Finalist, National Book Critics Circle Award, 2000 Finalist, PEN USA Award, 2000 "One of the 8 Most Distinguished Books of Nonfiction of 1999" - Esquire "One of Our Favorite Books of 1999" - Newsday "One of the Nonfiction Editor's Picks of 1999, one of the Top Ten Black Studies Titles of 1999, and one of the Top Ten Sports Titles of 1999" - Amazon.com The National Basketball Association is a place where, without ever acknowledging it, white fans and black players enact and quietly explode virtually every racial issue and tension in the culture at large. Following the Seattle SuperSonics for an entire season, David Shields explores how, in a predominantly black sport, white fans—including especially himself—think about and talk about black heroes, black scapegoats, black bodies. Critically acclaimed and highly controversial, Black Planet is, in the words of Robert Lipsyte of the New York Times, "a risky and brilliant book."