Few careers age with as much grace as Patty Mills’. From a lightly regarded draft pick to an NBA champion, the Australian guard was the steady heartbeat of every locker room he entered. Now, at an age when most guards have long retired, he has started a new chapter: a one-year deal with French EuroLeague club LDLC ASVEL that ended weeks of speculation about his next move (Australian broadcaster Nine).
NBA seasons played: 16 ·
NBA championship: 1 (2014, San Antonio Spurs) ·
Current team (2026-27): LDLC ASVEL (EuroLeague) ·
Reported career NBA salary: US$85.6 million gross ·
Heritage: Aboriginal Australian — Kokatha, Naghiralgal, Dauareb-Meriam
Quick snapshot
- Mills signed a one-year deal with LDLC ASVEL for the 2026-27 season (Nine).
- He played 16 NBA seasons before the move to Europe (Indigenous affairs outlet National Indigenous Times).
- He won the 2014 NBA championship with the San Antonio Spurs (ESPN).
- How much of the reported US$85.6 million gross career salary Mills actually kept after taxes and professional costs (Basketball.com.au).
- Whether the one-year ASVEL deal includes options that could extend his EuroLeague stay (European basketball outlet BasketNews).
- Whether any NBA team was close to signing him during the long 2025-26 offseason (NBA transactions tracker Hoops Rumors).
- 2024-25: closed his NBA career to date with the Utah Jazz (NBA transactions tracker Hoops Rumors).
- August 2026: LDLC ASVEL announced him for the 2026-27 season (European basketball outlet BasketNews).
- A EuroLeague debut with ASVEL in the 2026-27 season (sports broadcaster ESPN).
- First games in Villeurbanne, France, in a new league and a new country (Nine).
Eight biographical checkpoints, one pattern: a career built on longevity rather than a single breakout moment.
| Field | Detail |
|---|---|
| Full name | Patrick Sammie Mills |
| Born | August 11, 1988 (Australian basketball outlet Basketball.com.au) |
| NBA draft | 2009, second round, 55th overall by Portland |
| NBA teams | Portland Trail Blazers, San Antonio Spurs, Brooklyn Nets, Atlanta Hawks, Miami Heat, Utah Jazz |
| NBA championship | 2014, San Antonio Spurs |
| 2026-27 team | LDLC ASVEL (EuroLeague) |
| Reported career salary | US$85.6 million gross, before tax and fees (Basketball.com.au) |
| Heritage | Indigenous Australian; Kokatha, Naghiralgal and Dauareb-Meriam |
Why isn’t Patty Mills in the NBA?
Patty Mills is not on an NBA roster in 2026 because the market never produced a contract he wanted. After his 2024-25 season with the Utah Jazz, he entered free agency as a 16-year NBA veteran (Hoops Rumors), and the months that followed produced reports, rumors and interest — but no NBA deal.
In August 2026, the resolution arrived from another direction: LDLC ASVEL, the French club, confirmed him for the EuroLeague season. It was a move that answered the question with a pivot — Mills didn’t leave the NBA so much as the league left no place for him, so he built a new one.
The free agency that stretched through the summer
- Mills was listed as a free agent before the ASVEL signing was announced (Hoops Rumors).
- No NBA team signed him during the 2025-26 offseason, despite his championship résumé (Basketball.com.au).
The wait could have dragged on for another year. Instead, Mills did what he has always done throughout his career: he controlled what he could control.
Bottom line: Mills chose a EuroLeague role over an uncertain NBA market, confirming that his playing career continues at a high level in France.
Why Europe made sense at 38
- ASVEL gives Mills a defined role in a competitive league that plays a shorter calendar than the NBA (BasketNews).
- France means a new challenge in a familiar basketball language, with former Spurs teammate Tony Parker connected to the club’s project (ESPN).
The EuroLeague tests veterans differently than the NBA does. There is more tactical structure, more physicality in the half court, and less room to coast through the regular season. For a guard whose game was never built on raw athleticism, that style can age well.
The trade-off: Mills traded the comfort of a familiar league for the uncertainty of a new one. At 38, that is a competitive choice, not a retirement gesture.
How much money did Patty Mills make in the NBA?
Career earnings for Mills are reported at US$85.6 million in gross NBA salary across 16 seasons — before taxes and before the costs of the business of being a player (Basketball.com.au). The same analysis estimated that about US$36 million of that total may have gone to tax alone, before agent commissions and other professional costs (Basketball.com.au).
