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Can I Keep My Jersey?: 11 Teams, 5 Countries, and 4 Years in My Life as a Basketball Vagabond | 
 enlarge | Author: Paul Shirley
Publisher: Villard
Category: Book
List Price: $15.00
Buy New: $8.46
You Save: $6.54 (44%)
New (34) Used (9) from $7.87
Rating:  43 reviews
Sales Rank: 22584
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 336
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.5
Dimensions (in): 7.9 x 5.1 x 0.9
ISBN: 0345495705
Dewey Decimal Number: 796
EAN: 9780345495709
ASIN: 0345495705
Publication Date: March 25, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: Brand new item. Over 3.5 million customers served. Order now. Selling online since 1995. Order with confidence. Code: B20081006210455T
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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.
From the Hardcover edition.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 38 more reviews...
 Paul Shirley's life as a Basketball crybaby August 2, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
I read a few of the reviews of this book and knew there would be some whining but come on! Every other paragraph was the author crying about religion in basketball and how he can not relate to any basketball players and this and that. I seriously thought about putting the book down halfway through it (when he was on the Bulls) but i decided to finish it. Bad move by my part. A word of advice, if you want to read 315 pages about a tall, i guess semi-talented (18 games- 1.8 points, 1.1 rebounds, 6.7 minutes)crybaby then pick this book up. I strongly recommend not getting this book
Flagrant Technical Foul: Arrogance and Whining July 23, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
If you want to get a well-written book about playing basketball overseas, pick up "Paddy on the Hardwood" by Rus Bradburd. Paul Shirley "coulda been a contender" for author of a really good inside the sport book. But he lets his cynicism and narcissism get in the way at almost every turn. His journeys could have provided grist for some really interesting stories about parts of professional basketball that outsiders rarely get to glimpse. Instead, he uses them as an opportunity to cry and whine about how unjust life has been to him; a young, healthy and apparently intelligent young man. Too bad.
 No sugar-coating here. July 14, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
Disclaimer -- Paul is my cousin, so of course I am going to tell you to go buy this book, right now!! In fact, buy three copies. Keep one in plastic to sell on eBay in 20 years, give one to a friend, and read the third. :)
That being said, this book gave me an unequaled insider's view of life in the NBA. Paul pulls few punches, tells it like it is, and doesn't worry about making friends with his assessment of players, coaches, and fans.
I enjoyed his wry observations on life, though I did at times wonder why he keeps up with this lifestyle when it seems he isn't getting too much joy out of it (he does "sardonic" better than "enthusiastic").
Overall, though, I was entertained and captured by this rare view inside the locker room. And I was relieved that he didn't skewer his extended family on the pages. :)
 for the cynic and the pessimist June 10, 2008
For all those people who didn't like this book because of the so-called "whining" and complaining - this book isn't really for them. I suggest they go to the self-help section of the bookstore and grab something there . . . or perhaps join the Oprah Book Club. For the people who've enjoyed Paul Shirley's blog over the years, you'd expect this book to be full of negative comments and complaints . . . as Paul himself said in the book, he writes better when the chips are down (p.54 - Jan. 12 entry) so y'all have been warned early on . . . However, as a pessimist and a cynic myself - I really didn't see his whining and complaining as such . . . it really is just an honest observation and being a basketball player that travels halfway around the globe - those observations are truly interesting and his witty remarks makes the book entertaining as well. It's well-written and would recommend the book to almost anybody (except Oprah and Dr. Phil).
 cheered me up May 13, 2008
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
I was sick and looking for something to take my mind off it when I picked up Can I keep My Jersey. It's the story of Paul Shirley, a basketball player who's really, really good. He's never gonna be a NBA star but he keeps trying and between NBA stints and his experiences with the CBA, the ABA and the European leagues this is a funny book. It has a few flaws of course, Shirley is a horrible snob and there were times when I found myself wishing that somebody when give him a good smack in the mouth but then all would be forgiven when he'd tell another story about the ridiculous aspects of life on the edge of the NBA.
The chapter on his nightmare trip to Russia--horrible place--- is worth the price of the book alone. It's not the greatest sports memoir ever written but it's amusing and I found myself hoping that eventually Shirley gives up chasing the impossible dream and either starts a writing career or falls back on that engineering degree of his.
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