The Paul Shirley Extravaganza

As basketball is his day job, the man's one hell of a writer.  I've had an e-mail exchange or two with him (I even had my question read and answered on the Suns.com interview show), and for some reason I'm still on his mailing list.  What I post below is ...well...quite obviously Paul Shirley (and the line formatting mine, a simple copy and paste job):  

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My first book, called Can I Keep My Jersey?, will be released by
Random House on May 15.

Find its amazon page here:

http://www.amazon.com/Can-Keep-Jersey-Countries-Basketball/dp/034549136X/

If it has annoyed you that I have abused my emailing privileges by
sending you this note, stop reading and delete this message.

If not, read on.

At some point in the last year and a half, you sent an email to my
column at ESPN.com.  During my stint with the dot-com, my diligence
for returning messages has wavered between two extremes.  Sometimes, I
was a veritable pen pal.  Other times, I was about as efficient as a
post office in Pakistan.

(In my defense, in the last 18 months I have played for three
basketball teams, had two knee surgeries, produced a television show,
and finished a book.)

But fear not, for I have read your email.  I may have done it in a
rather tardy fashion:  I plowed through a few just now--some of which
were written around Christmas of 2005.  But I have read them all.

I appreciate the thoughts and questions.

But no, Steve from Pawtucket, you cannot be my butler/masseuse.

As I mentioned, my book comes out this month, on May 15.  It
chronicles three years of my life as a professional basketball player.
 In those years, I spent time with the Atlanta Hawks, Chicago Bulls
and Phoenix Suns.  And I discuss those stops.  But I also spent time
in Spain, Russia, and Yakima, WA--places that made me enjoy the first
three even more.

My first three years of professional basketball were much like the
first three years of anyone's first post-college job.  My experience
was similar to that of the guy whose first job was at IBM,
Caterpillar, or Randy's Sanitation.  Mine was just a bit more
outlandish...and a little more public.

I think it's a good book.  I hope you'll read it.

(In case further arm-twisting is necessary:  I somehow managed to
convince Chuck Klosterman to write the foreword.  So, if nothing else,
go to Border's or Barnes and Noble and read his page and a half while
you stand in the aisle, slowing the progress of old ladies in search
of the latest mindbender from Sue Grafton.)

Two more tidbits, and then I'll stop, I promise.

I continue to write for ESPN.com, although sporadically.  Look for
more from me around the time of the book's release.  In addition, I
will be doing a back-and-forth with Neal Pollack about the NBA
Playoffs for slate.com.

And, as always (okay, three tidbits), find me at myspace.com/paulshirley.

Thanks.

Paul Shirley

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I can only imagine how deliciously ribald his book will be.