- Milt Palacio
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Milt Palacio Position Point guard Height 1.93 metres (6 ft 4 in) Weight 95 kg (210 lb) League Spanish League Team Obradoiro Born February 7, 1978
Los Angeles, CaliforniaNationality Belizean / American High school Junípero Serra College Midland (1995–1996)
Colorado State (1996–1999)Draft Undrafted, 1999 Pro career 1999–present Career history Vancouver Grizzlies (1999–2000)
Boston Celtics (2000–2002)
Phoenix Suns (2002)
Cleveland Cavaliers (2002–2003)
Toronto Raptors (2003–2005)
Utah Jazz (2005–2006)
Partizan (2007–2008)
Khimki (2008–2009)
Partizan (2009)
Kavala (2010)
Caja Laboral (2010)
Kavala (2010–2011)
Caja Laboral (2011)
Obradoiro (2011–present)Milton S. Palacio (born February 7, 1978), referred to as Milt Palacio, is a Belizean American professional basketball player. He currently plays with the pro club Obradoiro CAB. He was born and raised in Los Angeles, California, to Belizean parents and is a Belizean citizen.
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College career
Palacio attended Junípero Serra High School, in Gardena, California. He played college basketball at Midland College and Colorado State University, going undrafted in 1999. In his three years with the Rams, Palacio averaged 12.1 points, 4.8 assists and 4.2 rebounds per game.
Pro career
In a seven-year NBA career, from 1999 to 2006, Palacio has played for the Vancouver Grizzlies, Boston Celtics, Phoenix Suns, Cleveland Cavaliers, Toronto Raptors and Utah Jazz, with a career scoring average of 4.8 points per game.
His most notable achievement was scoring a buzzer beater for the Celtics in their shocking victory over the New Jersey Nets on December 28, 2000. With the Nets leading 111–109 and inbounding the ball with less than 2 seconds remaining, Palacio stole a pass from Lucious Harris and threw up an off-balance shot from 30 feet away. Improbably, the shot swished through the net, giving the Celtics a 112–111 victory.[1] Basketball writers dubbed Palacio with the nickname "Miracle Milt", as a recognition of this incredible incident.
Despite a solid season with the Jazz, Palacio was a free agent at the start of the 2006–07 pre-season. He eventually caught on with the Seattle SuperSonics, but was waived before the regular season start, unable to unseat Mike Wilks as the third-string point guard behind Luke Ridnour and Earl Watson.
In the 2007–08 season, Palacio began a European adventure, signing for ex-European champions KK Partizan from Belgrade, Serbia.[2] While struggling mightily at times to begin the year, he learned the European game quickly, playing some great basketball in the second half of the season and being named Euroleague's MVP for the month of March 2008,[3][4] helping Partizan reach the last 8 of the competition for the first time in 10 years. In this season Palacio won triple crown with Partizan, winning the Serbian League, Serbian Cup and Adriatic League.
During the 2008 summer transfer window, Palacio moved to the Russian club BC Khimki. After a year there, in September 2009, he rejoined KK Partizan,[5][6] but was released from his contract few weeks later, after he had not joined the team on time.[7] On January 5, 2010, Palacio signed a contract with the Greek League club Kavala.[8] In 16 games for Kavala, Palacio averaged 10.3 points, 2.6 assists and 2.6 rebounds per game, which has helped the club avoid relegation.
On May 4, 2010, Palacio moved to Spain and signed with Caja Laboral by the end of the 2009–10 season.[9] He helped the Basque team to win the national title for the third time in the club history, beating Barcelona 3–0 in the final series. He then returned to Kavala for the 2010–11 season, signing a one-year contract.[10] He averaged 15.7 points, 3.8 assists and 1.3 steals during the regular season, and thus led the team to the play-offs. After the team was eliminated by PAOK, Palacio again moved to Caja Laboral until the end of season.
In August 2011, Palacio signed a one-year deal with Obradoiro CAB.[11]
Belizean national team
He led Belize to a gold medal at the 1998 CARICOM Basketball Championship, which the country hosted. Palacio also held summer camps in his parents' homeland for aspiring Belizean basketball players.
He was also a member of the team that won a silver medal at the 2009 FIBA COCABA Championship, held in Cancún, Mexico, losing in the finals of the hosts 106–103.[12]
NBA career statistics
Legend GP Games played GS Games started MPG Minutes per game FG% Field-goal percentage 3P% 3-point field-goal percentage FT% Free-throw percentage RPG Rebounds per game APG Assists per game SPG Steals per game BPG Blocks per game PPG Points per game Bold Career high Regular season
Year Team GP GS MPG FG% 3P% FT% RPG APG SPG BPG PPG 1999–00 Vancouver 53 0 7.4 .439 .000 .595 1.0 .9 .4 .0 2.0 2000–01 Boston 58 6 19.7 .472 .333 .848 1.8 2.6 .8 .0 5.9 2001–02 Boston 41 0 12.6 .385 .353 .706 1.2 1.3 .5 .1 3.7 2001–02 Phoenix 28 1 9.7 .380 .143 .783 .8 1.0 .3 .0 2.8 2002–03 Cleveland 80 46 24.7 .418 .216 .747 2.9 3.2 .8 .2 5.0 2003–04 Toronto 59 13 20.5 .349 .154 .662 1.7 3.1 .7 .2 4.4 2004–05 Toronto 80 4 19.2 .446 .167 .742 1.7 3.5 .6 .2 5.8 2005–06 Utah 71 18 19.4 .424 .063 .653 1.9 2.7 .7 .2 6.2 Career 470 88 17.9 .419 .235 .719 1.8 2.5 .6 .1 4.8 References
- ^ Celtics beat Nets on Palacio's miracle 3-pointer
- ^ Partizan inks Milt Palacio
- ^ Euroleague Basketball MVP for March: Milt Palacio, Partizan Igokea
- ^ March MVP interview: Milt Palacio, Partizan
- ^ Milt Palacio returns to Partizan
- ^ Palacio returns to Partizan
- ^ Partizan, Palacio part ways
- ^ Kavala announced Milton Palacio, Sow to follow?
- ^ Baskonia announced Milton Palacio
- ^ Kavala renewed Milton Palacio
- ^ Obradoiro CAB tabs experienced point guard Milt Palacio
- ^ Mexico wins 2009 CoCaBa, defeats Belize 106-103
External links
- Milt Palacio at NBA.com
- Milt Palacio at ACB.com
- Milt Palacio at ESAKE.gr
- Milt Palacio at Euroleague.net
- Milt Palacio at Basketball-Reference.com
Categories:- 1978 births
- Living people
- African American basketball players
- American basketball players
- American expatriate basketball people in Canada
- American expatriate basketball people in Greece
- American expatriate basketball people in Russia
- American expatriate basketball people in Serbia
- American expatriate basketball people in Spain
- American people of Belizean descent
- Basketball players from California
- Belizean basketball players
- BC Khimki players
- Boston Celtics players
- Cleveland Cavaliers players
- Colorado State Rams men's basketball players
- Junior college men's basketball players in the United States
- KK Partizan players
- Liga ACB players
- Obradoiro CAB players
- Phoenix Suns players
- Point guards
- Saski Baskonia players
- Sportspeople from Los Angeles, California
- Toronto Raptors players
- Undrafted National Basketball Association players
- Utah Jazz players
- Vancouver Grizzlies players
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