Milton Palacio joins Vancouver team

In the early 1980’s a very strange phenomenon emerged in Belize City and its environs. Because the nation’s first over-the-air TV station — channel nine — chose to rebroadcast the signal of superstation WGN in Chicago, an entire generation of the old capital’s residents became loyal fans of the Chicago Cubs — one of the sorriest teams in baseball. Fast forward to the dawn of a new millennium and it appears that once again, thanks to the marvels of technology, Belize is about to adopt a new home team. This time the sport is basketball and the team is the cellar dwelling Vancouver Grizzlies, perhaps the losingest franchise in the entire NBA. Why the Grizzlies? Despite being the most distant NBA city from Belize Vancouver is also home to an athlete most dear to Belizean hearts. It has been confirmed that Milton Palacio, star of the 1998 CARICOM Champions and college stand out at Colorado State has been named to the twelve man active roster of the Grizzlies, who play their opening game tonight against the powerful Portland Trailblazers. Palacio reported to training camp as an undrafted free agent and through his legendary determination — plus a few injuries to key players — earned a spot on the squad. The six foot three inch rookie will play point guard behind starters Mike Bibby and Brent Price… and while the Belizean will not start, he should see at least a few minutes of playing time. If you want a chance to see marvelous Milton and the less-than-ferocious Grizzlies tune in to Channel Five around nine thirty tonight as we’ll try to pick up the game on satellite. As for our late replay of the news, usually shown at ten, we’ll move it to nine for tonight only.