Paul Shirley pens hilarious hoop tale in new book

Paul Shirley first showcased his writing skills with a blog, now he pens a tale in a book about his adventerous basketball life. Michael Pimentel/Icon SMI

Near the end of the book Can I Keep My Jersey?, the author, Paul Shirley, has just been released from the Phoenix Suns for the second time and has no idea what he will do next. "I have been asked several times how I deal with this level of ignorance regarding my own future," Shirley writes. "I don't really have an answer, except to say that I am getting used to it."

That seemed to indicate Shirley might have finally had enough of schlepping around the world in search of marginal opportunities to play basketball. Yet, when I spoke to him by phone last week, Shirley was in his apartment in Kansas City preparing to schlep back to Spain for a second tour of duty with a team based on the island of Menorca. "I leave for Spain in two days, and I'm in the middle of having my kitchen redone," he told me. "I'm in complete chaos all the time."

If you didn't include Can I Keep My Jersey? on your summer reading list, I encourage you to add it immediately. The book is a journal/travelogue recounting three years in Shirley's life, during which time he enjoyed brief stints with five NBA teams while suffering through longer periods with teams from Greece, Spain and Russia, not to mention obscure American outposts like Yakima, Wash. (Of that assignment Shirley writes, "Plan A: making the team with the [Atlanta] Hawks. On through Plan J, which was to play basketball anywhere other than Yakima, Wash. I think Plan L might be to take up goat herding.")

Shirley's book is hilarious -- I laughed out loud about every third page -- but it's about much more than just basketball. "I know there's a giant basketball and a lot of jerseys on the cover, but it's really about my introduction to the world," he says. Shirley's writing skills are especially impressive considering he is a 29-year-old jock who majored in mechanical engineering at Iowa State. The book grew out of lengthy emails Shirley began writing to friends and family as he embarked upon his professional career. When biding his time at the end of the Suns' bench during the 2004-05 season, one of the team's media reps asked Shirley if he would be willing to write a blog for the Suns' Web site. "I don't think they had any idea I had already built up this shtick," he says. "It was easy for me. I could do it in 45 minutes compared to the monstrosities I was spewing forth to my friends."

Shirley's missives quickly developed a cult following on the web, and they caught the eye of an editor at Random House. Without knowing of Shirley's previous writing, the editor contacted Shirley's agent and asked if Shirley had any interest in doing a book. After signing for an advance of $85,000, Shirley spent a year reworking the stuff he had already written, then holed himself up in a hotel room in Los Angeles for three weeks to crank out a final draft. The book was published in May, and though it hasn't hit any best-seller lists Shirley said it is already in its sixth printing.

The tone of the book is so self-deprecating that it borders on self-loathing, so it's no surprise Shirley downplays his obvious writing talents. "I kind of get an 'out' because I'm a basketball player. It's impressive to people that this guy who should be a moron can churn out a book," he says. "In fact, I feel like something of a hack because I'm not one of those people who as a kid would sit down and write stories. I used to read a lot, but it never occurred to me to write anything down, which is really a credit to our public education system."

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