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so hes a stone age savage aborigine?
http://www.portlandtribune.com/sport...70868413944900
Sometimes, life is as much about who you are as what you do. For proof, we offer Patty Mills.
The native Australian is a nice player, but an unimposing physical specimen (6 foot, 175 pounds) whose skills are probably equaled by a number of players who will never make a living at the game of basketball.
There’s a quality of person, though, that is endearing in Mills and made the former Saint Mary’s point guard an attractive candidate to the Trail Blazers’ scouting staff.
“His coaches raved about him,” says Chad Buchanan, Portland’s director of college scouting. “In practice, he had an infectious energy and vibe, a positive aura that rubs off on people, whether it’s coaches, teammates or as he walks through the office. He was always in a good mood – very personable, had a good at ude about things. No wonder he’s one of the guys you gravitate to because of the positive energy he brings.”
Almost two years into his run with the Blazers, Mills hasn’t done anything to dissuade his supporters. Motto: “Turn that frown upside down.”
Already a popular addition to the Portland community – approaching cult hero status, if you will – Mills has also been a welcome addition to the Blazer locker room. He is the first guy up slapping butts during timeouts, rooting his teammates on. And there seems to be nothing phony about it.
“He’s a character guy,” veteran point guard Andre Miller says of his understudy. “He brings a lot of energy on the court, and he keeps the bench involved when he’s not in the game. Sometimes you have to tell guys to do that, but it’s just his personality. He’s doing it on and off the court. He has brought some character to this team.”
Mills is a whirling dervish on Twitter, with 17,500 followers. (He’s so active in the social media pursuit, it’s amazing he has time to do anything else.) On the day the Blazers traded Joel Przybilla, Dante Cunningham and Sean Marks to Charlotte in the Gerald Wallace deal, Mills tweeted, “Not a fan of seeing three of my close friends leave.”
“It was heart-wrenching,” Mills says. “Not just for me, but for all of us. If you didn’t know how close (the Blazer players) were before that, you’d know now, to see how everyone felt. You know this is a business, but that showed how close all of us are.”
Mills, 22, played two seasons at Saint Mary’s and with the Australian national and Olympic teams, but he feels the team spirit even more in Portland.
“For whatever reason, the guys on the team just came together like you wouldn’t believe,” he says. “Even the veterans like Dre and (Marcus) Camby, hanging out with us – I haven’t felt like this with a team before. It’s a great thing to be a part of.
“There are a million examples of what we’re doing through the season. Everyone does well in bringing the team together, whether it’s making jokes or paying for dinner for everyone or organizing a bowling night. Everyone enjoys each other’s company. When we had that tough stretch at the beginning of the season and lost a few on the road, everyone had kind of ruled us out, We knew as long as we had that camaraderie, it was going to help us down the end of the track. And it has.”
Mills also finds the city of Portland a comfortable fit.
“I love living in Portland,” he says. “Great people here. I compare them to people back home. The people in Oregon are similar – very laid-back, easygoing.”
Relaxing on a recent off day at his rented Lake Oswego condo, Mills offers insight as to his makeup as a person.
Part of it, he says, “is my Australian culture.” He’s an Indigenous Aussie, the original inhabitants of Australia who make up about 2.7 percent of the continent’s population.
Patty (christened “Patrick”) is the only child of Benny and Yvonne Mills, both employed by the Australian government in community service with Indigenous Affairs.
“They’re like me,” he says. “Mom and Dad, the way they brought me up, the way I was taught to act … it’s to make the most out of everything, and not let too much get to you.”
Benny Mills – who played guitar in a band when he was younger – passed on a love of music to his son. Patty plays the keyboards and guitar, though not seriously.
“I can’t even read music,” he says with a laugh, strumming his acoustic guitar. “Dad bought me this one, which is my favorite, right before the Beijing Olympics. It’s just a hobby to waste time with.”
Mills says he loves all music but has a special affinity for ’60s and ’70s rhythm and blues and soul, and “rock stuff.” He loves all sports – he was a tennis player growing up, counting the great Evonne Goolagong Cawley as a family friend – and excelled at Australian Rules Football in high school at the “ruck rover” position.
“If I weren’t playing basketball,” he says, “I’d be playing ‘Footie.’ ”
As a junior in high school, Mills made what he considers a very difficult choice of basketball over football, accepting a scholarship to the Australian Ins ute of Sport, where such players as Andrew Gaze and Andrew Bogut had apprenticed.
That led to a spot on the Australian junior national team and a scholarship at Saint Mary’s in Moraga, Calif. Family friend David Patrick – who had played professionally in Australia – was an assistant coach for the Gaels, which helped seal the deal. If Mills wanted to play in the U.S., though, there weren’t other options. Saint Mary’s offered the only ride.
“Utah was the only other school interested,” he says. “I was headed to Salt Lake City for an official visit, but they signed another point guard and took back the offer.”
His two seasons at Saint Mary’s were “unbelievable,” says Mills, a first-team all-West Coast Conference choice both seasons. “You’d need to experience it for yourself to get the full grasp of it.”
