Paul Shirley

Paul Shirley
Player information
birthday	23rd December 1977
place of birth	Redwood City , United States
size	208 cm
position	center
college	Iowa State
NBA draft	2001 , not drafted
Jersey number	45
Clubs as active
2001–2002 Panionios Athens 2002–2003 Yakima Sun Kings 2003 Atlanta Hawks 2003 Joventut de Badalona 2003–2004 Kansas City Knights 2004 Chicago Bulls 2004 UNICS Kazan 2005 Phoenix Suns 2005 Beijing Aoshen Olympians 2007–2008 ViveMenorca 2009 Unicaja Málaga

Paul Shirley (born December 23, 1977 in Redwood City , United States ) is an American basketball player and author.

High school and college

Shirley attended Jefferson West High School near his birthplace in Redwood City, California. He then moved to Iowa State University. Although he didn't receive an athletic scholarship, he was in the starting five for three of his four years at college. His coach was initially Tim Floyd , who switched to the Chicago Bulls after two years and was replaced by Larry Eustachy .

At Iowa State he played together with the two future NBA players Jamaal Tinsley and Marcus Fizer . His greatest success at the university came in his third year of college when he and his team reached the round of eight. In his senior year he was also appointed to the “Second Team Academic All-American”.

Professional basketball player

Shirley was not elected by any team in the 2001 NBA draft , but was given the opportunity to participate in the Los Angeles Lakers training camp. However, they released him before the start of the season. Then Shirley started a tour of the basketball world, which took him to Greece, Spain, Russia and China, as well as to the smaller US leagues ABA and CBA . In 2002 he got a ten-day contract from the Atlanta Hawks , but was subsequently released. The same happened with the Chicago Bulls in 2004 . In early 2005, the Phoenix Suns signed him for the rest of the season including the playoffs.

author

During his sophomore year as a professional basketball player, Shirley began to write a kind of diary about his experiences. This became known to a wider public when Shirley published two blog entries while at the Phoenix Suns . Then he got his own blog on ESPN . The blog entries were not only about basketball, but also about a variety of other topics.

Several well-known newspapers, such as Newsweek and the Wall Street Journal , reported on Shirley's blog entries. In 2007, the publishing house Random House brought out Shirley's book "Can I keep my Jersey?", Which is based on Shirley's previous texts and recounts Shirley's career in diary form.

Haiti

In 2010, Shirley posted a blog post about the victims of the Haiti earthquake. In this he announced that he had not donated a cent to Haiti and would not do so either. He justified this with the fact that, due to the historical development of Haiti, he did not assume that they would use the money wisely. ESPN then ended the collaboration with Shirley.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ If You Rebuild It, They Will Come, by Paul Shirley ( Memento of the original from January 29, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 

Web links

• Paul Shirley - player profile on NBA.com