Atlanta Hawks parting ways with former NBA champion

Patty Mills

Patty Mills’ improbable NBA career may be coming to an end.

According to The Athletic’s Shams Charania, Mills, a 15-year veteran who won a title with the San Antonio Spurs in 2014, will be waived by the Atlanta Hawks. Atlanta wants to convert the two-way contract of shooting guard Trent Forrest to a standard NBA contract, making the veteran expendable.

Mills has played in just 19 games for the Hawks this season after coming over from the Brooklyn Nets in a series of three trades involving six different teams. The long-time NBA guard is still able to shoot from deep, making 38.2% of his three-pointers, but his minutes and scoring have dropped precipitously the last two seasons.

His waiving could mark the end of an impressive pro career that began when the Portland Trail Blazers selected Mills with the 55th pick in the 2009 NBA Draft. After a stellar college career at Saint Mary’s College, Mills became the ninth Australian in history ever to play in the NBA. He’s now played more NBA seasons and scored more points than any other Australian, passing Andrew Bogut.

Mills emerged in earnest when he joined the San Antonio Spurs in 2012. He shot over 40% from deep his first three years with the franchise. During the 2013-14 season, Mills doubled his scoring to 10.2 points per game while shooting a career-high 42.5% on three-pointers. Mills finished ninth in the Most Improved Player vote that season. In the NBA Finals, he made 13 of his 23 three-point attempts as the Spurs beat the Miami Heat in five games.

In the clinching game of that series, Mills took over the game. Halfway through the third quarter, Mills came in and blew past LeBron James for a reverse layup, then drilled four three-pointers, turning a competitive contest into a rout.

The game got so out of hand that announcers began talking about Mills’ indigenous Australian heritage and the story of his great-uncle Eddie Mabo, a political hero in Australia’s fight for indigenous peoples’ land rights. Mills was only the third indigenous Australian to play for the national team.

For an undersized player, Mills was remarkably durable for the Spurs. From 2015-19, the guard missed only three games. In 2016-17, when the Spurs won 61 games, Mills finished eighth in the Sixth Man of the Year vote. He won the NBA’s Sportsmanship Award in 2022.

It’s unusual that a No. 55 pick has a career in the NBA at all, much less one that spans 15 seasons. But Mills was a special player. In 2019, Gregg Popovich called him “one of the greatest teammates ever.” If this is the end of Mills’ career, that’s how he will be remembered.

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