FreeDarko, as a live blog, is no more. Ever since I was first introduced to the site by Langston I have admired the style, breadth, and depth that everyone who has ever contributed to that site has had to offer about basketball, philosophy, and pop culture. In short, it was all that a blog was supposed to be, and it was a blog that made a lot of us realize our own shortcomings. I picked the photo above not because I'm egotistical enough to think that I'm a Hemingway or a Fitzgerald, or that I'm the Hemingway to Bethlehem Shoals' Fitzgerald--that's probably Bill Simmons--but because Shoals, along with Simmons and Henry Abbott, showed us over the last decade the scope of what sports writing, and specifically basketball, can be, and the time in which they did so was when the internet was something that still felt, to a certain extent, somewhat distant and abroad.
My farewell to FD can be found here, at TFT.
4 comments:
PS Calling this short piece Tender is the Darko probably would have been more fitting to the marginal edge, that was really quite accessible, that FD always captured so well.
April 13, 2011 at 10:52 PMBravo. They were the first sports blog that made me realize that resorting to dick jokes and lame pop culture references was not the only option to having a good blog. I am thankful that I can show LCB to coworkers, family, friends and strangers off the street without being embarrassed, thanks in large part to FD.
April 14, 2011 at 7:09 AMgood piece and that's a funny picture
April 14, 2011 at 10:05 PMThanks, Deckfight. I thought the pic was funny too. In fact, I think one could waste a whole day looking at funny pics of Hemingway online.
April 15, 2011 at 8:00 PMPost a Comment