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This season marks the Spurs' fiftieth year in San Antonio. For five decades, the NBA has changed rapidly, and insisting on team culture and stability has always been the label of the San Antonio Spurs, and the key to showing these qualities lies in the generation after generation of Spurs players. In addition to George Gerwin, David Robinson and Tim Duncan, three epoch-making superstars, the Spurs are also known for nurturing and discovering a variety of international players and legacies, and this model has made them one of the most successful teams in NBA history. As the countdown to the start of the new season kicks off, we will look back at the Silver and Black team's top 50 stars, and every day at the countdown we will launch the next one.
[Note: The author of this article, Heliga Hull, who is also the author of the abnormal Spurs news series, is good at writing some abnormal articles in a not very normal style, and there will be a certain or even relatively large difference from the previous author Mu Yan 1199. 】
It's a story about dreams.
He has a chocolate-like complexion, and his dirty pigtails shake with the pace of running.
He is not very tall, but he contains great energy and passion, with sharp three points on the field and a towel swinging off the field.
He entered the Australian men's national basketball team in 2007, led the team to the Tokyo Olympic Games in 2021, and broke through the siege under the situation of the men's basketball team, scoring 42 points in the bronze medal battle and grabbing the first Olympic medal in the history of the national team. Ten years of drinking ice, blood is hard to cool.
This is also a story about inheritance.
He was discriminated against for his Aboriginal ancestry in pursuit of his basketball dreams, so he opened the IBA (Indigenous Basketball Australia) to provide a platform and opportunity for Aboriginal children in Australia to play basketball and participate in leagues.
The children called him an "idol"; Below the video about him released by the Spurs' official YouTube, there are comments from Australia that he has "influenced an entire generation of Australians, regardless of age, regardless of gender, regardless of origin".
"I come from a family whose ancestry is all Aboriginal Australians, my dad is a Torres Strait Islander and my mom is of mixed race, of white and Aboriginal descent," he said. I am honored to stand here on behalf of all my loved ones and the people behind them. ”
He said, "Never forget where you came from".
Maybe you already know his name, which is more convenient for us to remember him all the time; Maybe you're not that familiar with him, and that doesn't stop me from telling his story again.
His name was Patty Mills.
Born on August 11, 1988 in Canberra, Australia, Mills began playing The Shadows, a local basketball club for children of Aboriginal descent. His childhood friend said in an interview that Mills had written down his future goals on the wall of his bedroom, presumably "going to the Australian national team, going to college in the United States and playing, playing Olympics, entering the NBA" and so on. This was later confirmed by Mickey himself, who said that he had "been moving in this direction continuously" over the years.
After a little bigger, Mickey met David Patrick, a player on the men's basketball varsity team at St. Mary's College in California, while picking up the ball for the NBL's Canberra Cannons, and the two developed a deep friendship and became lifelong friends. The player later became an assistant coach for the varsity team, and Mills began his NCAA career in November 2006 when he signed with St. Mary's College.
His impact on the varsity team was immediate, averaging 14.8 points, 2.1 rebounds, 3.5 assists and 1.8 steals per game in the freshman season, breaking the record of the highest total number of points and average points per game in a single season for a freshman, being elected as the best freshman in the division and being selected as the best team in the division, and single-handedly improving the team's ranking to the top 25 in the league at that time. St. Mary's College also retired Mills' jersey in recognition in 2015, as a follow-up. Such an excellent performance enabled Mi Shen to be successfully called into the Australian men's basketball national team, played the 2007 Oceania Cup, and finally stood on the stage of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games. The Australian men's basketball team eventually lost to the United States in the quarter-finals to finish seventh, and Mills averaged 14.2 points per game at the Olympics, making him one of the team's best performers.
After the Olympic training, Michonne returned to school with an upgraded system, and his performance in the sophomore season improved significantly, averaging 18.4 points, 2.4 rebounds and 3.9 assists per game, and was selected for the best team in the division for the second time. After his sophomore year, Mickey entered the NBA draft. In the end, he was selected to enter the Blazers with the 55th pick. Mills met a teammate named Aldridge in Portland, which he didn't know at the time, and later he would see the chubby player on two other NBA teams.
