Professional basketball player Paul Shirley blogged about his experiences sitting on the bench for the Phoenix Suns back in 2005. I thoroughly enjoyed it, even though I don’t particularly care much for the sport of basketball. He describes the life of that guy who sits on the bench, he makes observations about BMI of tourists in San Antonio, he sighs with exasperation when people tell him, “Wow, you’re tall. Have you considered playing basketball?”

It’s an excellent read, and it looks like he’s back at it on ESPN’s Web site. He even convinced some sucker publisher into cutting him a book deal, resulting in Can I Keep My Jersey? (which allegedly comes out in paperback today), a title which betrays the fact that he has played for eleven professional basketball teams, no thirteen? So many he himself has probably lost track. I sure have.