Australia's Olympic hero and flagbearer Patty Mills has quietly been donating huge portions of his NBA salary to struggling indigenous communities across the country.
Mills, who is currently leading the Boomers towards a first Olympic basketball medal for Australia, has just signed a two-year US$12million (AU$16.2million) deal with the Brooklyn Nets - linking up with Kevin Durant who he will face in the semi-finals.
The 32-year-old, who has become a vocal activist for a number of causes, has been putting his money where his mouth is.
Mills donated the $1.5million he earned from participating in the NBA's pandemic bubble last year to social justice bodies, including Black Lives Matter Australia, The We Got You campaign and Black Deaths in Custody.
'I'm playing in Orlando because I don't want to leave any money on the table that could be going directly to black communities,' Mills said last year.
It's since been revealed the Boomers captain donated a solar power water purifier for a regional New South Wales town struggling with its water quality.
Ms Mills is from North Carolina and played college basketball herself, having met Mills while they were both studying at St. Mary's College in California
Mills flew home to Australia during the NBA All Star break last year and helped rebuild wildlife centres and homes and donated equipment to locals throughout the Cobargo area after bushfires destroyed the town
Labor Senator for New South Wales Tim Ayres revealed Wednesday Mills has quietly been involved in aiding local communities, including the remote town of Walgett.
'Patty Mills has been making these contributions on the quiet for years,' he said.
'I was in Walgett last year - where the water quality issues are acute - and asked which level of government had supplied a solar drinking water purifier in a mission out of town. The answer was 'Patty Mills'.'
Mr Ayres told Daily Mail Australia the water quality in Walgett is 'shocking' and the local community have been begging the government to provide them with safe options for years.
'The water quality is shocking. Its been a long term problem. It's technically safe for human consumption but it tastes horrible,' he said.
'It's very difficult for kids to drink water that tastes horrible. I spent time with the Elders in Walgett and missions outside Walgett.
'There was this fantastic setup of a solar powered water purifier. I assumed the federal government had delivered it, and they said straight away Patty Mills gave it to us.'
Mills donated the $1.5million he earned from participating in the NBA's pandemic bubble last year to social justice bodies including Black Lives Matter Australia
Mills' wife Alyssa has admitted she is now a 'true blue' Aussie as she watched her husband become his country's first ever Indigenous flag bearer
Mr Ayres said it's 'shameful' that an NBA player on the other side of the world with no real connection to the community is the one that has to provide safe water, but said he has 'shown the way' for change.
'He's turned into a real leader. I've seen photos of him in Walgett. He's obviously taken the time to get to learn about all sorts of communities in the regions and it's just a wonderful,' he told Daily Mail Australia.
'There's lots of people who achieved those dizzying heights who don't make that contribution. It's just fantastic a bloke so young has realised you can contribute a lot.'
Mills worked alongside the Dhariwaa Elders Group and Aboriginal Land Council to install the purifiers throughout the town, who described Mills as 'wonderful'.
'We lobbied the NSW government for a long time to have our water filtered. They were resisting it for a long time,' a spokeswoman for the Dhariwaa Elders Group told Daily Mail Australia.
'They installed a system that wasn't built for purpose. We are still trying to find long term drinking water solutions.
