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Is It Easier to Blog About a Losing Team?

As the pre season was coming to a close a relatively obscure acquaintance of mine sent along an e-mail that simply said, "How are you going to blog about a good team?" At the time I had recently posted the following during my season preview: "Predicted Record: 49-33 - That's a huge turn around from last season and a rare display of rational thought from me. I fought the urge to predict a 50+ win season. Call it the Doc Rivers effect." I also wondered if Tom Thibodeau and Kevin Garnett could make the Celtics "a respectable defensive team." Needless to say the 20-3 start and stifling defense caught me a little off guard.

But back to the question at hand. How would I blog about a winning team? And more importantly, is it easier to blog about a losing team? I'm still working on the former and with the latter I'm tempted to say yes. Don't get me wrong. I love the fact that the Celtics are winning. Often times I watch games and get this, I enjoy the experience. When Bob Cousy is in the house I sit in awe as he says positive things about the Celtics. I watch replays of the dismantling of the Knicks. I rewatch the showdown in Chicago to try and understand the greatness of Kevin Garnett. And I am without a doubt happy. But I'm not entirely sure of how to translate that to Green Bandwagon. Apparently I used to spend a good deal of time writing about the following topics, many of which are obsolete this season:

  • Whether Danny Ainge deserved to be fired
  • Whether Doc Rivers deserved to be fired
  • What the ideal rotation was
  • Whether or not "insert young Celtics player's name" would ever be a star
  • Commenting on or concocting my own trade rumors
  • Reacting to slights, real and perceived, from other bloggers and mainstream media. Example: Secretly hating everyone who mocked the "Celtics Youth Movement" and considering breaking into ESPN, ABC or TNT to force them to show a Celtics game.
  • Venting
  • Enjoying the fact that I was blindly committed to following a team that the majority of people either mocked or ignored altogether.
Did I ever actually enjoy the perpetual losing? Of course not. In fact I was strongly opposed to any notion of tanking. And I love the nationally televised games, magazine covers, commercials and every other bit of blatant overexposure that goes with following a winning team. But after spending a full year hoping the Celtics would somehow be good I'm not entirely sure what to do now that they are. I look back at my original site, Celtics Bandwagon, and see the flurry of posts, may of which had goofy premises, and wonder if winning has hurt the quality of my work. I can't think of anything that can even remotely touch the Rajon Rondo movie, which debuted on Green Bandwagon but was inspired by losing. Factor in increased responsibility with my real job and I'm left trying to remake my identity as a blogger while devoting less time to it. Here's to hoping the Celtics maintain their winning ways and I figure out how to give success the following it deserves.

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