Just one year ago today, the Bala supreme Patty ‘Thrills’ Mills sauntered into Brooklyn and delivered one of the best performances in New York since Australia’s greatest hero, Mick Dundee, foiled an attempted robbery on the streets of the Big Apple.
With his San Antonio Spurs facing the Brooklyn Nets — a team that the Wollongong mixed-U12s might’ve had a chance against — Patty Cakes took over like the bloody second-coming of Shane ‘The Hammer’ Heal, delivering more emotional highs and scintillating drama than an episode of ‘Thorpie’s Angels’, as the Spurs (without Kawhi ‘Basketball T-1000’ Leonard and Manu ‘The Argentinian Bald Spot’ Ginobili) crushed the Nets by 26.
Living up to his Patty Thrills moniker, bala had 20 points in 20 minutes, shooting 7-of-13 from the field, 2-of-3 from the charity stripe and 4-of-6 from 3-point land! That’s filling it up better than Mark ‘Dooks’ Viduka when he was running rampant at Leeds United!
And, considering no one’s entirely sure if Patty’s a barely-contained cloud of pure basketball-playing energy or just the greatest Aussie sportsperson since Dawn Fraser, the Nets had absolutely Buckleys of stopping him.