CSNbbs

Tonight, Earl Boykins was awarded the Outstanding Young Alumni Award at the 47th Annual Alumni Awards Banquet. Charley Batch was honored the same award back in 2005.

Quote:Outstanding Young Alumnus/Alumna Award

This award is presented to alumni whose achievements have been dignified by personal honors bestowed upon them by their peers and who have demonstrated the worth of their education through their post-college achievements. Generally, recipients have been graduates of EMU for less than 10 years.

Here is the write up for his profile

Quote:Earl A. Boykins (’98), guard for the Charlotte Bobcats, began his professional basketball career when he joined the NBA in 1999. At EMU, Boykins played four seasons with the men's basketball team and still holds Eastern Michigan’s career record for assists with 624 and ranks second on the scoring list with 2,211 points. Boykins has continued to debunk preconceived notions about height requirements for basketball players while developing a reputation based solely on his abilities on the court. At 5’5”, Boykins is the shortest player in the history of the NBA to score over 30 points in a game—twice reaching his career high of 36 points. He finished in the top five in voting three straight seasons for the NBA’s Sixth Man of the Year Award; competed twice in NBA All-Star Weekend, finishing third in the Skills Challenge in 2003-04 and second in 2004-05; and Jan. 18, 2005, set a then-NBA record for scoring in overtime when he tallied 15 points against the Seattle SuperSonics. Boykins’ record-breaking accomplishments make him a well-recognized and respected player in the Association and an inspiration to a multitude of fans.

I was fortunately able to quickly meet him and get a quick photo with him before he left. Congrats Earl!!!!!

Great pic Clyde! Yes Earl has been an inspiration to many kids who have been told you are too small to play basketball. He brought alot of positive attention to EMU as a school and a hoops program.

I still have the Sports Illustrated Magazine with the article about him from 1997. It was great. Nice to see that he's still in the NBA.

Instead of starting a new thread about Earl Boykins, I thought I'd attach it to an old one about him.

Earl just signed a contract to play in Italy.

"Cats' Boykins latest NBA player to bolt for Europe, signs $3.5 million deal"

".....Boykins' Cleveland-based agent, Mark Termini, announced Tuesday that Boykins has signed a one-year contract with Italy's Virtus Bologna. The deal, according to Termini, is worth more than $3.5 million for the 2008-09 season, which would make the 5-foot-5 guard Italy's highest-paid player...."

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=3520898

Wish Earl the best, he certainly provided me with a lot of hoops excitement during his tenure at EMU. Does anyone know if he has or is willing to help the current staff recruit? Especially a PG!

I know at the dinner he was talking to Coach Ramsey a lot and was also talking to a lot of other people Ramsey knew.

Dennis,

From Italy?

When he was in the NBA he probably was so busy travelling that he never saw h.s. games.

Anyway, where are his loyalties? EMU? Gary Waters? Ben Braun? (I'd assume it would be Waters).

When NBA players help it is usually $. I doubt they do much otherwise with their alma maters in terms of day to day type contact.

James helping Akron is a VERY unusual case because it is his hometown and former h.s. teammates played for the Zips. VERY rare. But James' mother still lives in Akron hence James still has a lot of Roots in Akron.

I assume Earl has little roots in Ypsilanti. (CLE is his hometown).

(likewise, I think you grossly overestimate Thomas' day to day contact with Lansing area high schools - he's been out of high school for 20 years).

I see it as a real reach.

My understanding is that Earl does help somewhat with recruiting. Also, while Thomas played 20 years ago, he has relatives, AAU connections, parents that he grew up as etc. He is still involved in Lansing area Hoops.

You never know, the teams pre game meals could include a lot more pasta and pizza if Earl helps recruit an Italian stallion.