DALLAS, TEXAS – NOVEMBER 18: Patty Mills #8 of the San Antonio Spurs at American Airlines Center on November 18, 2019 in Dallas, Texas. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this photograph, User is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. (Photo by Ronald Martinez/Getty Images)
Patty Mills is donating his salary for the rest of the NBA season to Black Lives Matter.
San Antonio Spurs guard Patty Mills will join the team in Orlando for the NBA’s restart come July 30, but he will do so without taking a single dime home for himself.
In a short video message, Mills will donate his remaining salary for the year, which totals a little bit over $1 million, to various organizations and causes that seek to combat racism and fight for equality.
Considering that Gregg Popovich is the man at the controls in San Antonio, the Spurs have frequently been one of the most outspoken and brash organizations when it comes to speaking their mind on current events thanks to people like their legendary head coach, and Mills seems to be following in his coach’s footsteps with this spurt of generosity and almsgiving.
Mills, a former St. Mary’s star who is averaging a career-high 11.7 points per game in his ninth season as a Spur, is not the only player going to Orlando that will play the rest of the season for free, as Los Angeles Lakers center Dwight Howard will also donate his entire salary to various charitable causes.
Spurs guard Patty Mills will donate his remaining salary to combat racism.
Mills’ money will go towards the Black Lives Matter movement, Black Deaths in Custody, and the #WeGotYou campaign, created by several Australian athletes, Mills included, to combat racism in sports.
If the recent protests across the country have shown us anything, it crystallized the fact that talk without action in these times is a hollow and symbolic gesture that does little to get to the root of many of the problems plaguing the African-American community. There needs to be some sort of support, either through financial or hands-on means, to show that there is truly a desire to combat these issues.
Mills put his money where his mouth is, and that deserves all the adulation in the world.