Underdog Stories / Sports analysis & explainers
What Is Life Like for an NBA Journeyman?
What is life like for an NBA journeyman? Paul Shirley’s stops in the NBA, minor leagues and Europe show how quickly a career can change.
By Brett Hanson · Underdog Podcasts · October 17, 2017
Paul Shirley was on a flight from Indianapolis to Chicago when he realized how badly he was hurt. He had taken a knee to his side during a Bulls game. His kidney and spleen were damaged, he told Chris Horwedel on Tales from the Association, and he feared he might die before the plane landed.
That is an extreme answer to what life is like for an NBA journeyman. Shirley’s more usual days meant chasing a roster spot, moving when one disappeared, and deciding which job might lead to the next. He played for three NBA teams, yet most of his working life took place elsewhere.
How did Paul Shirley get from Iowa State to the NBA?
Shirley nearly missed Iowa State altogether. Growing up in small-town Kansas, he drew interest from Division II schools and Ivy League programs, he told Horwedel. Then an assistant at North Dakota, where Shirley had visited, told Iowa State coach Tim Floyd about a player he thought could compete in the Big 12.
There was a problem. Floyd had no scholarship left. Shirley said his mother found a way around it: His National Merit standing could cover his tuition, so he could join the team as a walk-on.
Shirley and Floyd kept that arrangement quiet. Shirley said Floyd treated him like everyone else, which helped teammates judge what he could do rather than how he got there. By his senior season, he was starting every game. Iowa State reported in February 2001 that he led the team with 6.9 rebounds per game and had earned his fourth academic All-Big 12 honor.
Horwedel had to stop and correct himself while recalling Shirley’s college seasons. His junior year was the step back; his senior year was the big rise. Shirley could afford to laugh about it. He had played on Iowa State’s back-to-back Big 12 champion teams in 2000 and 2001, beside players who drew far more attention.
Shirley thought that attention mattered. A good player on a poor team might have gone unseen, he told Horwedel. At Iowa State, someone was willing to give him a look.
How does an undrafted player find an NBA job?
One look rarely settles it. Shirley told Horwedel that after college, he played at the Portsmouth Invitational, attended summer league with Cleveland and went to camp with the Lakers. Cleveland did not draft him. The Lakers cut him quickly.
He went to Greece instead. The following year, an Atlanta Hawks camp came down to Shirley and another player the night before opening day, he said. He lost that spot, too. His agent thought he was close enough to stay within reach, so Shirley joined the Yakima Sun Kings in the Continental Basketball Association.
That decision got him an NBA call-up. It hardly felt certain from Yakima. Shirley said there were days when he wanted to quit, wondering why he was in the minor leagues while other people were getting on with their lives.
His first Hawks appearance came in Milwaukee. Shirley remembered standing open under the basket, hoping teammate Dan Dickau would pass him the ball for his first NBA points. Dickau took a shot instead. Shirley finished his two Hawks games with no points and one rebound. His NBA debut was January 14, 2003.
Horwedel joked that the missed pass might have started an eleven-year career in some other version of events. Shirley did not quite buy that. His concern at the time was smaller: Those two games might be his only ones.
Why do NBA journeymen play overseas and in the CBA?
The NBA badge had value to Shirley, even when other jobs paid more. He told Horwedel that a season in Europe might have been the steadier choice. He kept trying for the NBA partly because he wanted proof, in other people’s eyes, that he belonged.
His first European job gave him plenty of basketball. Shirley arrived in Greece at 23 with two duffel bags, he said, and joined a Panionios team with veterans from across Europe. He had never been there before. The club owed him $105,000 for the season, Shirley told Horwedel, and paid him about $52,000.
Horwedel offered the sunny reading: Shirley had been paid $52,000 to live in Greece. Shirley understood the joke. He also knew he had a limited number of years to earn money as a player.
“Nobody really cares if Paul Shirley’s on their team.”
Spain presented a different choice. Shirley said one stint with Joventut paid him $80,000 for four months. He wanted to return to the United States to train for summer league, where a good showing might help him land either an NBA place or a better European deal.
The CBA was less appealing day to day. Still, it put him near a call-up, and he got one. Looking back, Shirley could describe a sensible career move. While he was living it, he told Horwedel, he felt far from anyone making an NBA roster decision.
What happens when an NBA journeyman gets hurt?
Shirley reached the Chicago Bulls in the 2003–04 season. He liked playing for coach Scott Skiles, he told Horwedel, because Skiles had no fixed idea of what Shirley could do. Play hard enough, and there might be minutes.
