Spurs’ Patty Mills to be one of Australia’s Olympic flag bearers

Patty Mills will be the third basketball player to be an Australian Olympic flag bearer.

SYDNEY (AP) — San Antonio Spurs guard Patty Mills and swimmer Cate Campbell were named Wednesday as flag bearers for the Australian Olympic team at the opening ceremony for the Tokyo Games.

Mills will become the first Indigenous Australian to carry the flag at an opening ceremony. He is also the third basketball player to be an Australian flag bearer, joining Lauren Jackson at London in 2012 and Andrew Gaze at Sydney in 2000.

“As a proud Kokatha, Naghiralgal and Dauareb-Meriam man it’s incredible,” Mills said. “A very passionate moment I can feel in my bones. As the first Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander flag bearer my connection between our country — the land, the sky, the sea, our culture, our history and this particular moment runs extremely deep.”

Basketball Australia added: “Always honoured to have you representing our country, congratulations.”

The Tokyo Olympics begin on July 23.