Basketball On The Internet.

PATTY Mills turns 33 today, the human embodiment of all that is good in the world, of love and inclusiveness, of compassion and understanding, of tolerance and playfulness, of commitment and forgiveness, of ascending and achieving.

The manner in which he led the Australian men's basketball team to its historic first medal with its Bronze at the Tokyo Olympic Games, was and will forever be the stuff of legend.

His 42 points and nine assists in that epic 107-93 win over Slovenia, was as outstanding a single-game performance as any by anyone wearing the hallowed green-and-gold, and also an Olympic record as the highest individual score in a medal playoff since basketball first was played at the Games in 1936.

As a nation, Australia has enjoyed some fine Olympic performances, with first Eddie Palubinskas in 1976, then Ian Davies in 1980, Andrew Gaze in 2000 and Mills in 2012 and again in Tokyo, leading the Games in scoring.

No other country can boast having four players achieve that or of leading all Olympic scorers five times. Brazil's scoring machine Oscar Schmidt led the Games scoring in 1988-1992-1996 and Spain's perennial Pau Gasol did it in 2004 and 2008. 

But for all those achievements, nothing comes close to winning the Bronze Medal and Patty Mills absolutely guaranteed Australia would do it.

He had 26 points at halftime, then knew as Slovenia would focus on him in the second half, he could draw defenders and dish for others. Fortuitously, his long-time partner-in-prime, Joe Ingles, was knocking down outside shots to go with his international career-best eight defensive rebounds from his team-high total of nine.

And Mills' nine assists were every bit as valuable as his 16-point second half.

Patty Mills, bala extraordinaire, the uncrowned but clearly King of Australia right now, made every one of his countrymen proud, no matter their background or back story.

"Aussie! Aussie! Aussie!" became "Patty! Patty! Patty!" even though he was much happier with the result than his immense and immeasurable contribution to it.

Patty Mills personifies what it is to be Australian. Reuniting with Ingles as an Olympian for the fourth time and with Brian Goorjian, the coach from their first Games together in Beijing, he took us all along on a thrilling, emotional, exhilirating and ultimately glorious journey.

Yet barely in the wake of such unprecedented euphoria for basketball, comes the latest in a seemingly endless attack on indigenous athletes, with football's newest racism controversy.

An understandably disconsolate and distressed genial footy superstar Eddie Betts again is asked to address it for the wider community, his despair and sadness so raw and emotional as to be almost impossible to watch.

One night we are roaring at the majesty and wizardry of Patty Mills - the man for all seasons - and the next someone most likely cheering for him on Saturday is racially villifying another innocent on Sunday.

Ending racism is the job of every single one of us.

No, not the "job" actually. It is the obligation of us all.

It is our obligation to call it out when we see it, or hear it, to steadily, vigilantly and dilligently erase the stain of it from the society we want to share and live in.

Patty Mills turns 33 today, the human embodiment of all that is good in the world, of love and inclusiveness, of compassion and understanding, of tolerance and playfulness, of commitment and forgiveness, of ascending and achieving.

For all the joy and pride he has brought us, we're overdue at rolling up our sleeves and putting an end to this unnecessary misery indigenous people are forced to endure.

Pretty sure that is the best birthday gift we could give him.