Earl Boykins Biography, Net Worth, Height, Other Interesting Facts

The possibility that a basketball player is shorter than 6 feet is very slim but despite this, there have been players of this game who played professional basketball who were shorter than 6 ft. Earl Boykins, a former American professional basketball player, is one of such people. In fact, he is reported to be the second-shortest player in NBA history.

Keep reading to learn more about how Boykins came to be a well-known basketball player when he had certain physical odds stacked against him.

Earl Boykins Biography

This basketball player was born Earl Antione Boykins on the 2nd of June, 1967, he was born in Cleveland, Ohio to Charlene Horton and Willie Williams. His mother is 4’11 tall while his father is 5’8 tall. As their offspring, he inherited their average height. Earl is one of the two children his parents had; the other child is his sister Charnella who is taller than him by two inches.

As a child, his father noticed that Earl had an interest in basketball and because of his son’s diminutive stature he was able to sneak him into the gym by hiding him in his gym bag. Most of Earl’s childhood was spent with his father and the other men he played with inside that gym. It was in that gym that he learned how to play with much bigger players, a skill he employed even as an adult who played professional basketball.

For his high school education, Boykins attended Cleaveland Central Catholic High School and was part of the school’s basketball team. At one of his games as a high school student, a recruiter mistook him for a ball boy because the idea that a person of his height would be a player did not seem plausible.

Earl Boykins was very successful at playing high school basketball and by the time he went off to Eastern Michigan University where he also played the game, he was successful as well. Boykins was at this university from 1994 to 1998; after he left college no team was willing to sign him up during the NBA draft of that year. But this did not deter him.

He mostly got short term contracts with different teams but the big break in his career came from the Denver Nuggets. They were willing to sign a five-year deal with him on a $13.7 million contract. In the course of his 14-year career, Boykins was mostly a free agent who had the ability to choose whatever team he wanted to play for and he even played in the Italian League.

He retired from playing basketball professionally in 2012. Earl Boykins currently works as the coach of the Douglas County High school basketball team located in Colorado.

Earl Boykins is married to a woman called Kenyan and both of them have a son together, Earl who was born in 2000.

Earl Boykins Net worth

Earl Boykins has had a successful career in basketball both as a player and as a coach. His net worth of $6 million is financial proof of the success he has had. When he played with the Italian league, he signed a one-year $3.5 million contract with Vitrus Bologna making him the highest-earning player in the league, this was one of the things that helped with the boost his earnings.

Read Also: Oliver Miller Bio: Facts To Know About The Former Basketball Star

Height

One of the most significant things about Earl Boykins is his height; by the time he started to play professionally, he was just 5 feet 5 inches. In the history of the NBA, he is the second shortest person to play professionally.

Other Interesting Fact

• Despite not getting picked in the NBA draft, Earl Boykins managed to play in ten of the thirty NBA teams
• When Boykins played college basketball, he was in the position of the Point Guard which he continued to play in his entire career. Playing this position in the team he was able to provide 624 assists. For this feat, he holds the highest number of assists in the history of the school’s basketball team.
• He can impressively bench press twice his weight, he weighs 61 kg and can bench press 122kg.
• When he played in the Italian League he got in trouble with his team for traveling back to the United States during the season. The reason for his trip was to see his son, who was sick.

Complete profile of Earl Boykins