By then, Buchanan and the other Blazer scouts were on to Mills.
“He played great in the Olympics,” Buchanan says. “We liked him. He had some warts like all players do, but there was something about him that kept us interested.”
Mills wound up being chosen by Portland with the 55th pick – late in the second round – of the 2009 draft.
“His size was an issue,” Buchanan says. “When you’re that little, you have to have a special trait, whether it’s ballhandling or speed of quickness or vision. Patty had the shooting, good speed and his personality.”
The top 20 to 25 players are invited to come to New York for the draft and to be at Madison Square Garden as guests of the NBA. Mills came on his own, along with 14 friends and family members, including his parents.
“Just wanted to enjoy the occasion with the people I love,” Mills says. “I’d never been to New York before. It didn’t go to plan – I’d liked to have been drafted earlier – but to get drafted at all was special.”
Blazer scouts didn’t see him as a candidate to be a starter. In fact, he was going to be in a battle just to make the final roster.
“You need intangibles from guys at the end of the bench,” Buchanan says. “We felt like Patty would bring us a lot of those qualities as a guy probably not going to be in the rotation.”
Mills, of course, had every intention of not just making the team, but being in the Blazers’ rotation. Injuries sabotaged his rookie year, though.
After recuperating from a broken hand that cost him the last nine games of his sop re season at Saint Mary’s, Mills broke his right foot during summer league. He wasn’t activated until January, when he spent some time in the D-League before getting called up by Portland. He played only 38 minutes in 10 games all season.
“A lost year all around,” he says, shaking his head. “I was left in a gray area, wondering what was going to happen. Don’t want to go through a year like that again.”
A free agent, Mills’ situation was unsettled again last summer. The Blazers drafted another point guard in the second round, Armon Johnson, and had Jerryd Bayless as Miller’s backup. There seemed to be no room for Mills, who surprised just about everyone by re-signing with Portland on the first day of training camp in September.
“I had a determination to prove to everyone I can play at this level,” he says. “I didn’t get the chance my first year here, really, but I just wanted a crack at it again. There were a lot of factors my agent (Eric Goodwin) and I went through to see if it’s the best fit. I guess it was a gamble, but it worked out.”
Bayless was traded to New Orleans in the preseason. Coach Nate McMillan wasn’t satisfied with Johnson’s play as Miller’s backup, so he turned to Mills, who has provided a spark after he enters the game, often with close friend Rudy Fernandez with him in the backcourt.
“I admire the way (Mills) stuck with it,” Miller says. “He found a way to work his way in. He worked hard in practice, challenged guys. As the season got going, the opportunity came, and he has taken advantage of it.”
After the disasters hit Australia back-to-back in January – first heavy floods, then a cyclone – Mills sprung into action. In conjunction with the Blazers, a portion of his jersey sales went to the relief fund in his homeland, raising $14,000.
“The two disasters hit home really hard for me,” Mill says. “A lot of family and friends were affected by both. My uncle and aunt lost their house to the flood in Queensland. Being over here and caught up in the season, you feel helpless. If I were home, I’d be out there doing the hard work, whether it’s shoveling or doing whatever I can to help.”
Mills wanted to do more. He and close friend Josh Unruh – a former South Salem High and Saint Mary’s basketball player in the sporting goods business in Portland – joined forces to produce an “Assist Australia” T-shirt line. Through Unruh’s “Wears My Shirt” company (wearsmyshirt.com), Mills’ T-shirts raised nearly $20,000 through the first two weeks of sales.
Mills was in the middle of it all, making appearances in Moraga, Eugene and Portland, tirelessly signing autographs and posing for photos with shirt buyers.
“It’s been amazing,” Unruh says. “He brought Nicolas Batum with him to one signing in the Pearl, and the line was out the door.
“Patty doesn’t have to do this, but he believes strongly in this project. The goal is to raise $50,000 (through T-shirt sales), and he says, ‘I’ll do whatever it takes to get there.’ He really enjoys being out in the public and mingling with fans. He loves to see their reaction.”
“I appreciate all the help from everyone,” Mills says. “I think we can do a little bit more. We’re going to continue with this and see where it goes.”
Mills put together a video commercial for the T-shirt that has run on the Jumbotron during recent games, featuring the guard wearing an assortment of the shirts and, finally, no shirt at all. Female fans, it seems, have gotten a kick out of it.
One tweeted this after her visit to the Rose Garden: “The Blazers lost, but I got my ‘Assist Australia’ shirt and got to see P Mills shirtless on the big screen. So not an awful night.”
Mills – single and, he says, without a girlfriend – laughs at that. He is having the time of his life these days, “living the dream,” he says, of playing in the NBA and with peers he truly enjoys.
He is always, he says, mindful of his roots.
“I’m heavily involved in giving back to the Indigenous community in Australia,” he says. “I see myself as a role model for Indigenous kids specifically, but also for all Australian kids. I want them to see that they can succeed and achieve their dreams, whatever they may be. That’s really important to me.”
so hes a stone age savage aborigine?
go youeself cuckolded.
patty mills is about 5'7
Crabby Patty
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