Shirley said he was getting them. During a game in Indianapolis, he recalled playing roughly 27 minutes, including a long stretch in the second half. He saw a chance to make himself useful on a team where he hoped effort would count.
Then he rotated over to take a charge. Austin Croshere’s knee struck his side. Shirley said his kidney and spleen ruptured. On the flight home, he asked Scottie Pippen to get the trainer. Writing a year later for the Phoenix Suns’ site, Shirley described the long recovery from a lacerated spleen and fractured kidney.
Before the injury, Shirley told Horwedel, he had lived like a “militaristic athlete.” He rarely drank or dated. Basketball took nearly all his attention. The injury made that seem like a poor bargain if the career could end on one play.
He also thought he had lost his best chance with Chicago. The Bulls had given him seven games; there was no promise of an eighth.
Can an NBA journeyman make it back after a serious injury?
Shirley did. He told Horwedel that caring a little less made him a better player. He was less willing to throw his body at everything, and more able to think about what he brought to a team.
A shooting session helped, too. Shirley said former NBA player Scott Wedman worked on his jump shot after injuries had knocked it out of shape. In the first days of Phoenix Suns camp, Steve Nash passed to Shirley on a pick-and-pop. Shirley made a long jumper.
That first impression stuck, Shirley said. He became, in his teammates’ minds, a big man who could shoot. For a player fighting for a place, it was useful to have one thing people remembered.
Phoenix kept him around in the 2004–05 season. Shirley appeared in nine games, scoring 12 points in 30 minutes. Across his NBA career with Atlanta, Chicago and Phoenix, he played 18 regular-season games.
Those numbers look tiny from a distance. They also hide all the work between them. Shirley went from an injury he thought might end his chance to a camp where one made shot helped him get another.
How does an NBA journeyman know when to retire?
Shirley had no final press conference. He told Horwedel that after later stops abroad, playing simply grew harder to arrange. He had undergone two ankle surgeries and two knee surgeries. Fewer teams were interested, and he was less willing to accept any offer that arrived.
One offer vanished late. Shirley said he had signed to play in Verona, Italy, and had a flight planned. About ten days before he was due to leave, the club hired a new general manager who did not want a 32-year-old player. Shirley still had a signed contract, he told Horwedel. He no longer had the job.
Writing was already part of his life. The Suns had published his road diary in 2005, and his first book, Can I Keep My Jersey?, came out in 2007. When Horwedel interviewed him for the Tales from the Association episode “Paul Shirley,” they discussed his second book, Stories I Tell on Dates, released in 2017.
Shirley said he moved to Los Angeles to keep writing and ran a writers’ workshop there. The old job had supplied material for the new one, including the peculiar task of explaining himself to strangers. A short NBA career can take a long time to tell.
People also ask
How many NBA games did Paul Shirley play?+
Shirley played 18 regular-season NBA games: two for the Atlanta Hawks, seven for the Chicago Bulls and nine for the Phoenix Suns. He scored 33 points in all. Much more of his playing career was spent in the minor leagues and overseas, which is why the NBA total tells only part of his story. ([basketball-reference.com](https://www.basketball-reference.com/players/s/shirlpa01.html?utm_source=openai))
Was Paul Shirley drafted into the NBA?+
No. Shirley told Chris Horwedel that he played at the Portsmouth Invitational after college and went to summer league with Cleveland, but was not drafted. He later attended NBA training camps, played in Greece and joined the CBA’s Yakima Sun Kings before his first regular-season appearance with Atlanta in January 2003. ([basketball-reference.com](https://www.basketball-reference.com/players/s/shirlpa01.html?utm_source=openai))
What injury did Paul Shirley suffer with the Bulls?+
Shirley said Austin Croshere’s knee hit his side while he was taking a charge in a game at Indianapolis. His kidney and spleen were badly hurt, and he became seriously ill on the team flight to Chicago. In a later Suns diary, Shirley described recovering from a fractured kidney and lacerated spleen. ([nba.com](https://www.nba.com/suns/news/shirley_blog.html?utm_source=openai))
What did Paul Shirley do after basketball?+
Shirley continued the writing career he had begun while playing. His basketball memoir, *Can I Keep My Jersey?*, appeared in 2007. In the interview with Chris Horwedel, he discussed his 2017 book *Stories I Tell on Dates* and said he was running a writers’ workshop in Los Angeles. ([penguinrandomhouse.com](https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/166167/can-i-keep-my-jersey-by-paul-shirley/))