“We always say, Someday we’ll meet on Thursday Island,”

March 25, 2015 4:25 PM

“White Australians don’t want to talk about it, and it’s so recent, so raw, that it’s a sensitive topic. And then there are those who don’t even know the Torres Strait Islands exist. So he’s not only educating people around the world, he’s educating Australians. Patty’s a bridge builder. And as an NBA star, he’s got the cool factor. Crazy as it sounds, there aren’t many people who are proud to be indigenous. And Patty, he’s putting it on the world stage." Story of Patty Mills: Spur, Aussie, Bala
posted by colt45 (12 comments total)

That was fantastically interesting - thank you so much. I hope I remember to keep an eye out for the documentary.
posted by rtha at 5:48 PM on March 25, 2015

Great read, thanks for posting it!
posted by Alvy Ampersand at 6:04 PM on March 25, 2015

Sometimes it's nice to remember how sport can be a force for good in the world.
posted by padraigin at 7:14 PM on March 25, 2015

That was a fascinating article. Thanks for posting it.
posted by creepygirl at 7:46 PM on March 25, 2015

Loved Patty when he was a Blazer. Top-10 towel waver in the NBA, and now a pretty damn useful backup PG.

Good read.
posted by Joseph Gurl at 8:21 PM on March 25, 2015 [1 favorite]

This is how you become a great coach - you have an aging all-Universe superstar who's a half step behind his game, and a full step ahead of almost anyone in the league. You have not one but two Australians of moderate talent on the bench, and you ask awkward, racially insensitive questions.

They give answers, and you listen, and learn. And then you take an obscure point of political pride of people from far, far away, second stringers, and then you let them know it means something to people everywhere, and let them wreck house.

This is why GPop has one for the thumb, one step ahead of Bill Belichick, which is an insanely hard thing to do.
posted by Slap*Happy at 8:21 PM on March 25, 2015 [1 favorite]

This looks like a cool doco; can't wait to see it! I gotta say, though, that this part from the pullquote "Crazy as it sounds, there aren’t many people who are proud to be indigenous." doesn't match at all with my experiences working with various communities in WA, Vic, NSW. Wonder what/where/when/who, spefifically, James Rush was thinking of when he said it.
posted by barnacles at 9:26 PM on March 25, 2015

I won't even pretend I wasn't a little teared up by the end of this article. Thanks for posting.
posted by maupuia at 9:27 PM on March 25, 2015

When I saw the newly thin Patty Mills, I had to check the roster to see if it really was the former Trial Blazer. He re-invented himself. More good fortune to him, he deserves it.
posted by Cranberry at 12:58 AM on March 26, 2015

Popovich launched into the story of Australia’s Martin Luther King Jr

It's an interesting comparison. I am going to have to do a lot more reading before I speak to it sensibly, but would love to hear anyone else's thoughts on it.

Until a nationwide referendum granted full citizenship rights to indigenous Australians in 1967, they were considered “like a plant or an animal,” says James Rush, a Melbourne-based filmmaker whose documentary about Mills, For My People, will be released later this year.

Please stop saying this.
posted by kithrater at 1:12 AM on March 26, 2015

Eddie Mabo and Martin Luther King Jr. is an interesting comparison that feels right to me, although I don't feel qualified to give a serious analysis of it.

Not being much into sport, I hadn't heard of Patty Mills before. He comes across as a great guy, and his teammates obviously really enjoy his company as well as his hard work. I'll be keeping an eye out for him in the news and for when the documentary is shown here.
posted by harriet vane at 2:53 AM on March 26, 2015

Great piece. Even greater bloke.
posted by matrixgeek at 3:55 AM on March 26, 2015