Patty Mills

Mills was born in the Australian capital city of Canberra.[2] Mills' father, Benny, is a Torres Strait Islander (Muralag) and his mother, Yvonne, is Aboriginal Australian (Kokatha[3]), the daughter of a white man and an Aboriginal woman. As part of the Stolen Generations, she and her four siblings were taken from their parents by the Australian state after her parents' separation in 1949.[4][5][6] Mills has said that learning of his mother's past was a "turning point" in his understanding of his identity as Indigenous Australian.[4]

Mills' uncle is former Olympian basketballer Danny Morseu, the second Indigenous Australian to represent Australia at the Olympics in basketball;[7] Mills would be the third, thirty years later.[4] He is the cousin of rugby league players Edrick Lee,[8] Brenko Lee and fellow basketball player Nathan Jawai.[9][10][11] Mills' great uncle is Indigenous land rights activist Eddie Mabo.[4]

Mills first took up basketball as a four-year-old for a local Indigenous club his parents established called "The Shadows".[12] Growing up, he was the ball boy for the Canberra Cannons of the National Basketball League (NBL). Mills' future coach at Saint Mary's College of California, David Patrick, played for the Cannons during that time and developed a relationship with the Mills family.[13]

In addition to playing basketball, Mills also played underage Australian rules football at a high level.[14] He had an opportunity to pursue a career in the Australian Football League (AFL),[15] but decided to concentrate on basketball instead.[15] In 2005, he made a strong impression at the Australian Olympic Youth Festival, an event considered to be a showcase for future elite sporting talents.[12]

Mills attended Canberra's Marist College, but left at the end of 2004 to attend the Australian Institute of Sport and Lake Ginninderra College.[16]

In January 2006, Mills was awarded the prestigious RE Staunton Medal at the U20 Nationals in Perth.[17] As a member of the 2006 Junior National Men's Team, Mills helped Australia defeat New Zealand and qualify for the 2007 Junior Men's World Championships. In April, Mills was a member of the World Junior Select Team that competed against the United States in the Nike Hoop Summit.[18][19] Mills was named the 2006 SEABL U/21 Australian Youth Player of the Year, averaging 18.1 points and 3.9 rebounds per game and helping the AIS to a 16–10 regular season record. He finished the season third in assists in the SEABL, averaging 4.37 per game.[19]

Also in 2006, Mills was the youngest athlete selected in the 22-man extended Australian Boomers squad ahead of the 2006 FIBA World Championship. In July, he was named the 2006 Junior Male Player of the Year at Basketball Australia's annual Junior Basketball Awards.[17] Mills was named the "most promising new sports talent" at the 2006 Deadlys Awards. The Deadlys Awards honor Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders achievements in sports, music, entertainment and community. In addition to receiving the Deadlys Award, Mills was named the 2006 Australia Basketball Player of the Year and the National Sportsperson of the Year by the NAIDOC.[19]

Mills in December 2008, during his sophomore season

In November 2006, Mills signed to play college basketball for Saint Mary's College of California beginning in the 2007–08 season.[19] He joined fellow Australians Lucas Walker and Carlin Hughes on the Gaels for the 2007–08 season.[19]

Mills was named the WCC Newcomer of the Year and earned All-WCC First Team honours after helping the Gaels earn a top 25 ranking for the first time since the 1988–89 season.[20] He started all 32 games for the Gaels as a freshman, posting a team-high 14.8 points, 2.1 rebounds, 3.5 assists and 1.8 steals in 32.1 minutes. He set a Saint Mary's freshman record for points in a season with 472, and set the school freshman mark for points in a game with a 37-point performance against Oregon on 20 November 2007.[21] He was also a three-time WCC Player of the Week honouree (16 November, 24 December and 19 February).[22]

As a sophomore in 2008–09, Mills averaged 18.4 points, 3.9 assists, 2.4 rebounds and 2.2 steals in 32.1 minutes and was named WCC Player of the Week twice (24 November and 8 December). He was subsequently named All-WCC First Team for a second straight year.[22]

