FreeDarko Presents: The Macrophenomenal Pro Basketball Almanac: Styles, Stats, and Stars in Today's Game

Amazon Best of the Month, December 2008: From its mouthful of a name, you might expect The Macrophenomenal Pro Basketball Almanac to be one of the new breed of fantasy-friendly stathead sports guides in the vein of the Baseball Prospectus. Or, from its blogger pedigree (via the popular FreeDarko.com), you might assume it's one of those quickie blog-into-book projects that repurposes new-media content into an old-media package. But it's neither--not even close. Bucking the data-crunching trend, the Almanac's pseudonymous authors instead embrace the mythical side of pro sports, reminding us that the difference between, say, LeBron and AI lies not just in 0.2 ppg but in the rich drama of potential, style, and lore that each star represents. And the Almanac is no blog: it's every inch a book, freshly imagined and gorgeously designed, with colorful, smart graphics that give dimension to figures from Tim "Mechanical Gothic" Duncan to Stephon "Hategoat" Marbury. With a foreword, fittingly, by Gilbert Arenas, the NBA star whose kooky, self-concocted "Agent Zero" persona often overshadows his knee-hobbled game, the Almanac is the ideal midseason treat for the casual fan and the deep obsessive alike. --Tom Nissley

In the illustrations below, artists from the Free Darko collective give their unique take on two of basketball's "Master Builders"--Kobe Bryant, the perfectionist, and Tim Duncan, a methodical player of gothic proportions. (Click the images to enlarge)