Patty Mills declares for NBA draft

Australian Boomer and Saint Mary's College guard Patrick Mills (183-G-88) will make himself available for the NBA draft, possibly giving up the final two years of college basketball eligibility.

Mills held a teleconference from his St Mary's campus in Moraga, California which was intiated by Basketball Australia. He stated he would not be hiring an agent however, leaving him with the opportunity to pull out of contention prior to the deadline on the 15th of June. The NBA Draft will take place on the 25th of June in Madison Square Garden, the home of the New York Knicks

Mills averaged career highs of 18.7 points, 4.0 assists, 2.6 rebounds and 2.5 steals per game in just his second season of college basketball and was the Australian teams second leading scorer at the Beijing Olympics with an average of 14.2 points over six games.

Saint Mary's lost in the quarterfinals of the National Invitational Tournament to San Diego State. He missed the last five weeks of the regular season with a broken right hand.

'It's a win-win situation for me,' Mills said. 'If I don't get all the feedback that I want or need, I come back for my third year.'

The 30 players chosen in the first round of the draft are guaranteed three-year contracts and Mills has been predicted by numerous draft experts to go anywhere from late in the first round to the late second round

'It was a tough decision to come across ... sitting down with my family and Coach (Randy Bennett ),' Mills said. 'I really need to push myself and challenge myself to the next level, test the waters and get the feedback.'

Mills, 20, said he has no particular NBA team in mind.

'I will come across them in the next few weeks,' he said. 'We'll sit down and sort out the teams. Right now, I have to work on my conditioning, my basketball. These are the things I am worrying
about at this point.'

If Mills is selected in the draft he will be the first Aboriginal Australian to having been chosen and only second Indigenous Australian after Toronto big man Nathan Jawai (207-C-86, college: Midland CC).