Shaq, shots and Olympic records: Eddie Palubinskas is an Australian basketball trailblazer

Thirteen times the towering Los Angeles Laker went through the same routine. He took his three dribbles, and thirteen times he made his shot count. Perfection from the imperfect.

Palubinskas, the kid from Narrabundah College once described as Australia's ultimate offensive basketballer, knew his work was done.

O'Neal and the Lakers? Seven weeks later they would win the 2001-02 NBA championship, their third consecutive title. Palubinskas was gifted a ring for turning the imperfect shooter's fortunes around.

"I was talking to Eddie just last week about that. He was giving me some Lakers stories about Shaquille O'Neal," highly-regarded Australian basketball mentor Phil Brown said.

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"He was about a 43 per cent shooter from the free throw line which, in basketball, is atrocious. By the time they were in the playoffs and ultimately won the NBA championship, Shaquille was shooting in the high 60s by the end of that season.

"That's pretty incredible, the impact he has had."

It goes some way to explaining Palubinskas' deserved, if not overdue, addition to the ACT Sport Hall of Fame after being nominated by WNBL championship coach Brown.

Palubinskas resides in Louisiana and will be inducted as a full member of the Hall of Fame during the Canberra Sport Awards on December 2, held via a virtual ceremony amid COVID-19 restrictions.

The now 71-year-old was a trailblazer for Australian basketball. His career began as a teenage boy in Canberra playing in a team of Lithuanian immigrants.

Lindsay Gaze once referred to Palubinskas as "the best offensive player in the history of Australia". A glance through the record books shows why.

He was the leading scorer at the 1976 Olympic Games, setting a then-record for most points scored in a single Olympics with 269.

"Everyone would be familiar with Andrew Gaze, Shane Heal, Ian Davies. Eddie Palubinskas was the first," Brown said.

"He was the second-leading scorer in Munich in 1972 at the Games when he was 21 years old. Four years later in Montreal at the 1976 Olympics, he was the leading scorer for the whole tournament there.

"He was a phenomenal scorer and he still wins shooting competitions. He's 71 and he still wins free throw shooting competitions in the US today."

But it was coaching where Palubinskas made his mark. From coaching Shaq to Lauren Jackson to Dwight Howard, and even handball in Saudi Arabia, Palubinskas refined techniques like few others could.

"He's taken the science behind the craft of shooting the basketball to a level I don't think anyone else in the world does. He's written a book on it, which is an incredible book," Brown said.

"When you speak with Eddie, and talk about shooting and the science behind it, it's pretty incredible what he has done.

"The Australian Opals used Eddie prior to winning the World Cup in 2006 and again before the Olympics in 2012. Eddie is just an absolute specialist in that space."

Brown grew up in Ainslie and first picked up a basketball when it was "a very minor sport". Little did he know at the time, an NBA draftee was already paving the way across the globe.

"I didn't really hear the Eddie Palubinskas story until I was a teenager in high school. I learnt this Palubinskas guy went to Narrabundah high school, he grew up in Canberra and was the leading scorer at the Olympic Games," Brown said.

"I was amazed at this story coming out of Canberra that basically impacted world basketball at that Olympic level. Hearing his stories about how he trained in his backyard, where his dad put in half a court, he spent hours developing his craft. He was well ahead of his time.

"For this guy to do what he did back in the 60s and 70s, it's just a fantastic story in itself."

The ACT Sport Hall of Fame's class of 2021 will be inducted at the CBR Sport Awards, which will be held as an online event on Thursday, December 2. Register to attend by clicking here.

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