Can I Keep My Jersey?: 11 Teams, 5 Countries, and 4 Years in My Life as a Basketball Vagabond (Hardcover)

by Paul Shirley (Author), Chuck Klosterman (Introduction)

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist
*Starred Review* Paul Shirley is 6 feet 10 inches tall, can play basketball well enough to hang around the fringes of the NBA, and has written one of the best three or four pro-basketball books ever, ranking right up there with Bill Bradley's Life on the Runand Bill Russell's Go Up for Glory. It takes the form of a hoopster's travelogue, as Shirley recounts tales of his gypsylike career, playing the game in such hot spots as Yakima, Washington. At each stop across five countries, he reflects on the peculiar basketball ambience of these not-always-sports-savvy locales, and he offers insight into his own sometimes eccentric but always self-aware state of mind as well as the befuddling behavior of his fellow travelers. His triumphs are relatively few but exhilarating, his disappointments frequent and potentially devastating, but he perseveres through humor and the cathartic exercise of writing about his experiences. Shirley's blog, from which much of this book is derived, is well known among hoop junkies, but this print incarnation should reach a much larger audience. Displaying deep reverence for the game and remarkable insight into those who make it their vocation, it's destined to become a classic of sports literature. Wes Lukowsky
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Product Description
He’s been called a journeyman. Even Paul wouldn’t dispute that classification. Regardless, Bill Simmons, ESPN.com’s “The Sports Guy,” has said of Paul Shirley, “We could finally have an answer to the question ‘What would it be like if one of our friends was an NBA player?”

There’s no denying that Paul Shirley is the closest thing pro basketball’s got to Odysseus. In Homeric fashion, he has logged time practically everywhere in the roundball universe, from six NBA cities to pro leagues in Spain and Greece to North America’s pro ball Siberia, the minor leagues. Hell, he’s even played in the real Siberia. And in Can I Keep My Jersey?, Shirley finally puts down roots long enough to deliver one of the great locker-room chronicles of the modern age.

With sharp elbows and an even sharper wit, Shirley–whose writings have been described as “wildly entertaining” by The Wall Street Journal–drops hilarious commentary, revealing which teams have the best cheerleaders (he’s spent many a time-out watching them ply their trade), why Christ is rapidly becoming every team’s “sixth man,” and even the best ways to get bloodstains out of your game uniform, using only an ordinary bar of soap and a hotel bathroom sink.

From sharing the court with Kobe and Shaq to perusing the food court at some mall in a bush-league burg; from taking pregame layups to getting laid out by a stray knee from an NBA power forward; from hopping a limo to the team’s charter jet to dashing to catch the van home from a B-league game in Tijuana, Shirley dishes on what it’s like to try to make it as a professional athlete. Can I Keep My Jersey? is a rollicking, thoughtful, even thought-provoking insider’s look at a pro baller’s life on the fringe. Like Jim Bouton’s Ball Four or John Feinstein’s A Season on the Brink, Shirley’s odyssey deserves to find a home on every sports fan’s bookshelf.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 336 pages
• Publisher: Villard; 1 edition (May 15, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 034549136X
• ISBN-13: 978-0345491367
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.3 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (49 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #47,060 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

26 of 32 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Paul surely writes well, May 17, 2007

By	Josh Hummert (Brooklyn, NY) - See all my reviews

As a Jayhawk, I would never in a million years have thought that I'd be writing in praise of Paul Shirley when he played for Iowa State. However, starting with his blogs as a member of the Phoenix Suns, I really came to appreciate Shirley's talent as a writer and the insight he gives into the world of professional basketball. Shirley looks at the world of basketball through the eyes of somebody who has grown up loving the game (he is, after all, from Kansas) and who happened to have the ability to play (or sit on the bench) professionally.

While Shirley's humor sometimes misses its mark, the writing is engaging and much more interesting than your typical basketball player's memoir. The effort and dedication required to become even an average division I basketball player results in a lot of sentences in basketball memoirs like, "on Tuesday I went to the gym and shot 10 thousand three pointers." Not exactly the ideal grist to create a memorable book, but Shirley has succeeded in writing a book that addresses the reality of a life in basketball while maintaining a refreshing sense of humor about it.

13 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Paul Shirley, August 10, 2007

By	T. Snyder "TS" (AZ) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Chances are the readers of "Can I Keep My Jersey?" are one of two types:

1) People who are basketball fans in general and have never read Paul Shirley before.

2) Readers who got hooked on Paul Shirley via his NBA Blog, or via Bill Simmons' columns on ESPN's Page 2. If you found this book by way of either of these methods, I'm sure you'll love it.

If you're in group 1 and you have a smart-a&#, sarcastic, dry, witty, smart sense of humor, I think you'll like Paul's writing.

I loved hearing about his experiences in foreign countries most of all. Paul gives you a look at being a complete fish out of water in places most tourists never go. If you've traveled outside the US, you'll definitely relate to some of his uncomfortable, awkward stories.

You also get a first-hand tour of the dredges of professional basketball in the USA - the CBA and the ABA. Personally, having been to the wonderful world of Yakima, Washington, I found his CBA stories about his time there to be particularly entertaining.

Again, this book isn't so much about the NBA or famous basketball players, it's about Paul's travels across the world while doing his job. I get the idea that while Paul loves playing basketball, he may not enjoy the rigmarole of playing in 3rd-world countries; it sort of seems like a paycheck for him in some points. Also, after making it into the NBA, he really brought an everyman-view to the NBA lifestyle too.

I breezed through this book. If you're in his target demographic (I am) and would enjoy reading things like blogs, I would recommend it. If you're not though, I'm not so sure...

9 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Don't waste your time - the negative reviews are right, November 16, 2007

By	Patrick Trepanier (San Diego, CA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I obviously didn't read all of the reviews or I would have never bought this book. I really am blown away by the folks here who loved this book. I have read many sports books and other memoirs and I love basketball. I think I'm pretty well rounded and so I was intrigued by the book's intro "what if one of your friends played in the NBA?"

Are you kidding me? There is NO WAY I'd want to have a friend like Paul Shirley. Not just 250 pages of whining and complaining, but this guy is just plain bitter about life. I think most people realize that their are lots of overpaid, crybaby athletes in pro sports - Shirley doesn't shed any light on this subject. Instead he just complains, complains, and then complains some more; often about inane subjects. Like Canned Tuna - I don't understand why all Spanish cuisine is so bad because it has tuna?

Shirley rarely runs into another person that he likes - and I think it's mostly because the feeling is mutual. Also bothersome were his endless rants on religion. Fine, you think it's hypocritical to talk about the Bible and then cheat on your wife. But why try to be friends with Alex Jensen if you think he belongs to a cult? The diatribes on religion were just pointless rants.

I usually finish any book I start but this one was too poorly written and negative. I'm getting on with my life and going to pay more attention to the negative reviews on Amazon now.