Paul Murphy Shirley (born December 23, 1977) is an American former professional basketball player who last played for Unicaja Málaga in the Spanish ACB.

[2] Shirley was signed to a non-guaranteed contract by the Minnesota Timberwolves in early October 2006, but was cut in training camp before the start of the 2006–07 season.

After Shirley's playing career, he wrote a column for the Spanish newspaper El Pais, maintained a podcast (Short Corner) with Justin Halpern, and founded a writing group in Los Angeles called Writers Blok.

After winning the Big XII's regular-season conference championship,[8] the Cyclones advanced to the Elite Eight of the NCAA basketball tournament during Shirley's junior season, losing to eventual champion Michigan State.

At the end of Shirley's senior year, Iowa State became the fourth number-two seed to lose in the first round of the tournament.

His final game was during his tenure with the Phoenix Suns on April 20, 2005, in a 107–132 loss to the Sacramento Kings where he played for 4 minutes and the only stat he recorded was 1 assist.

[14] Shirley's blogs at ESPN and elsewhere contained observations on players, teams, fans, cities, sports media, cheerleaders, the game of basketball, and topics outside the athletic sphere.

[15] His writing garnered attention from national sports media, as well as other outlets such as Newsweek,[16] The Wall Street Journal,[17] and by ESPN's Bill Simmons.

[24] Between 2008 and 2015, Shirley wrote a monthly column about the NBA called "Historias de un Tío Alto" (loosely: "Stories by a Tall Guy") in El Pais.