The story of Mickey and Spurs began in the 2011-12 season. In the first half of that season, due to the NBA shutdown, Mickey returned to Australia to play, and later played for a while in the CBA's Xinjiang team. On March 27, 2012, the Spurs signed with Mills. It didn't take long for Mills to show Spurs fans what he was capable of, and the Sharpshooters scored a total of 61 points in the final two games of the regular season, bringing victory to the then top seed Spurs and buying the team's main players a pre-playoff break.
In the 2012-13 season, the Spurs won 58 in the regular season under the leadership of GDP, and all the way through the finals with the Heat. There were too many famous scenes in that series, I will not take everyone to review, and the final result is that the Heat won the championship 4-3. Michonne played only 3 games in the finals, and the rest were absent due to foot injuries.
In the 2012-13 season, Mills still lagged behind Garrinier in terms of team rotation priorities, but after losing weight, he finally entered the regular rotation of the 2013-14 season. Mickey played a breakthrough season, joining the Spurs coffee gang off-field, becoming one of the important puzzles in the team. He managed to secure Parker's bench position, averaging 19 minutes per game this season, averaging his first double-double and shooting from the field. In Game 4 of the 2013-14 Finals, Mickey came off the bench and scored 14 points to help the Spurs seal this crucial victory and get match points. In G5 in the holy village, Mickey scored 17 points in the whole game, hitting three points many times, which led to the on-site commentary Van Gundy shouting "This man can shoot" (this sentence is often used as a voiceover in various Mickey personal highlights or Spurs 2014 championship collections). The result of the follow-up, as we all know, Mi Shen won the NBA championship at the age of 25.
In the 2014 offseason, Spurs and Mickey signed a three-year, $12 million contract. In the next 7 seasons, GDP retired in turn, the Spurs championship team walked back and forth, and Mickey remained on the bench of the Holy Village, doing the spark plug that ignited the vitality of the substitute. In recent years, Mickey has broken many records: he is the Australian player who has played the most NBA games, the NBA player who has scored the most three-pointers on the same team as a substitute, the first Australian player to shoot 1,000 three-pointers, and the veteran who has spent the longest time in the Spurs squad in the 2020-21 season.
On August 10, 2021, the 33-year-old Mills, a veteran of 10 years with the Spurs, signed with the Brooklyn Nets as a free agent.
On Oct. 19, Mills made his Nets debut, scoring 21 points on 7-of-7 shooting, tying the league record for the most three-pointers in a new team's debut. On Oct. 22, Mills became the first player to shoot 10-for-10 three-pointers in the first two games of the 2021-22 season. On Nov. 14, Mills hit nine more three-pointers to score 29 points, and the Nets beat the Thunder 120-96. On Nov. 22, Mills scored 17 points against the Cavaliers, surpassing Bogut to become the most score-scoring Australian NBA player in history. On Dec. 14, in the Nets' 131-129 win over the Toronto Raptors in overtime, Mills played a career-high 43 minutes and scored a season-high 30 points on 7-of-14 three-pointers, including a tie in extra time. In the Christmas War, Mills broke the Christmas record with eight three-pointers, and the Nets beat the Lakers 122-115. In the 2021-22 season, Mills also won the NBA Sportsmanship Award, which is the first time since the 2007-08 season that the award has been awarded to a non-U.S. NBA player.
On July 10, 2022, Mills renewed his contract with the Nets for $14.5 million for two years.
Mishin's upbringing was not as smooth as other children. In an interview he gave while on the Spurs, he said that hearing discriminatory appellations "has become the norm" growing up. Although Canberra is a diverse and inclusive big city, Mills is not getting the inclusion he deserves, so he has a lot of psychological struggles with himself. Eventually, he learned to walk away without changing his face no matter how hard the words in his ears were, and to use his experience to find a lifestyle that would make his life meaningful.
