Here's a teaser for an upcoming documentary about 5'5", 133-pound former NBA player Earl Boykins called A Big Man's Game: The Earl Boykins Story.
Boykins, a lights-out scorer in college (SI called him 'The Best Little Player In America'), played for 10 teams (twice for two teams) during his 12-year NBA career. Yes, you read that correctly: Boykins is 5’5” and played 12 years in a league where the average career is 4!
His best seasons were in Denver, where he averaged over 10 points per game for three and a half seasons, including a career-best 15.2 in 2006. Yes, you read that correctly: Boykins is 5’5” and averaged 15 points!
The best-scoring month of his career came in December of that 2006 season, when he scored 20+ points in nine of the first 10 games and 30 and 36 later that month.
Yes, you read that correctly: Boykins is 5’5” and put up 36 in an NBA game. If that wasn’t impressive enough, he would score 30+ on 70+ shooting. Here are a few of his most impressive games.
- 36 PTS, 9 AST (63% FG)
- 36 PTS (65% FG)
- 33 PTS, 8 AST, 1 TO
- 32 PTS (73% FG)
- 29 PTS, 7 REB, 6 AST in 29 MINS
- 28 PTS, 7 AST (73% FG)
Boykins is now a head coach at Castle Rock Douglas County High School... where every player is taller than he is.
And here's my favorite Boykins highlight, which came against the 6’11 Tim Duncan.
And here's my favorite image of Boykins. Yes, it's photoshopped, but it had gullible people on the internet really thinking a soon-to-be-fired NBATV worker put this on the screen while Boykins was going off on the Lakers.
