Can I Keep My Jersey?

This definitely was a disappointment I had read Paul Shirley avidly during his time on ESPN and even afterwards on myspace for a while (where he dvelved too much into weird white rock bands for my personal taste though), so my expectations for his book were higher than for the regular, run-of-the-mill basketball one. Sadly, Can I Keep My Jersey? 11 Teams, 5 Countries, and 4 Years in My Life as a Basketball Vagabond did not keep its promise. Not only was I familiar with most of the later material already as he simply reused his blog entries from the season he played with the Phoenix Suns to some extent. His other material also wasn't as strong, or maybe his writing just doesn't work for anything longer than an amusing internet entry, which one reads through in a few minutes only.

Whatever the reason, I thought I would get a fast, enjoyable, fun read and in reality I only got a fast read. Sadly enough, even the gossiping material (who was fighting whom in the locker room) was censored in a John Doe fashion. Maybe I have gotten too used to his writing (which kind of happened with Bill Simmons as well), or maybe his writing doesn't work that well in a book format. Read it if you are a basketball nut only, but then you won't even pick up the book or know who Paul Shirley is in any other scenario.