Ed Palubinskas

Edward Sebastian Palubinskas (born 17 September 1950) is an Australian former professional basketball player and coach.

Ed Palubinskas
Personal information
Born (1950-09-17) 17 September 1950
Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, Australia
Listed height183 cm (6 ft 0 in)
Listed weight82 kg (181 lb)
Career information
High schoolNarrabundah College
College
NBA draft1974: 4th round, 61st overall pick
Selected by the Atlanta Hawks
PositionGuard
Stats  at Basketball-Reference.com

Playing career

High school

Palubinskas attended Narrabundah College in Canberra, where he practiced different sports (swimming, track and field, football, gymnastics).[1] He started playing basketball at age 14. In Canberra, he played for a team of Lithuanian immigrants.[2] After moving to Melbourne, Palubinskas played for the St. Kilda Saints, winning the Victorian Championship in 1970.[3]

College

Coach Lindsay Gaze, who back then considered Palubinskas as "the best offensive player in the history of Australia", put him in contact with Dale Brown, who later became his coach at LSU.[1] Palubinskas moved to the US and started his collegiate career at Ricks College in Rexburg, Idaho in 1970, where he led the US in free throw percentage with 92.4 percents during the 1970–71 season.[4] He holds the record for the most consecutive free throws in a game (14) and 43 consecutive for the season. He won NJCAA All-American status at Ricks College (which is now BYU-Idaho)[5] and scored 24 points a game over his two years.[1] In 1972, Palubinskas transferred to Louisiana State University (LSU), after playing in the Munich Olympics where he was the second leading scorer missing the Olympic scoring title by one point. At LSU, Palubinskas had a team-high 18.6 points per game in the 1972–73 season and was selected to the All-SEC Coaches Team. In 1973–74, he was the second leading scorer of the team (18.3 points per game) behind Glenn Hansen. While at LSU, Palubinskas hit 87.5 percent (258-of-295) of his free throws. On 1 March 1973, Palubinskas converted 16 of his 16 free throws against Mississippi State, which put him in first place in the LSU record book.[6]

Professional

Palubinskas was selected in the 1974 NBA draft by the Atlanta Hawks in the fourth round. He was then traded to the New Orleans Jazz and drafted in the eighth round of the ABA draft by the Utah Stars. Palubinskas never played in the NBA.[7] In Australia, he played for the Caulfield Spartans, scoring a record-breaking 66 points in a championship game in 1976.[3]

National team career

After being the second leading scorer in the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich, Palubinskas was the top overall scorer in 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal. He set three Olympic scoring records in Montreal, including the record for most points scored in a single Olympics (269), which was broken by Brazilian Oscar Schmidt during the 1988 Summer Olympics.[8] The most points he scored in one game during the Olympics was in 1976, when he had 48 against Mexico in overtime.[9]

He is a member of the Basketball Australia Hall of Fame.[10]

Coaching career

Palubinskas served as an assistant coach at Brigham Young University from 1986 to 1989. In 1991–92, he held the same position at Louisiana State University. At the high school level in the US, Palubinskas was the head coach at Central Private School in Central, Louisiana from 1992 to 1996.[11] He also was a basketball coach at East Carbon High School in Sunnyside, Utah and East High School in Salt Lake City.[12]

Palubinskas took a position as shooting coach to Shaquille O'Neal with the Los Angeles Lakers for the 2000–01 NBA season.[13] Following the Lakers' triumph in the NBA, Palubinskas also received an NBA champion's ring.[14] He also worked with Brandon Bass, Dwight Howard,[15] Lisa Leslie and Lauren Jackson.[16] He has his own basketball school named The Palubinskas Basketball Academy.[17] Palubinskas published two instructional video tapes ("Secrets to Perfect Shooting Principles" and "The Shooters' Lab") on shooting technique.[12] In 2004, he published his findings on shooting the basketball in the FIBA Assist Magazine.[16]

