Ed Palubinskas

Edward Sebastian "Ed" Palubinskas (born 1950) is an Australian NBA shooting coach and the President of the National Basketball Shooters Association. He is a member of the Basketball Australia Hall of Fame.[1]

Playing career

College

Palubinskas started his collegiate career at Ricks Junior College in Rexburg, Idaho in 1970, where he led the U.S. in free throw percentage with 92.4%. He holds the record for the most consecutive free throws in a game (14) and 43 consecutive for the season. He was also selected as an All-American that year while breaking most records at Ricks College which is now BYU-Idaho. Palubinskas then transferred to Louisiana State University, after playing in the Munich Olympics where he was second leading scorer missing the Olympic scoring title by one point. At LSU, Palubinskas averaged 18.6 ppg and was selected to the All-SEC Coaches Team.

Professional

Ed was selected in the 1975 NBA Draft by the Atlanta Hawks in the 3rd round. He was then traded to the New Orleans Jazz and drafted in the 8th round of the ABA draft by the Utah Stars.

Olympics

After being the 2nd 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, most notably the record for most points scored in a single Olympics (269), which was broken by Brazilian Oscar Schmidt during the 1988 Summer Olympics with the aid of the 3 point line which did not exist in 1976..

The most points he scored in one game was 48 against Mexico in overtime.[2]

Coaching career

Palubinskas took a position as shooting coach to Shaquille O'Neal with the Los Angeles Lakers for the entire 2000-01 NBA season. O'Neal's improved free throw shooting helped lead the Lakers to the 2001 NBA Championship. He went from 38.3% to 69.4% with Palubinskas' tutelage. Other professional basketball players Ed has worked with are the following: Brandon Bass with Boston Celtics who is now the all time leading FT shooter in Celtic franchise History. Lauren Jackson with Seattle Storm who won the MVP of the WNBA a couple times. She improved her FT % to 90+% and won the title in 2010. Dwight Howard with the Orlando Magic. During the NBA lockout in 2011 Dwight hired Ed as his shooting coach. In just 7 days Dwight improved from 59% to 92% while being monitored by local TV sports analysts in Orlando. After Howard was traded to the Lakers he did not retain Ed's services and his percentage dropped to below 50% unfortunately.

Career highlights

Set new world record for most freethrows made in 2 minutes blindfolded-17 at the Tualatin Athletic Center in Beaverton, Oregon on July 10, 2010. This actually tied another attempt by Mike Campbell in 2009.

References

  1. ↑ "Basketball Australia Hall of Fame". Basketball Australia. Archived from the original on 2008-08-02. Retrieved 2008-09-14.
  2. ↑ "Ed Palubinskas, Australia's first basketball great". Australian Olympic Committee. Jan 1, 2000. Retrieved 2011-06-25.
  3. ↑ Guinness World Records 2010: Thousands of New Records in The Book of the Decade!, Craig Glenday, p. 456.

External links