This aint it Patty Mills a line in the sand and the Boomers revival

There is no precise origin story of how Patty Mills fell so hopelessly in love with Boomers basketball, a starry-eyed affair which in turn would sweep us all off our feet as the national men’s team captured its first Olympic medal with bronze in Tokyo.

Rarely has ‘rose gold’, as Mills was quick to coin it, been celebrated with such gusto and affection. There was such a profound sense of collective achievement, inside the Boomers squad and throughout the strata of Australian fandom, that even now Mills is genuinely struggling to unpick why it means so much to so many.

When you ask him why he has become so enraptured with the green and gold singlet, Mills paints with broad strokes; of wanting to empower, to create a Cathy Freeman moment, to ignite a flame in others. If you want to find out when Mills really became invested in flipping the Boomers script, it’s worth pressing further, because he takes you back to a shattered dressing room at the Olympic Games in London.

“I made the team for the 2008 Olympics and you’re playing the USA in the quarter-finals and it’s like, this is awesome, this is a great feeling,” Mills said. “We lose the game. And as a young kid like you don’t understand really what that means, you just got your backside handed to you by all-time greats.

“Then you jump to the 2010 World Cup quarter-final against Slovenia. Lose that again. So now that’s two major tournaments where we lose at that point. Now we’re in London 2012 and playing the USA in the quarter-finals, Kobe [Bryant] is having a flurry in the third quarter. Game over.

“It’s [Boomer’s forward] Matt Nielsen’s last time being with us, and I remember sitting at the end of the lockers and it’s taking me so long to come down off this sheer anger and disappointment. This is three times in a row now.

‘Rose gold’: Mills celebrates with his bronze medal.Credit:Getty

“I remember Matt coming over to me and he could feel that I’m not over this thing yet. He sits down next to me and he’s trying to comfort me and I just remember snapping back at him and swearing and saying: “This ain’t it. This is not good enough’. I think that’s where I said to myself that we have to do something here to create this thing.”

After London came Rio, where the Boomers would miss out on a medal yet again, this time a heartbreaker to Spain by one point. It seemed like the cycle would never end. Then in Tokyo, a heavy defeat by the USA in the semi-finals would send the Boomers to the bronze match, with Slovenia and Dallas Mavericks superstar Luka Doncic in their path.

Now Mills can take you inside the Boomers camp for the first time and detail some of the key events in the lead-up to what would be a long overdue triumph. All of the work had been done by the time they laced them up for the bronze play-off, beginning in the locker room immediately after the USA defeat.

“There was disappointment, there were tears because our goal was gold,” Mills said.This is where I believe all the credit has to go to Goorj [head coach Brian Goorjian] and his unbelievable ability to get his team to a point of understanding what we needed to get done.

“It was like he was Simon Dwight [former NBL defensive menace] and just swatted all of the disappointment out of the locker room. We jumped back on the bus, it was the only time throughout the whole campaign we had a bus ride with no music. But it was all Goorj, he hit the parts he needed to bring everyone together and refocus.”

Mills was focused and then some when the moment arrived, torching Slovenia for 42 points in the 107-93 victory. There was the ceremony where he got his hands on a medal at long last, then the return to the Athletes Village, where they were welcomed like rock stars.

For Mills, it was the first glimpse of the effect of their achievement on other Australians. Since he’s been back in quarantine, he’s been trying to explore the higher meaning of it all, at one point asking this writer why I felt the medal resonated with such intensity and depth.

I told him it was a win for every kid who had ever spent hours shooting hoops in the backyard and had watched them try so many times, only to stumble at the final hurdle. And that the nation could see how much they cared, with Mills at the vanguard, so we cared with them.

“I like hearing that stuff, too, because it helps me soak all of this up,” Mills said. “It has been our ability to make people feel a part of our journey and come along with us. Yes, we feel that. But I don’t think we realise the impact we’ve had on a country. That’s very special.”

Phil Lutton is a sports reporter.

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