sport, rugby

LONDON: The last thing NBA championship-winner Patrick Mills did before leaving Australia was buy a Wallabies jersey at Sydney Airport to make sure he was kitted out in gold for the World Cup. Now the San Antonio Spurs point guard has converted his teammates to Wallabies fans and will turn their team room on the road in Boston into a rugby theatre to cheer them home against New Zealand. Mills is preparing to start his seventh NBA season in what looms as a massive 12 months where he will also spearhead the Australian Boomers' Olympic Games campaign. He's the latest high-profile star to throw his weight behind the Wallabies, with Jason Day, Socceroos captain Mile Jedinak and even surfing legend Kelly Slater offering their best wishes. But Mills will take it to the next level in a competition of basketball superstars, converting some of his future Hall of Fame teammates to Wallabies gold for the final while they're preparing for a game against the Boston Celtics. The Spurs are well known for their multicultural dressing room, which boasts players from Australia, France and Argentina with a New Zealander as the assistant general manager. "They were all asking me about the rules and stuff and they were pretty surprised with the big hits with no pads and everything," Mills told Fairfax Media from San Antonio. "I wouldn't say rugby's a popular sport amongst the guys. But it was cool when we had the other games on the TV. All the guys were asking questions and trying to find out what was going on. "I want to say all the very best to the boys. We'll be watching from Boston, they've done all of Australia proud." Mills and the Spurs will begin their NBA season when they play the Oklahoma City Thunder on Thursday morning AEDT. It marks the beginning of the Spurs' bid to win back the NBA championship after being eliminated in the early rounds of the play-offs last season. Mills has full recovered from a shoulder injury and is itching to get on the court. But he already has inter-squad bragging rights after the Wallabies beat Argentina in the semi-final last weekend. Spurs teammate Manu Ginobli is from Buenos Aires in Argentina and the pair gathered the team to watch the game. "He looked up the odds before the game so we didn't have a bet," Mills laughed. Mills has met the majority of the Wallabies squad having trained at the AIS in Canberra before moving his career to the US. He also met ACT Brumbies players before a Super Rugby semi-final in 2012, taking the NBA championship trophy to their last training session as motivation. But it was a snap decision in Sydney that ensured he had a Wallabies jersey so he could show his Australian pride during the World Cup. "We left Canberra and were walking through Sydney Airport and about to board our flight to come back to San Antonio," Mills said. "We went past a couple of shops and they had the jerseys there. I stopped and said: "we better stock up on these, I think we're going to need them. It's a big month coming up. "We've got [Spurs assistant general manager] Sean Marks who's a New Zealander and Boris Diaw [from France], they wore their jerseys when they played. "It's been a great atmosphere, everyone's into it. Sean and I will definitely be into each other and hopefully the rest of the boys jump behind the Wallabies."

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