Shoals here. This is the final FreeDarko post. The store will be open through the playoffs; then it too will close. My Twitter and Tumblr will go on, and I'll be blogging about the playoffs on GQ.com.

For this final post, I asked everyone who has contributed to FreeDarko to tell me what the hell "FreeDarko" (adj.) meant to them, or what the blog meant to them, or something. What follows is what happened. Appropriately, I am not really sure how exactly to put a label on it.

This is pretty sad. FreeDarko had the best collection of writings/essays on basketball by anyone, anywhere. The guys at FreeDarko wrote lovingly about basketball with more style than any other sports writing I've read. Their second book, The Undisputed Guide to Pro Basketball History, is just as informative as better written than Simmons book which came out around the same time. Also, they're responsible for this bit of awesomeness: