“Can I Keep My Jersey” is a book written in first person about the life of Paul Shirley through the voice both serious and sarcastic by Paul Shirley himself. This book is perfect for the everyday sports fan or somebody interested in sports, or about the life of somebody on the edge of greatness. Shirley was a former walk-on at Iowa State turned in a three year starter shortly after his time began in Ames. Shirley being a white, six foot ten inch basketball player never thought he was good enough to play in the NBA. But something one of his high school teacher said to him, stuck with him for a very long time and motivated him to get into the NBA someday. Yes that is a spoiler for the book, but Shirley spoils that himself early on in the book as well as with the cover picture of the book. Though, he never makes it with his original team out of college, the former world champion Los Angeles Lakers. Players on that team included Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant. In this hilarious first person book, Shirley describe the ups and downs of not quite being good enough to make an NBA team permanently. He is often star struck as well as who some of his teammates become for the short times that he is in training camps in the preseason with teams. Even if you don’t like sports, this book is a great read just because of Paul himself. You can tell he is not an author, but the way he writes this book about himself is unique because he is negative about himself and never sees himself making it into the NBA, or just the sarcasm he has throughout the book, between teammates and even girls. Shirley often talks about the struggles on what he thought to do and some of the struggles even of playing overseas. Whether it be the food, the language barrier, or him just straight up getting cut out of a money he deserved and signed a contract for. He talks about the dilemma of being better then the players that get signed by these big NBA franchises in front of him because he was undrafted and the teams used draft stock on the worse players, so they show the loyalty to that player. He talks about the dilemmas in choosing a place to play, whether that be near his hometown in Kansas for a lot less money, or whether that be in a more meaningful league overseas again where he will make more money. The life of Paul Shirley is definitely an interesting one between the ups and the downs and him describing it himself, adds a whole new element to this great book. Overall I would definitely recommend it to all sports fans and anybody interested or thinking about going to play a sport professionally after high school or college. Overall I give this book 4.5 stars out of five. I think this is one of the my favorite books I have ever read, and definitely my favorite I have read since high school. While Google-ing Shirley I have looked into his other book and into his blogs as well for future reading. Definitely worth it, you won’t be able to put the book down once you start it. Very good and funny from start to finish.