I was in school in March of 1996 the first time I saw him play. I loved basketball, but even though my teacher had allowed us to tune the television to CBS for March Madness, I was mostly disinterested because CBS was showing Duke vs. Eastern Michigan. Though I lived in Orlando, Florida, I was a proud Marylander at heart, and a big Terrapins fan; which is to say that I hated the Duke Blue Devils; which meant that I was about to be disappointed. After all, to that point in time, Duke hadn’t lost a first round game of the NCAA tournament since 1955.

It was to my delight that 5-foot-5 Earl Boykins of the Eagles notched 23 points and five assists as they went on to shock the college basketball world in a convincing upset win of 75-60. Sharing his height (at the time) and knack for handling the rock, I became fascinated with the diminutive point guard, instantly declaring him my favorite college player. Although the Eagles weren’t on TV much, I followed Boykins’ games and stats whenever I could, and would always tell people that he would one day make the NBA.

Earl Boykins did indeed make the NBA, but not through the conventional route. Due to questions about his size and ability to effectively defend bigger NBA players, he wasn’t drafted and signed to a guaranteed contract like most college stars. So he had to prove his worth again and again through a series of 10-day deals and short-term contracts, as year after year he was signed and waived, signed and waived again. But something happened to me while Boykins was struggling to find his place in the league: I stopped caring. You could say that I outgrew my affection for small guards with big hearts, and into big guards with long wingspans and high-efficiency. I traded in Boykins and Rafer Alston – college stars I once adored – for Penny Hardaway and Kobe Bryant, NBA stars. I simply moved on.

While I would no longer trumpet his merits as an NBA player, I quietly still wanted him to succeed. I was happy, even proud, when he secured his first multi-year deal before the 2003-04 season with the Denver Nuggets, and I always smiled when he would have big games (like when he became the smallest player ever to top 30 points). I smiled, too, when he was being interviewed as a member of those Nuggets and said, “I don’t look at my height as a disadvantage. I’m unique.”

I admired the fact he viewed his stature as an advantage that set him apart in a positive way from his taller teammates and opponents. Even still, I always believed that Boykins’ time in the NBA would be, forgive me, short. Small, quick guards have historically suffered sharp declines as they approach their 30s – when their quickness leaves them, all they are left with is the small. Almost four years ago to the day, when he was traded by the Nuggets at the age of 31 and in the last year of his deal, I assumed that his time in the NBA was up.

Despite the fact that he was signed to mid-year deals in each of the next two seasons, I wrote it off as the case of an injury-depleted team (or suspension-depleted in the case of the 2009-2010 Washington Wizards) in need of bench scoring. But he performed well enough in those stints that, to my surprise, last summer the Milwaukee Bucks, a team with playoff aspirations, saw him as a solution to some of their offensive woes, and inked him for the upcoming season.

Although given only sporadic playing time early in the year, with the Bucks off to a slow start and several key back-court players either injured or under-performing, 34-year-old Boykins has again been called upon for production. And he is again finding unique ways to make an impact. Beginning with a blowout win in LA against the Lakers, he has averaged over 15 points in 25 minutes per game in the last nine games in which he has played (he was suspended for one).

On the season as a whole, he is having one of the finer seasons that a short guard in his 30s has ever had. In doing so, he has played a roll in keeping his team afloat in the race to make the playoffs. While the standings show Milwaukee on the outside-looking-in of the current playoff picture in the East, their schedule gets much easier from here (they have to date played by far the league’s toughest schedule), and they can expect Brandon Jennings and Carlos Delfino to soon return from injury. Already boasting one of the league’s best defenses, their returning players, improved health of Andrew Bogut and John Salmons, and the fact that Scott Skiles-coached teams traditionally feature slow starts and strong finishes should combine to give the Bucks a great shot to crawl up the playoff ladder.

If their playoff push is to be successful, they will need their younger, star players like Jennings and Bogut to produce, and it is unlikely that Boykins can continue to earn such a large roll. But then again, Earl Boykins’ whole career arc has followed an unlikely course. We don’t know whether the Bucks will make the playoffs this season, how large of a roll Boykins will play, or when his career will ultimately end. All we should know is that, for as long as it continues, it will be unique.

Jason Frazier is the founder of the new site NBA Wiz and a regular contributor so Stacheketball. Folllow him on Twitter @NBA_Wiz.