Remember this game? I haven’t been on this beat for very long, but this one sticks out in my mind from before I was here. There was no way a guy that small could play that big.
Well he very MVP in that Denver win, Earl Boykins, is now a member of the Washington Wizards, who have added the 33-year-old, 5-foot-5, 133-pound point guard to help alleviate a need created by injuries to Randy Foye (right ankle sprain), Mike James (broken left hand) and Javaris Crittenton (right foot surgery). Foye is listed as day to day and could be kept out of Saturday’s game against Detroit in order to make sure he’s healthy for Cleveland’s visit next week. There are also indications that James could be on the mend faster than the initial prognosis of 4-5 weeks. We’ll know more about that next week. (By the way, it will be interesting to hear how Gilbert Arenas is after deciding only that the last minute to play on Tuesday at Miami. He was all but set to miss the game with what is being described as calf soreness.)
Boykins is the second shortest player in NBA history after 5-3 Muggsy Bogues, who also played for the Wizards. After three and a half years in Denver, Boykins went on to Milwaukee and Charlotte, where he last played during the 2007-08 season.
His career averages in the NBA: 9.4 points, 3.4 assists, 1.4 rebounds, 0.5 turnovers. The 2006-07 season, which included his big game against Washington, was Boykins’s best in the league. He averaged 15.2 points and 4.3 assists for the Nuggets before being traded midseason with Julius Hodge to Milwaukee for Steve Blake.
Boykins spent the 2008-09 with Vitrus Bologna in Italy, averaging 14.6 points, 3.6 assists and 1.7 steals in 35 games.
To make room on the roster, the Wizards waived forward Paul Davis, a former training camp invitee who had 5 points and 3 assists over 8 minutes of action in two games.
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