircut."
He's such a big fan of Jones that for his fifth birthday this past Sunday, on his cake, he didn't want a superhero, not a car, he just wanted a picture of Jones.
"I like him," Colin said.
His mom said the cake idea came from Colin when she asked him what kind of party he wanted.
"He said he wanted a Jeremy Jones party," Reed said with a chuckle. "So we kind of expanded it to Gonzaga basketball, but that's how the cake idea came about."
His uncle Nathan tweeted the picture of the cake. He tagged Jones, and Jones retweeted it wishing Colin a happy birthday.
Colin and his mom both said he was very excited that his favorite player gave him a birthday shoutout.
Colin and Jones have never met, so Jones agreed to meet him over video chat as a birthday present.
"Hey, Colin. Happy fifth birthday, man," Jones exclaimed.
Colin replied very politely with a thank you. He asked Jones if he liked his birthday cake.
"Yeah, your birthday cake was amazing," Jones said with a big smile.
Jones currently plays pro basketball in Austria.
He didn't see the tweet until he woke up because of the time difference and probably had to rub his eyes an extra time when he saw it.
"I was really surprised," he said. "Gonzaga is just a special place. I was just talking to a couple former guys about college, the fans and how fun Gonzaga is. So this was kind of like icing on the cake."
It was icing on the cake. He couldn't have said it better.
This experience was probably the same for Colin.
"That was fun," Colin said. "I never got to talk to him. That was my first time."
