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

~ (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
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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 (48 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #181,494 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

26 of 33 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...

11 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Self-indulgent and disappointing, February 18, 2008

By	J. Avila (St Albans, England) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I have just finished reading Paul Shirley's book. The verdict in one word? Disappointing.

To be fair, Shirley provides some great behind-the-scenes anecdotes from NBA life that are both interesting and amusing. For that he gets two stars. However, beyond that, it gets pretty ugly.

Firstly, the writing itself is poor. Shirley goes out of his way to use large words and convoluted sentences, presumably in an attempt to make himself seem intelligent. He fails. He simply comes off as a try-hard who needs to go cold turkey and discard his thesaurus once and for all. Bizarrely, despite all his efforts to sound smart, he still manages to frequently use words that are grammatically incorrect.

Secondly (and most annoying) are his long parethetical rants / observations. Somebody needs to tell Paul to go easy on the use of one line sentences followed by full paragraphs of bracketed comment. Used once or twice (e.g. Bill Simmons-style), it can be effective. Used time after time, it's just awful to read.

Thirdly, not only is the writing rubbish, but Shirley also appears to be an A-grade prat. For all his self-deprecation about being an arrogant jerk, it turns out that Shirley is simply that - an arrogant jerk.
If one was to delete all paragraphs which he spends needlessly denigrating or ridiculing other people, the book would be half the size it is. I find it particularly galling when he tees off on the fans who pay his wage. Perhaps if he spent a little less time focusing on how superior he thinks he is to other people, and a little more actually playing basketball (even if the location isn't quite up to his lofty standards), he wouldn't be yet another washed-up stiff.

I used to enjoy Paul Shirley's early columns, but having read his book, he now annoys me. The only thing that annoys me more is that I wasted $15 on his overrated, overhyped book.