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 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 team 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 playoffs. 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.
Read more about this topic: Milt Palacio
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