4/2/2023 0 Comments Booku shields![]() The originating sin of America is slavery, for which reparations should be paid and will never be paid as a result, mini-reparations are paid daily, and the NBA remains for me reparations theater. The NBA has changed, because the culture has changed, but nothing seems to me structurally different: Nearly all of the owners are white, most of the coaches are white, most of the commentators are white, and most of the players are black. You open the book “Black Planet” by saying, “Race, the league’s taboo topic, is the league’s true subject.” As you observe the NBA now, does that feel as true to you today? The film uses that season - in juxtaposition to the Seahawks’ Super Bowl-winning season - as a jumping-off point for Shields to get into the dimensions of American culture that have informed his 15 books.Īs we hit the 20th anniversary of that NBA season, and with the movie on its way, Shields, in this email interview, takes us on a tour of the “Black Planet” that he believes is still the NBA’s true habitat. ![]() The season Shields covered in “Black Planet” was a contentious one, with the Sonics coming off a historic playoff collapse, winning 57 games under great pressure and losing in the first round yet again, and in the book, Shields examined the tense times in microscopic detail. “Black Planet” was published in 1999 to great acclaim and severe criticism because it went far beyond Gary Payton, Shawn Kemp, George Karl and the Sonics to reveal the issues of race, sexuality and other taboo topics barely hidden below the surface of NBA culture. ![]() The film is based on “Black Planet: Facing Race During an NBA Season,” the book Shields wrote on the 1994-95 Seattle SuperSonics. That’s what David Shields did, and the result is “Return to Black Planet,” scheduled to debut in early 2015. When James Franco wants to make a movie with you, say yes.
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