These life experiences led to the fame of Mi Shen and his dedication to giving back to Australia's Aboriginal community. He led the formation of Indigenous Basketball Australia, a basketball program for Aboriginal generations like him, to provide children with the opportunity to learn basketball, participate in training and competition. The league is held in major cities in various regions of Australia (such as Adelaide, Perth, etc.), and according to Mishen himself, there are even parents who drive five or six hours a weekend to send their children to play. Mi Shen himself also wrote a message on the official website of the project, hoping that basketball can bring children vision and strength.
In addition to the NBA arena, Mills' contributions and achievements in the Kangaroo men's national basketball team are also not to be ignored. He joined the national team in 2007 and averaged 14.2 points at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. At the 2012 London Olympics, Mills overpowered Durant of the United States with an average of 21.2 points per game, ranking first in scoring per game. At the 2016 Rio Olympics, Australia lost to Spain by one point in the bronze medal battle and finished fourth.
It is worth mentioning that this is the fourth time that the Kangaroo men's basketball national team has won the fourth place in the men's basketball competition at the Olympic Games.
Five years later, Mills, as the flag bearer of the delegation and captain of the national team, made a comeback with his men and horses, making history.
In the bronze medal match against Slovenia, Mills played 37 minutes and 50 seconds, scored 42 points on 15-of-31 shooting, and had 3 rebounds and 9 assists, helping the team win the first Olympic medal in team history and be selected for the Olympic men's basketball team.
After the game, when Mills was asked in an interview what he wanted to say to his parents and wife, his voice trembled and he struggled to hold back the tears that were about to flow:
"Hmm... You're all watching the game now, and I'm taking my medal home. ”
I don't know if Mills ever remembered those childhood dreams, those childish handwriting that had been written on the bedroom wall. As a child, the discriminated little Patty grew up and advanced, his parents taught him to know his blood and family history, and basketball taught him to keep moving towards his dreams.
Today, he turns 34 and it's been 30 years since he first picked up basketball.
He said he wanted to play for the Australian national team, and now he has won a medal in the Olympic Games; He said he was going to college in the United States to get into the NBA, and now he's also overdone that task, getting a championship ring, and continuing to fight his way down the road.
Spurs star Tony Parker once said in his speech inducted into the Texas Sports Hall of Fame that if you have a dream that won't make everyone laugh at your whimsy, it's not big enough.
I think, in a way, Mills is also a very good practitioner and inheritor of this saying.
Finally, I would like to end with a snippet from Mills' "Spurs Story."
"This is Nagi Island."
"My grandfather Sammy Mills lived here, my great great great-great-great-grandfather Frank Mills also lived here, and one of my ancestors, James Mills, also lived here, and this is where my family lived for generations."
"So now you should be able to remember my middle name, plus it, my full name is Patrick Sammy James Mills."
That's my name.
This is my life.
This is my dream.
This is the background and living environment that I came out of, and this is the home I want to walk back to.
——End of full text ——
Reference：
Image source:
Mills personally Instagram @balapat
The Australian men's basketball team official Instagram @australianboomers
The following two videos are the official Spurs stories of the Spurs and are highly recommended to watch:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NtxHeZfrrwg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DRwfQM5EtH0
The following video is a reference to the introduction of Mishin:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5P-h_W5z3qY
The following are referenced articles:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patty_Mills
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2023_FIBA_Basketball_World_Cup_qualification
https://www.netsdaily.com/2022/9/5/23337661/patty-mills-travels-across-australia-on-tour-that-includes-basketball-and-politics
https://www.poundingtherock.com/2022/9/14/23348754/spurs-50-for-50-number-14-patty-mills
https://www.canberratimes.com.au/story/7375860/im-bringing-a-medal-home-mills-lifts-boomers-to-history/
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-07-09/tokyo-olympics-australia-flag-bearer-patty-mills-meaning/100277328
https://indigenousbasketballaustralia.com/
(Text/Helga Hull Minus)