Patty Mills has played his best ball for Australia. He’s back to take on a stacked Olympic field

MARCQ-EN-BAROEUL, France (AP) — Patty Mills kept putting up shots after Australia finished a two-hour practice at a training facility not far from where it will open the Paris Olympics basketball tournament Saturday against Spain.

“OK, I’m good,” Mills said after watching one last corner 3-pointer fall through the net.

Mills knows the value that comes with putting in a little extra time. At 35 years old and entering his fourth Olympics, he is one of the most decorated players in Australian men’s basketball team history, having helped it capture its lone Olympic medal in 2021 when it won bronze in Tokyo.

Now he’s back for likely his final Games, poised to steer his home country through what he acknowledged is one of the toughest groups –- and overall fields –- in Olympic history.

“When you look down the line at the caliber of players that the countries are putting together, I’d probably say so, yes,” Mills said Thursday.

The Paris Games is the realization of former NBA commissioner David Stern’s dream to globalize the NBA. Of the 30 teams in the U.S. league, 27 will have players on the 12 teams competing in France over the next three weeks.

Australia has nine current or former NBA players, the third most of any team in this summer’s field behind Canada (10) and the U.S. (12).

Mills, a former champion with the San Antonio Spurs who most recently played with Miami, is a free agent. He is joined by Josh Giddey (Chicago), Dyson Daniels (Atlanta), Josh Green (Charlotte), Joe Ingles (Minnesota), Dante Exum (Dallas), Jock Landale (Houston), Duop Reath (Portland) and Matthew Dellavedova (now playing in Australia).

They will be trying to make it out of Group A’s so-called “group of death” featuring Canada (led by Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Jamal Murray), Greece (with first-time Olympian Giannis Antetokounmpo) and Spain (currently second in the FIBA world rankings).

Australian coach Brian Goorjian, 71, has watched how much parity has grown in international play, first as a player and then as a coach with China and Japan, followed by multiple stints with Australia.

“This in my mind is the deepest competition that I’ve ever been affiliated with or around,” Goorjian said.

But Goorjian’s team has a not-so-secret weapon in Mills, who has played some of the best basketball of his career on the international stage. His averages of 20.7 points and 3.8 assists dwarf his NBA career average of 8.8 points and 2.2 assists.

“If I could put my thumb on it, I’ll let you know. I’m still trying to figure that out,” Mills said. “All I can say is that I take a lot of pride and passion playing for my country and being able to represent Australia the right way in what I believe and show the strength. … I think it becomes more that just basketball when you put these colors on.”

Australia won six of its eight exhibition games leading up to the Olympics. The others were a tie against Japan and a narrow loss to the U.S. that featured a furious comeback by the Aussies. The wins included handing Olympic gold medal contender Serbia its first loss this summer.

That and his team’s overall preparation have given Mills the only barometer he needs to think Australia will again still be around when the tournament shifts back to Paris for the knockout stage.

“It’s how connected we are collectively as a group,” Mills said. “I think that the team that we put together, the pieces of the puzzle to be able to put a hell of a team together. We get along together both on and off the court and that’s hard to do in a short period of time.”

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This story has been corrected to identify an Australian player as Jock Landale, not Jack.

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AP Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/2024-paris-olympic-games