Quiet Joy

Less Griping, Less Typing

There's a strange counterintuitive phenomenon taking place. Before the season started I expected activity on Celtic boards to grow with the team's winning percentage. If anything the opposite seems to be happening.

Take a look at Celtic forums around the web. With the team great again, you'd anticipate a fury of activity; thousands of new voices being heard; an avalanche of green-tinted posts and opinions. Unexpectedly just the opposite appears to be taking place. So far the busiest Celtic discussion groups seem slower. The team's phenomenal early season success has had a deadening effect on online banter.

This is all very unscientific and is based only on my own foggy perception, but it sure seems real...
You may well ask- How come?


I have 10 theories:

1) The Inertia of Bliss

Happy fans are just sitting back and enjoying this.
People are just not moved to type, "The team sure looks good."
Or to respond, "Yup. They sure do."

2) Nattering Nabobs Are Hushed

Do you hear those squeaky wheels? Not too much anymore. Most of the formerly negative voices have come over to the light side of the force. Welcome!

3) So Are The Pathological

As for the rest- well even crazy people generally don't want to appear crazy. (As a side note, you can tell who these nice folks are because they generally start off saying "I was right all along, BUT..." or they're still just going along same as ever— steadfastly criticizing the rotations, management, or searching for imaginary character flaws instead of enjoying success.)

4) Serial Traders Are On Vacation

Why propose moving a guy out when he's helping the team win? ...and everybody seems to be helping the team win.

5) What College Game?

No one's talking about the 2008 draft. Last year at this time I was watching every Ohio State game I could. This year, I know there's some guy named Beasley and some guy named Rose out there, but I've never seen them play and probably won't until midwinter.

6) Pink Hatters Aren't Joining Up

Would you? You come into a place where people are saying things like: "Have you seen Rondo's rising mid-range hot zones?" "Glen Davis has an incredible PER." You've got fanatics discussing every arcane statistical and historical detail of the sport— it's probably intimidating to hesitant pink toppers at the entryway.

7) Basketball Viewing of the Diehards Has Changed

A lot of folks who previously posted in game threads have bought season tickets and are now cheering in person. Others are watching Ray Allen with bandwagon jumping friends instead of brooding alone with Allan Ray. When you watch with flesh and blood others, you probably post less.

8) Green Discussion Has Spread To New Places

Though the Celtic talk has subsided a bit on our own boards, it's exploded everywhere else. Celtic fanatics who have huddled together in the darkness for years are now boldly going forth and interacting with fans of other teams.

9) Nobody Disagrees

There's no controversy. We all like... well, we all like everything. Who wants to talk about that?!?

10) It's All New

Unlike previous great teams, this one is so unknown. This is a group that no one had seen before. They didn't just add one or two key guys. Instead it was pretty much a full roster makeover. So final conclusions are slow to arrive since we're seeing each situation for the first time.


I do not expect the mass silence to continue. When the playoffs loom there will be an explosion of activity. There will be a cacophony of joyful online noise— the first great green eruption of the internet era. The Celtics had one of the worst records in the league last season. Now they're a leading title contender.

We're all adjusting.