Editor’s Note: This is the final part of two day series about former ISU basketball player Paul Shirley, and his basketball and life experiences. Shirley was notably fired from ESPN last week for comments in his personal blog.

Much of Paul Shirley’s career after Iowa State has just been a process of waiting for the end.

When 10-day contracts and foreign general managers are in charge of one’s career, a conclusion apparently feels imminent. Shirley has been released from basketball teams, and told, “Try again next time,” on an airplane, in locker rooms and on the practice floor.

Even outside of basketball, before the end came with ESPN on Jan. 27, his blog was titled, “My So-Called Career” The 2007 novel, “Can I Keep My Jersey? Eleven Teams, 5 Countries and 4 Years in My Life as a Basketball Vagabond,” received strong reviews from young, pop-culturally sensitive outlets like The Onion, Bloomberg and www.thrillist.com. Shirley didn’t imagine writing a book while his career was in swing, but when the dark door is constantly hovering, it had to happen sometime.

“I’m a human and therefore I’m self-absorbed. I think my story is interesting,” Shirley said. “I think what people related to well about my style or experience, is that I failed so many times. Most of life is about failure and then figuring out how to deal with it.”

For a sarcastic bookworm with an affinity for minor key rock music, self-depreciation and cynicism seem formulaic. Before Paul Shirley was known for these skills and interests on a national forum, he built his own platform by receiving game paychecks from 12 professional basketball teams, even if the playing time never approached “consistent.”

“Being a professional athlete, or even a high level college athlete is a weird mind space, because I was always trying to keep my self-confidence so high that it was in a way, inflated,” Shirley said. “It was difficult then to let people in, because I couldn’t show any weakness, sort of. The ability to make fun of yourself takes a little while to develop.”

His time in the NBA involved stints with the Atlanta Hawks, Chicago Bulls and, most recently, the Phoenix Suns for five months in the 2004-’05 season.

“My favorite experience was definitely being on the Suns, because it was the first time, and one of the only times I’ve felt comfortable in a place, because I knew that I was going to be there for an extended period of time,” Shirley said.

In a life that has involved constant movement, and a lack of home-base since heading to college, the Kansas-native would send e-mail updates and letters to friends and supporters throughout his travels.

Postcards from a man a mechanical engineering major back to the states from Greece and Spain may look glamorous, but Paul Shirley was scrapping through injuries and contract issues to put a ball in a basket in lands far away. Postcards don’t likely exist in scenic Kazan, Russia.

Shirley scored 33 points in 121 minutes of regular season NBA action during his drifting career. He continues to workout, hoping for another shot at a European contract, or anywhere basketball can take him.

The Suns enlisted him for a written glance inside the life of a basketball player during his time there, for a then-fledgling NBA.com.

Shirley took the few sentences the Suns were expecting and used his time on the bench for observation, analysis and an opportunity to display a bit of unique character that led to his ESPN.com hiring in 2006.

“I didn’t really have any idea that it would explode like it did at the time,” Shirley said.

Clutch to what you will to disarm and crucify Shirley, but he knows what he’s saying. There is a thought process, and there is an awareness, naive or not, that comes from seeing thousands of miles, millions of people and lots of jerseys constantly pass.

“Because I was moving from team to team and adjusting to new situations all the time, it made the story relative to anyone who has ever had to deal with any sort of change or failure, or whatever, in their lives,” Shirley said. “Because it was about professional basketball, it was then slightly more glamorous than writing about moving from job to job in IT.”

The 6-foot-10 forward insists he fits into XL concert T-shirts.

“I think because Americans keep getting bigger and bigger, sizes keep getting smaller, so an XL is plenty for me these days,” Shirley said.

He’s a basketball player, what’s interesting about his shirts? Not only has Shirley played for more basketball teams than anyone one has likely heard of, and flown more miles, his passion and memory bank is loaded with concerts and music festivals. Many of his posts for the ESPN.com blog were music-based, as are his common visits to radio stations and venues in current home, Kansas City.

“Music is definitely a great love of mine, but writing about music is much harder than writing about Haiti, or some of these other things that I can more easily tear off,” Shirley said.

