The tallest player in Dartmouth history at 7-foot-1, Palmer averaged 10.4 points and 5.3 rebounds over 87 games for the Big Green thanks to a soft shooting touch, hitting 55 percent from the floor and 77 percent at the foul line. But his biggest contribution came on defense as a rim protector, blocking 225 shots in his career, which still ranks third in Ivy League history 30 years later. Palmer also swatted 12 shots as a sophomore against Harvard in the new Leede Arena’s dedication game, setting another Ancient Eight record that still stands today. After earning All-Ivy League Second Team honors as a junior, he produced 16.6 points and 6.5 rebounds a night to go with 85 blocks as a senior captain and was selected First Team All-Ivy for the 1989-90 season. 
 
Palmer parlayed his successful Big Green career into a professional one that lasted over a decade in the NBA and overseas. The 33^rd overall pick in the 1990 NBA Draft, he played for a season each with the Utah Jazz and the Dallas Mavericks before spending 11 years in far-reaching places such as Italy, Spain, Argentina, France and Germany.
 
After concluding his professional playing career in 2003, Palmer remained in Europe to found three organizations focused on athletes’ rights: SP.IN, a players association for professional league in Germany; the European Elite Athletes Association, a federation of European athlete associations representing 34 organizations and over 25,000 top athletes; and the World Players Association, a global platform of player associations and unions with affiliates representing approximately 100,000 elite athletes from over 60 countries worldwide. In December of 2014, he joined the NBA Players Association as Deputy Executive Director of International Development and Marketing. In August 2018, Palmer returned to Hanover as the Director of Dartmouth for Life, designing, building, and implementing career, family, and wellness programming for alumni and their families.
 
Dartmouth has become quite the family affair for Palmer as his wife, Sandy Kopanon Palmer ‘91, two of his three children, two brothers, father, grandfather, two uncles and four cousins all graduated from or currently attend the institution.