Paul Shirley – A former starter and All-Academic Big XII and 2nd Team Academic All-American basketball player at Iowa State. He then played in the NBA for the likes of the Atlanta Hawks, Chicago Bulls, and Phoenix Suns, he also was in NBA training camps for the likes of the Los Angeles Lakers and the Minnesota Timberwolves.
He played professionally in Spain, Russia and Greece. Following his popular ESPN blog chronicling his life during the playoff run of the 2004-05 Phoenix Suns, he penned the humorous take on basketball and life, “Can I Keep My Jersey?” published by Random House. He now writes about music, sports and whatever else interests him.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download | Embed
Topics Discussed#45 Chicago Bulls Jersey
1. You make light of your basketball career and how you almost made the NBA by accident, at what age did you realize you could play major D-1 basketball and then make an NBA roster
2. You also played pro basketball overseas. You talk about it in your book, but talk about being an American playing in places like Russia, Spain, Greece.
3. Talk about the NBA Playoffs, what do you look for? Like to watch..
4. Hardest thing about being 6’10″
5. Will you be watching Olympic Basketball and how the rest of the world was able to catch up to the U.S. in basketball and maybe even surpass us.
6. How you got into writing.. blog for ESPN and the reaction you got from fans and other players on your tales of being a benchwarmers in the NBA.
7. What kind of technology do you carry around for when you get ideas, for writing etc.
8. Talk about your book “Can I Keep My Jersey” and your inspiration for that and how much was fun was it to put a book together vs. shorter blog entries.
9. What about the many coaches you had over the years and how they embraced technology when it came to practices, breaking down film, scouting opponents, etc?
10. Any regrets from your basketball career?
11. The one piece of modern technology you can’t live without in your professional or personal life?
