I'm halfway through my copy of The Undisputed Guide to Basketball History by Free Darko and I'm loving it. Now, if you are already a fan of Free Darko, this is a no brainer. If you aren't familiar with their work, Bethlehem Shoals is the lead writer and I'm not sure how to describe him. Dennis Miller with a mix of funk? Bill Walton with an organized train of thought? No descriptions really do him justice. He breaks the mold of what we think of as "blogging" and pulls from any number of writing influences.
Their first book (The Macrophenominal Pro Basketball Almanac) was a hilarious and on-point review of basketball (as a snap shot of the present as it was a few years back). With their latest effort, they've taken a longer look back to the beginning of basketball. Not from a boring, black and white and meaningless stats perspective. More like "what would a blogger write about back in the day?" To wit, they compare James Naismath to John Calvin. They compare Red Auerback to John Cassavetes. I'm hooked and I haven't even gotten to the Bird/Magic chapters yet.
Interlaced with the text are fun and interesting sidebar notes written by Brown Recluse, Exq., and Eric Freeman with illustrations by the great Jacob Weinstein. So yeah, I recommend it. Go check it out.
By the way, in other book news, I announced a book giveaway when I published Jackie MacMullan's Q&A but I neglected to mention when I'd hold the drawing. So I'll pick the winner on Friday. All you have to do to enter is "like" our facebook page and you'll be eligible to win her book "When the Game Was Ours."