Grant Williams loves to play Catan – but what IS this nerdy game?

Boston Celtics rookie forward Grant Williams is known for his nerdy side, particularly his love for the obscure game Catan — will he ever convince his teammates to join him for a game?

By now, if you consider yourself a fan of Boston Celtics rookie forward Grant Williams, you probably know he’s an aficionado of a somewhat obscure game called Settlers of Catan.

A role-playing game available in board and video game form that’s quite popular among the nerdier side of society, the game is a great fit for the Tennessee product, who picked up the habit of playing while a member of that school’s basketball program.

For the uninitiated, Catan — as the game has come to be known — is something like a cross between Civilization and Monopoly, and the objective is to build settlements on a fictitious island of the same name.

It’s turn-based, nerdy, strategy-heavy and not for the impatient — in other words, right up Williams’ alley.

While playing NCAA ball at Tennessee, the Vol alumnus stumbled on some teammates playing the game, and they begrudgingly taught their teammate the complicated game.

“Next thing you know, we played and I won my first game,” said Williams in an interview on the subject with Boston.com’s Nicole Yang.

Soon it was a staple for Volunteer-related events, the team even bringing a travel board with them on the road. “We played enough Catan for a generation at Tennessee,” added the first-year forward.

He even autographed a Catan game for a fan while in Knoxville, reports the Minnesota Star-Tribune’s Chip Scoggins.

Williams has not managed to convince his Celtics teammates to join him for a game of Catan, though he has convinced a number of the local media who cover Boston to play with him from time to time.

Rookie teammates Carsen Edwards and Romeo Langford both haven’t been asked by the Texan swingman to try the arcane board game because Williams is keen to the fact neither are “board game guys”, but Langford understands the appeal to his intellectual teammate.

“I’ve never met anybody like Grant. It doesn’t matter what we’re doing, his nerdy side comes out,” offered the Indiana product.

Williams has taken to playing a single-player version available on his Nintendo Switch while he waits for his teammates to come around. “It’s not as fun, but it gets you by,” explained the Houston native.

His ever-gregarious frontcourt teammates Tacko Fall and Enes Kanter have tentatively promised to learn the game, but as the author of this article can attest, that’s a bigger commitment than it may seem.

“They may not get it at first, but after they continue to play, they end up falling in love with it,” said Williams. “After the first game, you’re probably like, ‘All right, this is weird. I’m kind of confused still.’ But after two or three games, you really enjoy it.”

While the attraction of the game may take nearly as long as William’s NBA-level 3-point shot, Catan’s fans are almost as passionate about the obscure game as Celtics fans are about their team.

The cerebral nature of the game is an obvious attraction to a player who is obsessed with building a solid foundation for success with attention to detail as well.

While it might take a bit of initial investment to get a player up to speed and fully engaged, Williams’ teammates might just find some transferable skills portable from the nerdfest that is Settlers of Catan to the game that brought them together on the Celtics.

And even if they don’t, they might even find out that they like playing it just for fun.

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