Do we like them?

Do we like Patty Mills?

Our score: 8 out of 10. Clean on harm and generous with his money and platform, but the record on LGBTQ+ issues is thin, so not a perfect ten.

The latest chapter is a European one. After a stint with La Laguna Tenerife in Spain, where he averaged 15.7 points a game, Mills signed with ASVEL for 2026-27. Perth and Brisbane both chased him for the NBL and missed out. The deal nearly fell over money, after the club's budget was slashed when a prospective investor's guarantees were rejected.

The story that best shows the man came in 2020. Mills said he would give every cent of his pay from the Spurs' last eight games in the Orlando bubble, just over a million dollars, to Black Lives Matter Australia, a Black deaths in custody group and the We Got You campaign against racism in sport. His reason, in his own words: “I don't want to leave any money on the table”. That is a real cost to himself, not a hashtag.

On the harm check, we looked for anything he has said or done against LGBTQ+ people, women, migrants, public health or the planet, and found nothing. We also found no pattern of working with people who push that stuff. The honest gap is that we found nothing from him on LGBTQ+ issues either way, so this is a clean pass on what's there rather than a loud endorsement.

Away from the court he backs Indigenous Basketball Australia, which draws Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander kids into programs on health and wellbeing. He also launched Keriba Ged with the Bluestone Lane cafe chain, which brings young people from remote areas to the US to work and build skills. His advice to others is a simple one: “not forgetting who you are and where you come from”.

On the good-person test, searches for lawsuits, court outcomes and misconduct allegations came up empty. The only controversies were things done to him, like the racist abuse a fan directed at him in 2018, which says nothing about him. A clean sheet is no guarantee, but there's no pattern to worry about.

So, would we support him? Yes. He's a champion who has used his platform and his pay packet for other people, over many years. Lean in and enjoy the basketball.