Earl Boykins
Director of Student-Athlete Development
2nd Year at Arkansas
Eastern Michigan, 1998
Earl Boykins, a 13-year NBA veteran, is in his second season as Arkansas men’s basketball Director of Student-Athlete Development.
Boykins played for head coach Eric Musselman with the Golden State Warriors during the 2002-03 season and while Musselman was an assistant coach for the Orlando Magic.
Since his retirement from the NBA, Boykins was the head coach at Douglas County (Colo.) High School as well as running the Boykins Basketball Academy in Denver. In addition, he founded non-profit “Boykins Kids” and has been a lecturer on leadership.
At Arkansas, Boykins not only serves as a mentor to the student-athletes, but he oversees the players’ academic progress as well as coordinating community service projects fo the program.
Boykins, the second-shortest player in the NBA history at 5-5, dished out 2,092 assists and scored 5,791 points over his career. In fact, he is the shortest player in NBA history to score at least 30 points in a game when he poured in 32 in a 117-109 Denver Nuggets’ win over Detroit on Nov. 11, 2004.
An undrafted free agent out of college, Boykins played for New Jersey Nets (1999), Cleveland Cavaliers (1999 and 2000) Orlando Magic (1999), Los Angeles Clippers (2000-02), Golden State Warriors (2002-03), Denver Nuggets (2003-06, 2007), Toronto Raptors (2006-07), Milwaukee Bucks (2007; 2010-11), Charlotte Bobcats (2007-08), Washington Wizards (2009-10) and Houston Rockets (2012).
In the middle of his NBA career, Boykins played one season (2008-09) in Italy and was the highest-paid player in the Italian League. Boykins lived up to the hype as he led Virtus Bologna to the 2009 EuroChallenge Cup Championship.
Boykins is arguably the best player to ever come out of Eastern Michigan University. His number (#11) was retired by EMU in 2011 and he is a member of the school’s E-Club Hall of Fame (Class of 2013).
As a senior with the Eagles, Boykins was named All-American honorable mention and he was recipient of the 1998 Frances Pomeroy Naismith Award, which is awarded to the nation’s best collegiate player under six feet tall. The previous season, Boykins led Team USA to the 1997 World University Games gold medal and was subsequently tabbed the USA Basketball Male Athlete of the Year.
Boykins helped the Eagles win two MAC Tournament championships and they made four straight MAC Tournament championship game appearances. In both 1996 and 1998, EMU advanced to the NCAA Tournament. In 1996, the Eagles pulled off a monumental upset, defeating Duke (75-60), behind 23 points, five assists and four steals from Boykins.
He also earned All-MAC first team honors in 1997 and 1998, and, during his senior campaign, he was the second-leading scorer in the entire country at 26.8 points per game.
Boykins, who attended Cleveland Central Catholic HS, was named the Cleveland Plain Dealer’s high school Player of the Decade for the 1990’s among players from the newspaper’s area of Northeast Ohio.
Boykins is a 1998 graduate of Eastern Michigan with a degree in communications.
