Early Life and Career
Mills' father is a Torres Strait Islander and his mother is an Aborigine from the Ynunga people of South Australia. He was first exposed to basketball as a four-year-old with The Shadows, an Indigenous Australian team that his parents established. Mills attended Marist College Canberra where he played a variety of sports in addition to basketball, such as Australian football and athletics. He served as ball boy for the Canberra Cannons of the NBL around 2000. During that time, his family developed a close relationship with Cannons player David Patrick, who would eventually play a key role in Mills' career.
At the age of 15, Mills was selected for the ACT U-18 squad to compete in the Australian National Championships. The following year, Mills accepted a full-time scholarship with the Australian Institute of Sport, which had also developed three-time WNBA MVP Lauren Jackson and current Golden State Warriors player Andrew Bogut, where he continued to develop as a player. He also made a strong impression at the 2005 Australian Olympic Youth Festival, an event considered to be a showcase for future elite sporting talents.
In January 2006, he received the RE Staunton Medal as top player in the Australia under-20 national championships. In April that year, he received more international attention when he was named to the World team of under-20 players that played a US team of the same age group at the Nike Hoop Summit in Memphis, Tennessee. Mills led the World squad with 6 assists and also added 8 points in a losing effort. He was one of 22 players invited to try out for the Australia squad for the 2006 FIBA World Championship, becoming the youngest player ever to participate in a Boomers training camp. While he was in training with the Boomers in July, he was named by Basketball Australia as the Junior Male Player of the Year. Mills also had an outstanding 2006 season with the AIS men's team in the South East Australian Basketball League (SEABL), earning him a place on the All SEABL East men's team and the honour of 2006 SEABL U-21 Australian Youth Player of the Year. He went on to be named the 2006 Basketball Australia Player of the Year, and also received two major awards from Indigenous Australian organisations—The Deadlys Award for Most Promising New Talent in Sport and NAIDOC's National Sportsperson of the Year.
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