Book Review: FreeDarko

The bloggers at freedarko.com have taken the standard sports book and turned it on its head through sharp writing, eye-popping illustrations, informative graphics and insightful stats. “FreeDarko Presents…The Macrophenomenal Pro Basketball Almanac: Styles, Stats, and Stars in Today’s Game” is a mouthful of a title, but it takes something that all-encompassing to capture all the pleasures of this book.

Rather than focus on teams, the FreeDarko crew argues that the appeal of individual players makes today’s NBA special. The book profiles the prime examples of the league’s stars, stylists, underdogs, grumps, folk heroes, and whiz kids in a series of essays that combine history, philosophy, psychology, and analysis in a thrilling mix that shows why we love these players (or love to hate them).

The book zeroes in exactly why Kobe Bryant is a polarizing genius and why the boring magnificence of Tim Duncan is necessary; how Stephon Marbury came to be the NBA’s worst influence, and why LeBron James’ business sense informs his every move.

Style is the watchword of the Macrophenomenal Almanac, and few have more style in today’s NBA than Washington Wizards guard Gilbert Arenas, who is the subject of one of the book’s essays and provides an entertaining foreword. And just as Agent Zero is today’s top NBA peacock, the players owe a debt to former star Penny Hardaway, who makes a surprising number of appearances. (Arenas says Hardaway’s style made him a real NBA fan; Joe Johnson and LeBron James also evoke comparison’s to Penny.)

The illustrations from FreeDarko’s Big Baby Belafonte are flat-out amazing: Chris Paul as a wolf in sheep’s clothing, the speedy Leandro Barbosa outrunning everything; a soaring Tracy McGrady. Each player also gets a breakdown of their signature on-court move, complete with a “Periodic Table of Style” that reveals the hidden physical, emotional and spiritual aspects of each spin and leap.

Appreciating basketball goes beyond seeing who scored the most points or threw in a big dunk. “FreeDarko Presents…” helps us look past the stats to see the style.

Related:

• In other outstanding basketball writing lately, don’t miss “The No-Stats All-Star” by Michael Lewis. The author of “Moneyball” applies some of the same concepts to the current NBA, with the Houston Rockets and Shane Battier as the test lab.
• The FreeDarko group aren’t the only ones who have taken an idea from their blog to a book. At the upcoming SXSW Interactive Festival, check out “From Blog to Book Deal: How-To” with authors Guy Kawasaki, Stephanie Klein, and Hugh MacLeod.