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Earl Antoine Boykins (born June 2 1976 in
Cleveland, Ohio|Cleveland, Ohio) is currently a
point guard for the Denver Nuggets in the NBA.

He played college basketball at Eastern Michigan
University from 1995 to 1998. He earned
All-Mid-American Conference first team honors in
his junior and senior year. He holds the career
record for assist (basketball)|assists at his alma
mater.

Boykins has played in the NBA with the Cleveland
Cavaliers, New Jersey Nets, Orlando Magic, Los
Angeles Clippers, Golden State Warriors, as well
as Nuggets. He also spent two years in the
Continental Basketball Association|CBA. At 5'5"
(1.65 m), Boykins is the shortest active NBA
player and the second shortest player in NBA
history behind Muggsy Bogues, who was 5'3". Earl
Boykins weighs only 135 pounds, and it is rumored
that he can bench press an extreme amount of
weight. Some have said 515 pounds (which is
obviously outlandish) but more commonly 300 pounds
is what gets passed around in rumors.  

Despite his lack of height, Boykins finally earned
a guaranteed contract after bouncing around the
league and getting few playing minutes for many
years. He is a very valuable point guard often
coming off the bench to inject energy into his
teams offense.  He is one of the quickest guards
in the league, and he has even quicker shooting
trigger, often taking shots in clutch last-second
situations, and making them under extreme
confidence. On January 18 2005, Boykins set an NBA
record for scoring in Overtime sports)|overtime
when he tallied 15 points.

Boykins' NBA career has solidified in recent years
in part due to the recent change in rules allowing
zone defense, as many teams earlier feared playing
Boykins (since he was so small) should opponents
try to post him up. But with zone defense, very
few situations arise where Boykins is isolated
alone defending a taller player in the paint area.
And since other taller point guards in the league
rarely have post-up moves in their offensive
repertoire, the belief that at 5'5" Boykins is a
defensive liability has been shown to be false.
 
Earl has one son named Earl, Jr.

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