Milt Palacio

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Milt Palacio bigraphy, stories - Belizean basketball player

Milt Palacio : biography

February 7, 1978 –

Milton Sigmund Palacio (born February 7, 1978), referred to as Milt Palacio, is a Belizean American professional basketball player.

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.

Early life

Palacio was born and raised in Los Angeles, California, to Belizean parents and is a Belizean citizen.

Professional 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. 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 preseason. 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 an overseas adventure, signing for ex-European champions Partizan in Serbia. 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, 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 team Khimki. After a year there, in September 2009, he rejoined Partizan, but was released from his contract few weeks later, after he had not joined the team on time. On January 5, 2010, Palacio signed a contract with the Greek League team Kavala. 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. 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 in August 2010, signing a one-year contract. He averaged 15.7 points, 3.8 assists and 1.3 steals during the regular season, and thus led the team to the playoffs. After the team was eliminated by PAOK, Palacio again moved to Caja Laboral until the end of the 2010–11 season.

In August 2011, Palacio signed a one-year deal with Blu:sens Monbús, where he averaged 6.4 points and 2.4 assists in the 2011–12 season. During the summer of 2012, Palacio played for Piratas de Quebradillas in Puerto Rico. In 2013 he played for the Lithuanian team Lietuvos rytas.

NBA career statistics

Regular season

|- | align="left" | 1999–00 | align="left" | Vancouver | 53 || 0 || 7.4 || .439 || .000 || .595 || 1.0 || .9 || .4 || .0 || 2.0 |- | align="left" | 2000–01 | align="left" | Boston | 58 || 6 || 19.7 || .472 || .333 || .848 || 1.8 || 2.6 || .8 || .0 || 5.9 |- | align="left" | 2001–02 | align="left" | BostonPhoenix | 4128 || 01 || 12.69.7 || .385.380 || .353.143 || .706.783 || 1.2.8 || 1.31.0 || .5.3 || .1.0 || 3.72.8 |- | align="left" | 2002–03 | align="left" | Cleveland | 80 || 46 || 24.7 || .418 || .216 || .747 || 2.9 || 3.2 || .9 || .2 || 5.0 |- | align="left" | 2003–04 | align="left" | Toronto | 59 || 13 || 20.5 || .349 || .154 || .662 || 1.7 || 3.1 || .7 || .2 || 4.4 |- | align="left" | 2004–05 | align="left" | Toronto | 80 || 4 || 19.2 || .446 || .167 || .742 || 1.7 || 3.5 || .6 || .2 || 5.8 |- | align="left" | 2005–06 | align="left" | Utah | 71 || 18 || 19.4 || .424 || .063 || .653 || 1.9 || 2.7 || .7 || .2 || 6.2 |- | align="left" | Career | align="left" | | 470 || 88 || 17.9 || .419 || .235 || .719 || 1.8 || 2.5 || .6 || .1 || 4.8

Belizean national team

In his first international tournament, Palacio led Belize to a gold medal at the 1998 CARICOM Basketball Championship, which the country hosted.

Palacio 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.