Milt Palacio

Milt Palacio

Position	Point guard
Height	1.93 metres (6 ft 4 in)
Weight	95 kg (210 lb)
League	Spanish League
Team	Obradoiro
Number	11
Born	February 7, 1978 (1978-02-07) Los Angeles, California
Nationality	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 Sigmund 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 in Spain. He was born and raised in Los Angeles, California, to Belizean parents and is a Belizean citizen.

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.

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 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 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 club BC Khimki. After a year there, in September 2009, he rejoined KK 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 club 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 for the 2010–11 season, 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 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.

Belizean national team

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.

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

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