That’s an interesting point of reference, given the sensationalism that surrounded his blog, but he recommends new bands Yeasayer, Kid Cudi, Neon Indian and JJ. Seeing Daft Punk in Amsterdam would be the final pinnacle of his concert-going career. At the very least, the man knows what he likes.

“I think that’s why when I’m on a date I would try to fit in a music question as soon as possible, and when she says, ‘I listen to a little bit of everything,’ I stab myself in the nose with a fork,” Shirley said. “Again, it’s not that important what you listen to, but it is important why you listen to it.”

Iowa State basketball secretary Julie Flory doesn’t keep up on every music update the former player publishes, and couldn’t likely distinguish Neon Indian from Yeasayer, but she knows Shirley well enough that he wouldn’t stab himself with a fork. Hopefully.

“The way Paul writes, it’s almost easier to understand if you actually know him. You can still tell that he has that bit of sarcastic sense of humor, and he even describes himself as caustic,” Flory said. “And that is true. It’s hard to argue with Paul because he’s really good at it.”

Intelligence and a love for back-and-forth conversation seem to fill requirements for most successful blogs, let alone creative and ever-changing content. Being good at arguing can get you caught in a storm.

Flory doesn’t think Shirley was entirely meteorological in forecasting the dissent his “If You Rebuild It, They Will Come” column about relief efforts in Haiti created. But sometimes, even a thinking man can become a depressed Nostradamus.

“I believe that I’m going to put forth a product, and hopefully there will be enough people that can relate to that, that I can stay employed for awhile. If I start worrying too much about what they want, then my writing is no longer genuine,” Shirley said just one day prior to his release as a contributor to ESPN.com.

“It sounds really pat to say, but I kind of think that I’m going to keep doing what I’m going to do, and then if people continue to respond to it — great. If not, then I will do something else.”

If a love for the written word still lies with the basketball/travel/music/blog fan sector, Paul Shirley will likely be a bit put out at being summarized as person in two parts. He’s constantly writing new works of his own, staying in touch with what he likes and who he is; that is, “I tend to turn my hobbies into jobs, don’t I?”

He said he’d love to be able to write like his influences, Irving, Updike, Russo, Palahniuk, and even some David Foster Wallace. 33 career NBA points might not indicate legendary status, but there are plenty of people that wish they could play basketball like Paul Shirley.

“I’ve spent a lot of my life under this spell of basketball, and even though I didn’t really identify myself as a basketball player. It’s nice to start to leave that behind,” Shirley said. “There may be a little bit more, but I can see the light at the end of the tunnel, and that’s cool.”

ESPN can’t handle dissidence. The NBA might no longer have a place for him. These things won’t stop him.

“I’m confident enough to think that I will succeed in something, but I don’t know if it will be exactly how I set out to do it. I understand that much like in my basketball career, I might have to go to other places at some point,” Shirley said.

These words ring true now, for a former Iowa State hoopster, turned writer looking for the next challenge on the horizon. He wrote the aptly titled, “A reaction” to the headlining backlash for his opinion on relief in Haiti, and didn’t back down.

“I don’t think that he probably meant to get in this whole thing,” Flory said of the blog related explosion.Shirley’s post on his Twitter account Monday morning was just his second since his ESPN firing last week, and first not related to Haiti.

“Moving on…”

He didn’t even need 140 characters.

Paul’s Career Teams:

• Panionios Athens
• Yakima Sun Kings
• Atlanta Hawks
• DKV Joventut
• EA Sports
• Kansas City Knights
• Chicago Bulls
• UNICS Kazan
• Phoenix Suns
• Beijing Aoshen
• ViveMenorca
• Unicaja Malaga

Paul’s 5 Favorite Albums

• Achtung Baby by U2
• Lateralus by Tool
• Siamese Dream by Smashing Pumpkins
• Turn on the Bright Lights by Interpol
• Ten by Pearl Jam

How you can reach Paul Shirley:

• Twitter: @paulthenshirley
• Email: [email protected]
• Blog: www.flipcollective.com