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Patty Mills Subject of Racist Taunt by Fan During Spurs vs. Cavaliers

San Antonio Spurs' Patty Mills, center, from Australia, drives between Cleveland Cavaliers' Jeff Green, left, and Kyle Korver in the first half of an NBA basketball game, Sunday, Feb. 25, 2018, in Cleveland. (AP Photo/Tony Dejak)
Tony Dejak/Associated Press

A Cleveland Cavaliers fan taunted San Antonio Spurs guard Patty Mills with a racist chant during the team's 110-94 win over the Cavs in Cleveland on Sunday, according to Benyam Kidane of Sporting News.

Quicken Loans Arena microphones picked up the fan's racist remarks. 

"Hey, Jamaican dog. They want their bobsledder back," the fan directed at Mills. "Hey Mills, Jamaica just called; they want their bobsledder back."

Mills responded after the game via a post on his Twitter account:

Mills, 29, grew up in Canberra, the capital city of Australia. His father was a Torres Strait Islander and his mother an Aboriginal Australian, with both of his parents working for the federal government in indigenous affairs.

Mills has revealed in the past that he grew up facing racist taunts given his background.

"You learn from those moments, even though those were tough times and left you in tears because you didn't know how else to handle it," he told Nick Metallinos of ESPN.com in March 2017. "But at the same time, my mum experienced far worse than I could ever imagine. That in itself is very motivating. I got it tough, but I can't even imagine what the Stolen Generation went through."

The Stolen Generation refers to the "forced removal of many indigenous children from their families," as Metallinos detailed, as "children as young as babies were taken from their families to be placed in group homes, with foster families or on church missions" throughout Australian history up through the 1960s.

For Mills and his family, racism has always been a part of their lives, though Mills said they've fought against it and tried to raise awareness about discrimination and inequality, as he told Metallinos:

"Either it's just not talked about it enough, or it's not in schools, or whatever it may be, but it's just obvious when someone says something and they don't understand the repercussions of what they're saying. Talking about it, educating people about it from a young age in households, seems to be the biggest [issue]. It's definitely something that needs to be worked on because it's got to be learned so that we don't keep making the same mistakes over again."

For Mills, fighting against racism and for the indigenous people of Australia is a lifelong goal:

"I think about it a lot because it is something I want to be involved in. [I'm] just trying to find the right way to do it. I want to be an ambassador [for indigenous people]. I want to keep educating the world on the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander culture. It's who I am. It's what I know—even more than basketball.

"To be able to promote it or educate it or teach it in a way, whether it's through cultural centers or dancing or art or anything like that, I think is what I would want to do."

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