Personal History
Shirley was born in Redwood City, California and grew up near the small town of Meriden, Kansas. He played high school basketball at Jefferson West High School.
Shirley worked his way from walk-on to three-year starter for the Iowa State Cyclones basketball team. He was coached first by Tim Floyd (until Floyd left the Cyclones to become the head coach of the Chicago Bulls) and then by Larry Eustachy. His notable teammates included future NBA players Jamaal Tinsley and Marcus Fizer. The Cyclones progressed to the Elite Eight of the NCAA basketball tournament his junior season. In his college career, he earned three Academic All-Big 12 selections and, in his senior season, was named second-team Academic All-American.
After graduating, the 6'10" Shirley played power forward for thirteen different professional teams including the NBA teams the Phoenix Suns, Atlanta Hawks, and the Chicago Bulls, as well as Panionios Athens of the Greek A1 League, Joventut Badalona, ViveMenorca, and Unicaja Málaga of the Spanish ACB League, and UNICS Kazan of the Russian Super League.
He has three brothers who used to live in the Johnson County, Kansas City area, Shirley's off-season home.
He appeared in the film Glory Road (#50 for Iowa, uncredited).
Read more about this topic: Paul Shirley
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