Aussies in the NBA: Patty talks Spurs season, playing alongside Baynes & bringing Lazza home
The All-Star break is just around the corner, and here are some choice quotes from our favourite barbie tossing, all-Aussie Spurs guard, Patty Mills on the season and more!
Kamal Hylton of NBA Nation Australia caught up with Patty after the Toronto Raptors triumphed over the San Antonio Spurs at home in the Air Canada Centre, 87-82 (box score).
Mills, who has been averaging 9 points, 2 rebounds and 1.6 assists this season, had a relatively quiet night. He missed his only shot of the night --a pullup three in transition-- and had one assist in 6 minutes of action, a quick one-two handoff that saw Manu Ginobili streaking to the basket for a smooth reverse.
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Here's what Patty had to share with Kamal and all Australian fans out there.
Greetings to Australia, and the season so far
Hello, first of all [to] everyone back home, thank you for the support.
The support from back home has been unbelieveable. We heard that Australia has the most subscribers for NBA League Pass. So that's good to know, [that] everyone's tuning in and keeping [themselves] updated.
[Over] here, we're almost at the All-Star break. Battling the first half of the season, battling a lot of injuries, people being out... and a hard schedule. It's been challenging. A different challenge to our team that we've had in the past, but I think we've learnt a lot of stuff. We've learnt a lot about ourselves, and the way we play,
Now, [we are at] two games before All-Star break. Hopefully we can get some rhythm going into the break, and then, start fresh again when we come back. The team's back healthy now, and everyone's back playing for the firt time all season, so [we are] just trying to get that rhythm [back].
For me personally, I was out with a shoulder injury for the first half of the season. I'm back now, shoulder's feeling great. It's just great to be back on the floor and playing again.
On playing with teammate and fellow Aussie Aron Baynes
It's great. Obviously [great] to play with a fellow countryman, but also a good friend that I played with... ten years ago now. For us to go through this journey together, it's definitely, handy. But we have each other's back, we help each other through tough times and whatnot, so I think it's great for us.
It's great for basketball back home in Australia, and also everyone else that's in the league now, that's doing very well.
When you get ya mate back @balapat #GoSpursGo
A photo posted by Aron Baynes (@houseobayne) on Dec 28, 2014 at 7:58pm PST
On following other fellow Aussies in the NBA
Yeah I do. I follow them very closely. They're all close friends. We all spend a lot of time with each other with the national team in the offseason... very proud fellow Australian, knowing others are succeeding at a high level.
Thoughts on bringing the Larry O'Brien championship trophy (Lazza) back to Australia during the off-season
(Aron chimes in: "Yes. Yes we did!") Great timing. We were actually quite fortunate to bring the trophy back to Australia, which has never been done before. And it was good for Australia to get the first glance of [the] NBA [trophy]. It was great. We went to six cities in six days. It was tough for me and Aron, but we would do it again if we had the chance. It was that much fun and [I'm] glad you know, that we got to pay back the support that everyone's given us.
A photo posted by Patty Mills (@balapat) on Jul 15, 2014 at 5:05pm PDT
Once again, a big shout out to Kamal and NBA Nation Australia for sharing this gem. Keep reading their work over at the NBA Nation Australia website, and Kamal can be reached at @KamalHylton on Twitter.