In April 2009, Mills declared for the NBA draft, forgoing his final two years of college eligibility.[23]

In 2007, Mills made his senior national team debut for the Boomers at the FIBA Oceania Championship.[77] Mills became the third Indigenous basketball player to play for Australia behind Olympians Michael Ah Matt (1964) and Danny Morseu (1980–84).[2] The following year, he played for Australia at the FIBA Diamond Ball tournament and represented his country at the Beijing Olympics, where he averaged 14.2 points per game.[77] Mills went on to play for Australia at the 2010 FIBA World Championship and 2011 FIBA Oceania Championship, before once again representing his country at the 2012 London Olympics.[77] At the 2012 Olympics, Mills had the highest scoring average with 21.2 points per game, ahead of Kevin Durant of the United States, who averaged 19.5 points per game.[78]

In 2013, Mills played for Australia at the FIBA Oceania Championship. Two years later, he played at the 2015 FIBA Oceania Championship. In 2016, he helped the Boomers finish fourth at the 2016 Rio Olympics.[77]

Mills became the first Indigenous Australian to be a flag bearer when he carried the Australian flag alongside swimmer Cate Campbell at the opening ceremony for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.[79][80] As captain, Mills helped lead Australia to obtain their first ever Olympic medal in men's basketball by scoring 42 points against Slovenia in the bronze medal game.[81] His performance also earned him honours as the shooting guard in the Tokyo 2020 All Star Five for the men's Olympics basketball tournament.[82]

Mills is known for his three-point shooting,[83][84] his commitment to the team culture of the San Antonio Spurs[85] and the Boomers,[81] his enthusiasm,[86][87] and his leadership qualities.[88][83][85]

During the 2010–11 season, the "3 Goggles" trend became popular in the NBA, whereby players fit themselves with "A-OK" hand-gesture goggles after they make a three-point basket during a game. Mills and teammate Rudy Fernández are credited with having started the trend. Mills and his teammates would poke fun at Fernández's struggles from beyond the three-point line, indicating he couldn't see very well. So when Fernandez started sinking three-point shots, they would make goggles with their hands over their eyes in tribute to his skill. From Fernández's perspective, when he started to make three-point shots, he would make the goggle gesture to show Mills his vision was OK.[89][90] T-shirts with the gesture were printed and popularly sold in Portland.[91]

Mills (left) with then teammate Chris Johnson and Portland, Oregon mayor Sam Adams in June 2011, wearing "Assist Australia" t-shirts.

Mills met long-time girlfriend Alyssa Mills (née Levesque), who was also a college basketball player, while they were both attending Saint Mary's College of California.[92] On 8 July 2019, they were married in Waimea Valley, Hawaii.[93]

In July 2014, Mills was presented with the keys to the city in Canberra in the wake of the Spurs' championship success.[94]

In 2017, Mills co-wrote a series of books for young readers with Jared Thomas, published in 2018 as Game Day! Championship Collection.[95]

He is a supporter of the Adelaide Crows in the Australian Football League.[96]

In 2011, Mills started the charity project "Assist Australia" following Queensland's floods in March 2010 and in December 2010 to January 2011. His first charity work came in 2010, helping raise over $40,000 for the first flood relief.[97]

Mills has used his platform and resources to fight racism and police brutality, especially in his home country of Australia.[4] In 2020, Mills helped launch "We Got You", a campaign to show support for athletes as they fight racism in Australian sport.[4] He also gave about $1 million to Black Lives Matter Australia and Black Deaths in Custody.[4]

• 2021 -Sport Australia Hall of Fame 'Don Award'[98]
• 2021- CBR Sports Awards - Men’s Sport Athlete of the Year[99]
• 2022 - ACT Representative for Australian of the Year[100]
• 2022 - Appointed as a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) in the 2022 Australia Day Honours for "significant service to basketball, to charitable initiatives to the Indigenous community".[101]

• List of National Basketball Association career 3-point scoring leaders

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Patty Mills.

• Career statistics and player information from NBA.com  and Basketball-Reference.com 
• Saint Mary's Gaels bio