The contracts that built the total
- His largest contract was a four-year, $50 million deal with the Spurs, signed in 2017 (Basketball.com.au).
- The remainder came from later contracts with the Brooklyn Nets, Atlanta Hawks, Miami Heat and Utah Jazz (Hoops Rumors).
Second-round picks rarely see this trajectory. Most are out of the league before their rookie deal ends. Mills kept producing, kept staying healthy enough to be useful, and kept the paychecks coming — that is the less glamorous, more difficult financial story of his career.
Bottom line: Mills earned $85.6 million gross over 16 NBA seasons, but taxes and costs mean his net is significantly lower, adding financial urgency to his European move.
What the reported number leaves out
- The US$85.6 million figure is gross salary, not take-home pay (Basketball.com.au).
- Taxes, agent commissions and other professional costs sit between the reported number and a player’s bank account (Basketball.com.au).
The gap between gross and net explains more than most fans realize. A headline number does the marketing; the bank account does the math. For a player in his late thirties, every remaining season is, partly, about the net.
Mills’ reported career total is a useful benchmark, but the estimated US$36 million tax bite changes the conversation. The player who signed with ASVEL is not a rich man chasing a hobby; he is a professional still building his post-playing security.
What this means: Mills was never the top of the salary scale. He built an eight-figure gross by staying employable for 16 years — a quieter, harder kind of wealth than a single max contract.
What is Patty Mills doing now?
Mills is preparing for a season unlike any in his career: a EuroLeague campaign with LDLC ASVEL, his first extended professional experience outside North America. The agreement was announced in August 2026 by the club, and the work has already shifted to a different league, a different calendar and a different kind of pressure.
A new league, a new stage
- The move puts Mills in the EuroLeague for the first time in his playing career (BasketNews).
- ASVEL’s base in Villeurbanne makes this a full European relocation, not a short-term guest stint (Nine).
There is a practical read here. Mills gets meaningful minutes in a serious league, with a team that has European ambitions. He also gets a schedule that is shorter and more rest-friendly than the NBA grind, which is exactly the kind of adjustment a veteran body needs at this stage.
Off-court, the platform continues
- Mills remains one of the most recognizable Australian basketball figures of his generation (National Indigenous Times).
- His public role extends well beyond the games themselves (Basketball.com.au).
Mills’ off-court work has been a constant throughout his career, and it does not pause at customs. The move to France keeps him in the international basketball conversation, which is valuable both for his own profile and for the causes he has championed for years.
The national team context
- A full EuroLeague season keeps Mills in competitive rhythm, something Australian fans will follow closely (Nine).
- International windows will still be part of his calendar (ESPN).
Australian basketball has a vested interest in this move. A Mills playing meaningful European minutes is far more useful than a Mills sitting at home waiting for a phone call.
The ASVEL deal is a one-year arrangement. If the season goes well, Mills enters the 2027 market with EuroLeague momentum; if it doesn’t, the late-career leverage he worked to build in 2026 could shrink quickly.
Did Patty Mills ever win an NBA championship?
Yes — the defining achievement of his résumé. Mills won the NBA championship with the San Antonio Spurs in 2014 (ESPN). It is the title that still shapes how Australian basketball talks about him.
The 2014 title and its place in his career
- The championship came during Mills’ decade-long tenure with the Spurs (National Indigenous Times).
- It placed him alongside the small group of Australians who have reached the summit of the sport (Basketball.com.au).
Mills was a rotation player on that team, not its headliner — but the ring does not distinguish between the two. The title validated every extra offseason workout and every year spent fighting for minutes behind more famous guards.
What the ring changed
- Before 2014, Mills was a useful backup. After it, he was a champion (ESPN).
- The label followed him into every free agency and every new locker room (Hoops Rumors).
That single championship is why his name still carries weight even as his role has diminished. Teams do not sign 16-year veterans out of charity; they sign the ones with a history of doing whatever a team needs to win. The ring is proof that Mills has done exactly that.
The pattern: one title, earned as part of a collective, used as a foundation rather than a farewell.
Is Patty Mills an Aboriginal Australian?
Yes — and it is central to who he is. Mills is an Indigenous Australian, identified in coverage as a Kokatha, Naghiralgal and Dauareb-Meriam man (National Indigenous Times). The heritage has shaped his career as much as any contract.
A heritage carried into every arena
- Mills’ Indigenous identity has been a consistent part of his public profile since his earliest NBA seasons (National Indigenous Times).
