Patty Mills

Did You Know?

• Mills' mother was part of the Stolen Generations, taken from her parents by the Australian state in 1949.
• His great-uncle is Indigenous land rights activist Eddie Mabo.
• Mills co-wrote a series of books for young readers with Jared Thomas, published in 2018 as Game Day! Championship Collection.

Early basketball career

Mills began playing basketball at age four for a local Indigenous club his parents founded, called The Shadows. As a child, he served as a ball boy for the Canberra Cannons of the NBL, where future Saint Mary's coach David Patrick played and built a relationship with the Mills family. He also played underage Australian rules football at a high level and had an opportunity to pursue a career in the AFL, but chose basketball instead. In 2005, he made a strong impression at the Australian Olympic Youth Festival.

Mills attended Marist College in Canberra, then the Australian Institute of Sport from 2005 to 2007, as well as Lake Ginninderra College. In January 2006, he received the RE Staunton Medal at the U20 Nationals in Perth. In April 2006, he played for the World Junior Select Team against the United States at the Nike Hoop Summit. With the AIS in the SEABL, Mills was named the 2006 U/21 Australian Youth Player of the Year, averaging 18.1 points and 3.9 rebounds per game, and finished third in assists at 4.37 per game.

That year, he was the youngest athlete selected in the extended Australian Boomers squad for the 2006 FIBA World Championship. He was named Junior Male Player of the Year at Basketball Australia's Junior Basketball Awards, received the Deadlys Award for most promising new sports talent, and was named the 2006 Australia Basketball Player of the Year and the National Sportsperson of the Year by NAIDOC.

College career

In November 2006, Mills signed to play college basketball for Saint Mary's College of California, starting in the 2007–08 season alongside fellow Australians Lucas Walker and Carlin Hughes. As a freshman, he started all 32 games, leading the team with 14.8 points, 3.5 assists, and 1.8 steals per game, and set a Saint Mary's freshman record for points in a season (472) and points in a game (37 against Oregon). As a sophomore, he averaged 18.4 points, 3.9 assists, and 2.2 steals per game, earning All-WCC First Team again. In April 2009, he declared for the NBA draft, forgoing his final two years of college eligibility.

Professional career

Mills was selected 55th overall by the Portland Trail Blazers in the 2009 NBA draft, becoming the first Saint Mary's player drafted since 1983. After fracturing the fifth metatarsal in his right foot during practice in July 2009, he signed with the Trail Blazers in October and was assigned to the Idaho Stampede of the NBA Development League in December. He made his NBA debut on 4 January 2010, and appeared in 10 games as a rookie, averaging 2.6 points.

In the 2010–11 season, he played 64 games for Portland, averaging 5.5 points and 1.7 assists. During the 2011 NBA lockout, he signed with the Melbourne Tigers of the NBL, averaging 18.6 points, 2.3 rebounds, and 5.0 assists in nine games before being released to join the Xinjiang Flying Tigers in China for about $1 million. He averaged 26.5 points in 12 games for Xinjiang but was released in January 2012 after a hamstring injury; reports later surfaced that he was sacked for allegedly faking the injury, which he denied.

In March 2012, he signed with the San Antonio Spurs, becoming a strong contributor off the bench and helping the Spurs win the 2014 NBA championship.

National team career

Mills made his senior national team debut for the Boomers at the 2007 FIBA Oceania Championship, becoming the third Indigenous basketball player to play for Australia. He represented Australia at the Beijing Olympics in 2008, averaging 14.2 points per game, and at the 2012 London Olympics, where he led all scorers with 21.2 points per game. At the 2016 Rio Olympics, he helped Australia finish fourth. At the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, Mills carried the Australian flag as the first Indigenous Australian flag bearer and, as captain, scored 42 points in the bronze medal game against Slovenia to secure Australia's first Olympic medal in men's basketball; his 42 points set an Olympic record for points in a medal round game, and he was named to the All Star Five.

At the 2024 Paris Olympics, he scored 13 points against Greece, moving him to fifth on the all-time Olympic scoring list, and finished the tournament with 66 points, bringing his career Olympic total to 567.