When I read something this provocative, I take notice. The guy is a fan. He's also smart and brave. You want tepid sports journalism, you read David Halberstam, not David Shields.
Black Planet is an act of cultural meditation.
Its style is also up to the task of illuminating our cultural moment. Part diary, part memoir, part critical inquiry into our national mythologies, the book reads like an instant replay of our era, seen from all the angles, in slow mo and freeze frame. The first question I put to David concerned the Spurs. Avery Johnson had just said that the Spurs don't get the respect they deserve as World Champs, everybody's talking about the Lakers. So I asked if David saw this as being due to the fact that the Spurs don't project the gangsta attitude that the Lakers do.