Patty Mills Unearthed: Australian basketball captain to host Rowville camp
He’s one of Australia’s most revered athletes, and basketball fans have the chance to get up close with Boomers captain Patty Mills. Here’s how you can meet him.
Outer East
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Australia’s men’s basketball captain and NBA star Patty Mills will visit a Knox school next month in a massive coup for local hoops fans.
Mills, who was a flag bearer and led the Boomers to their maiden Olympic medal in Tokyo last year, has announced a national tour of junior basketball camps and speaking events, Unearthed, for September.
He will host two clinics for basketballers aged 12-17 at Rowville Secondary College on September 22, along with a speaking event at the Palais Theatre in St Kilda the night before.
The Melbourne events are the last stops on Mills’ tour before he returns to the US to start pre-season training with the Brooklyn Nets.
Tickets to the camps are $250, and will give participants the chance to “learn and interact” with Mills, with the camps to be led by NBA skills coach DJ Sackman and other top coaches from the region.
Rowville Secondary College principal Julie Kennedy said Mills’ friendship with one of its sports academy coaches, former Boomers player and NBL veteran Adam Gibson, played a key role in landing the visit.
“It’s those sorts of connections (with elite sportsmen) that really inspire our young people and Patty is such a wonderful role model,” she said.
“He’s a very grounded person, and we are a very values-based school, and it’s great to have someone like Patty reinforce the messages we’re telling to students.
“It’s been such a struggle for our kids after Covid and social interaction has been surprisingly challenging … it’s opportunities like this that grounds them and brings them back to essence of what's important in life.”
The tour has been billed as one with “special intention” for the Boomers captain, who is promising to “bring his fans, followers and fledging ballers closer than they’ve ever been” to his life and trade.
“It’s time to see the Patty that comes to life once the cameras stop rolling, when the mics are turned off and the world has stopped watching,” the tour’s website stated.
“This is Patty in his element – sharing who he really is in the place he calls home.”
Mills’ camp adds to the string of visits from Australia’s biggest NBA stars to Knox in recent years.
Nets teammate Ben Simmons hosted a camp at the State Basketball Centre in Wantirna South in 2018, as did Oklahoma City Thunder star Josh Giddey earlier this year.
Tickets for Mills’ camps are on sale now, while his Palais Theatre show will go on sale September 16 at pattymillsevents.com
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