Career highlights
  • "Mr. Basketball Australia" – 1970
  • 1972 and 1976 All-World Olympic Team
  • Most points scored in Olympic history (269) – 1976
  • Guinness book world record- most free throws (18) made in 2 minutes blindfolded in Phoenix AZ. at NBA ALL-Star weekend [18]
  • ACT Sport Hall of Fame inductee in 2021[19]

Personal life

Palubinskas was born to a Lithuanian father and a Russian mother.[20][21] Palubinskas is a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.[22]

References
  1. Delliquanti, Don (8 January 1973). "Tiger cub from Canberra". Sports Illustrated Vault | SI.com. Archived from the original on 5 March 2021. Retrieved 10 October 2021.
  2. Simpson, Malcolm. "Eddie Palubinskas - Australian Basketball's First Superstar". globalstarholidays.com.au. Retrieved 10 October 2021.
  3. "History Of Basketball - Flames Basketball Club". GameDay. Retrieved 10 October 2021.
  4. Worsham, Cody. "LEGENDS: Ed Palubinskas". Retrieved 10 October 2021.
  5. "NJCAA All-Time Men's Basketball All-Americans (1950-present)". NJCAA Men's Basketball Record Book. Archived from the original on 10 October 2021.
  6. "LSU 2020-21 MEN'S BASKETBALL RECORD BOOK" (PDF). Louisiana State University. Archived (PDF) from the original on 10 October 2021. Retrieved 10 October 2021.
  7. Levinson, Mason (27 February 2015). "Bring It on LeBron, Says Free-Throw Specialist in Casino Contest". Bloomberg.com. Retrieved 27 April 2016.
  8. "Eddie Palubinskas". basketball-reference.com. Retrieved 30 July 2016.
  9. "Ed Palubinskas, Australia's first basketball great". Australian Olympic Committee. 1 January 2009. Retrieved 25 June 2011.
  10. "Ed Palubinskas". Basketball Australia. Retrieved 30 July 2016.
  11. Grasso, John (2011). Palubinskas, Edward Sebastian "Eddie". In: Historical Dictionary of Basketball. Scarecrow Press. p. 282. ISBN 978-0-8108-6763-5.
  12. "A true charity stripe artist". Deseret News. 25 March 2001. Archived from the original on 10 October 2021. Retrieved 10 October 2021.
  13. "Kaip lietuvio sūnus Palubinskas Shaqą baudas mesti mokė/ Interview with Shaqs coach Palubinskas". SportoTV (in Lithuanian). Archived from the original on 15 December 2021. Retrieved 23 July 2013.
  14. "Australijos legenda: lietuvių kilmės genijus, išmokęs mesti baudas Shaquille'ą O'Nealą". 24sek.lt (in Lithuanian). Retrieved 30 July 2016.
  15. "Mystery at the charity stripe: What has happened to the free throw?". Chicago Tribune. 15 March 2014. Retrieved 27 April 2016.
  16. Palubinskas, Ed (2004). "The Jump Shot" (PDF). FIBA Assist Magazine: 6–11.
  17. "The Palubinskas Basketball Academy". Facebook.com. Retrieved 30 July 2016.
  18. Guinness World Records 2010: Thousands of New Records in The Book of the Decade!, Craig Glenday, p. 456.
  19. Helmers, Caden (27 November 2021). "Shaq, shots and Olympic records: Eddie Palubinskas is an Australian basketball trailblazer". Canberra Times. Retrieved 27 November 2021.
  20. "Anti-Hack-A-Shaq Coach Palubinskas". Pro Bball Report. 25 July 2013. Retrieved 4 January 2016.
  21. "LEGENDS ISSUE: Perfection, at the line and in life, is the goal Ed Palubinskas, the world's greatest free throw shooter, aims for". Tiger Rag Magazine. 13 July 2015. Archived from the original on 6 September 2015. Retrieved 4 January 2016.
  22. Deseret News 1999-2000 Church Almanac. Salt Lake City, UT: Deseret News. 1998. p. 555. ISBN 1573454915.
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