- His off-court work has centered on visibility and support for Indigenous communities (Basketball.com.au).
It matters that this is not a background detail. Mills has spoken publicly about his identity in ways that few Australian athletes of his generation have, and the National Indigenous Times covering the ASVEL move is itself a sign of how much his career means to Indigenous readers.
Advocacy and representation
- Mills’ platform has never been limited to basketball (Basketball.com.au).
- His social impact program, built under the PATTV banner, is part of that work (National Indigenous Times).
That dimension adds weight to the European move. When Mills steps onto a court in France, he brings an Australian story with him — not as a slogan, but as a lived identity that has traveled through every stage of his career.
When Mills plays in Villeurbanne, he carries an Indigenous Australian story into a European league — a Kokatha, Naghiralgal and Dauareb-Meriam man, still competing at a high level in his late thirties. For Indigenous audiences, that visibility is the point.
The significance: Mills’ heritage and his basketball were never separate stories. The ASVEL chapter keeps both in view, on a new continent.
Patty Mills’ career timeline
The dates that matter, from second-round pick to EuroLeague signing:
- 2009 — Drafted 55th overall by the Portland Trail Blazers (BasketNews).
- 2011-21 — San Antonio Spurs era, the decade that defined his career (National Indigenous Times).
- 2014 — NBA champion with the San Antonio Spurs (ESPN).
- 2024-25 — Played for the Utah Jazz (Hoops Rumors).
- 2026 — Signed with LDLC ASVEL for the EuroLeague season (Nine).
The line from 2009 to 2026 is not the usual arc of a second-round pick. It is a career built on outlasting expectations, one season at a time.
What’s confirmed, what’s not
A topic like Mills’ future invites guessing. Here is the line between the two.
Confirmed facts
- Mills signed a one-year deal with LDLC ASVEL for the 2026-27 season (BasketNews).
- He won the 2014 NBA championship with the San Antonio Spurs (ESPN).
- He is an Indigenous Australian of Kokatha, Naghiralgal and Dauareb-Meriam heritage (National Indigenous Times).
What’s unclear
- Exact after-tax career earnings, beyond the estimates covered above (Basketball.com.au).
- Whether the ASVEL deal includes options beyond its one-year term (BasketNews).
- Whether an NBA team — Miami or any other — was ever genuinely close to signing him (Hoops Rumors).
- How long this European chapter lasts before he re-evaluates (ESPN).
The gap between the two lists is where the next 12 months will be decided. If the EuroLeague experiment works, the questions fade. If it doesn’t, they return quickly.
The quotes that frame the move
“I’ll never say never, but it has been a big part of my life for over 16 years.”
— Patty Mills, on the NBA comeback question (ESPN)
“The move was reported as ending speculation about a return to the NBL.”
— Nine, on the ASVEL signing
The through-line in both quotes: Mills is still deciding how his story ends, and he is the one writing it.
This is the career trajectory Patty Mills built: a second-round pick who became a champion, a veteran who refused to fade, and a public figure who carried his heritage into every arena he entered. The ASVEL chapter extends all three threads into Europe. For the Australian Boomers, the calculation is straightforward — a Mills playing meaningful EuroLeague minutes is a sharper version of the player who has led the national program for years, and the coming season will show exactly how valuable that version still is.
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Frequently asked questions
When did Patty Mills sign with LDLC ASVEL?
The French club announced his one-year deal for the 2026-27 season in August 2026, and multiple outlets confirmed the move shortly after.
How many NBA seasons did Patty Mills play?
Mills played 16 NBA seasons before moving to the EuroLeague.
Which teams did Patty Mills play for in the NBA?
He played for the Portland Trail Blazers, San Antonio Spurs, Brooklyn Nets, Atlanta Hawks, Miami Heat and Utah Jazz over his 16-season career.
When did Patty Mills win the NBA championship?
Mills won the NBA championship with the San Antonio Spurs in 2014.
What is Patty Mills’ heritage?
Mills is an Indigenous Australian, identified in coverage as a Kokatha, Naghiralgal and Dauareb-Meriam man of Torres Strait Islander and Aboriginal Australian descent.
Has Patty Mills retired from basketball?
No. The ASVEL contract for 2026-27 is an active playing contract, not a retirement announcement.
James Mitchell is Editor-in-Chief at Australian News Desk, overseeing editorial standards, publication decisions and corrections.