In his 12th NBA season, Cleveland native Earl Boykins is having the last laugh on his doubters.
View full size"I think the longer that I've played, more and more people are starting to appreciate the way I play the game," says Earl Boykins (driving past Cleveland's Ramon Sessions on Friday). "People see it, but they don't want to believe it."CHICAGO -- Earl Boykins still can't believe it when he sees his name on the Milwaukee Bucks roster and the number 12 under the heading "years in the league."
"It's different now when I look at the game notes and see double digits by my name," he said. "I could remember when I was a rookie and I'd say, 'Man those guys are old -- playing that long.' Now I'm the older guy."
Boykins, the former Cleveland Central Catholic and Eastern Michigan star, is 34 now, although he looks almost exactly the same as he did his rookie year with the Cavs in 1998-99 -- a fact that has not escaped a teammate.
"My face hasn't changed," admitted the 5-5 Boykins. "Keyon Dooling asked me, 'Man, what's wrong with you? You're the only guy who's never aged. Most of us are losing our hairlines or going bald. You've got the same haircut. You don't ice. You don't stretch. What's wrong with you?'"
Boykins laughs, long and hard. Truly, he is getting the last laugh.
For a player who was never drafted and who has had to prove himself over and over again in the NBA, he is now tied with Spud Webb and trails only Calvin Murphy (13) and Muggsy Bogues (14) for number of seasons by players 5-9 or shorter. Only Bogues, at 5-3, was shorter.
There is absolutely no drop off in his game, either. His nine points and four assists in Friday's victory over the Cavs meshes with his season averages of 8.1 and 2.6. He has played an increased role since Brandon Jennings went out with a left foot injury that required surgery in mid-December.
He has had some of his biggest games in the Bucks' biggest victories -- 22 at the Lakers on Dec. 21, 19 at Sacramento on Dec. 23, and 26 against Dallas on Jan. 1. Milwaukee is 5-0 when he scores 17 or more points -- in those games he led the team with 20.6 points on 56.7 percent shooting (38-67), 50 percent from 3-point range (9-18) and 90 percent from the line (18-20).
Boykins, whose dad carried him to games in his gym bag when Boykins was a baby, has never doubted for one minute he could -- and would -- be a pro.
"I remember I was 9 years old when I decided I was going to be in the NBA," Boykins said. "From that point on, every decision I made, as far as my life, has been around making it to the NBA."
Michael Olowokandi, now retired, was the top pick in the draft in 1998, but Boykins has more career points (5,570-4,135) and games (615-500). Even though his career has spanned 12 years, Boykins says there are still doubters.
"Earlier in my career, the biggest misconception was that my career was going to be based on speed," he said. "I think I had a lot of people fooled for a long time. They just used me as a guy who was faster than everyone. Now I think the longer that I've played, more and more people are starting to appreciate the way I play the game. People see it, but they don't want to believe it. I've played the same way everywhere I've been.
"I think my career is based on coaches. I always knew that in order for me to have a chance in this league, I had to have a coach that was not confident in me but confident in his ability to coach the game. Even getting recruited in college, whichever coach chose to let me play was taking a risk.
"Even at this level, my ability to play is not based on me. It's based on whether the coach has enough confidence in his coaching ability to not worry about what other people say. I'm rare in that regard. Most careers are based on what a player can actually do, whereas my career has never been based on that."
He credits former Golden State Eric Musselman with giving him his first real chance in 2002-03.
"He was the first coach to say, 'OK, I don't care about the height, I don't care about the size. I'm going to give you the ball and you're going to prove whether you can play,'" Boykins said.
"He not only gave me the ball, but he gave me the ball in the fourth quarter. That's what separated me from other players -- not only can he play during the game, but in crunch time he not only can play but he can win games. That's where my career changed."
A three-year contract with Denver followed, but he was traded to Milwaukee during the 2006-07 season and then kicked around with stints in Charlotte, Washington and even Italy for a season. He did think he'd return to Cleveland for a third time about four seasons ago, but instead the Cavs used a guard corps that included Daniel Gibson, Larry Hughes, Damon Jones and Eric Snow.
"I thought I would be a Cavalier and I would have a chance to play with LeBron [James] and help win a championship," Boykins said. "I guess they felt their point guard situation was good enough and they decided not to bring me in. I don't hold a grudge. If someone feels that what they have is better than I am, I never take it personally.
"Whenever I've played the Cavs, it was always, 'Do you really believe these guys are better basketball players? Or are they just taller?' I think it came down to I wasn't tall enough to be a Cavalier. I think it was just that simple."
Boykins said he wasn't surprised James left.
"I think he became more frustrated than anything," Boykins said. "Once he believed he couldn't win, it was over. There wasn't anything anyone else could do."
Nor is he surprised at the Cavs' struggles.
"Not only do you lose your star player, you lose your leader, you lose both your centers," he said. "The two toughest positions to fill in the NBA are point guard and center. When you lose your point guard and your center in the same season, it's hard to win."
So James was the point guard?
"Forget the labels," Boykins said. "If you have the ball and you're making the decisions, you're the point guard."
Boykins has not made any decisions about how long he wants to play. Because he played little in his early seasons and has avoided injuries, he thinks he can continue to play for quite some time and then maybe he'll be able to accomplish the one thing that has eluded him so far.
"The only thing left for me to do is win," said Boykins, who has lost three times in the first round of the playoffs, with each series going five games. "I want to win bad."
Source: http://www.cleveland.com/cavs/index.ssf/2011/01/in_his_12th_nba_season_earl_bo.html
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