{"id":500877,"date":"2025-12-28T10:15:16","date_gmt":"2025-12-28T10:15:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/500877\/"},"modified":"2025-12-28T10:15:16","modified_gmt":"2025-12-28T10:15:16","slug":"masslive-unveils-boston-quarter-century-teams-and-projects-next-25-years-in-new-england-sports","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/500877\/","title":{"rendered":"MassLive unveils Boston Quarter-Century Teams and projects next 25 years in New England sports"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"article__paragraph article__paragraph--left\" id=\"AKZXDZJFQRFJTKUUSF4E4UAKJQ\">There\u2019s a good chance that we\u2019d have created some sort of quarter-century list no matter what happened in the first 25 years of this century in Boston sports.<\/p>\n<p class=\"article__paragraph article__paragraph--left\" id=\"QUF6RVFE7ZALJN676JUIHBFAZA\">It\u2019s one of those milestone years that makes for a perfect opportunity to reflect a little bit and look ahead a little bit.<\/p>\n<p class=\"article__paragraph article__paragraph--left\" id=\"TVOG7LBHANDRHMQDNLLAMOK7AU\">But it was especially notable after these 25 years.<\/p>\n<p class=\"article__paragraph article__paragraph--left\" id=\"AFT452GCZRD6DDW4ULBOKK33TA\">Obviously, nobody on our staff had been alive for a Red Sox World Series title and the Patriots had never won a Super Bowl.<\/p>\n<p class=\"article__paragraph article__paragraph--left\" id=\"TRNB436T5RA6FF5WXZYF7GVI4I\">Only five of us were alive for a Celtics title and and just two for the Bruins. And suddenly, in a short period, they all won. It made for an amazing era that changed our expectations and even our worldview a little bit.<\/p>\n<p class=\"article__paragraph article__paragraph--left\" id=\"2VZURPEXKVCJHDS43TQXCXAJSM\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.masslive.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.masslive.com\/\">MassLive<\/a> was in its infancy and digital journalism was just gaining a foothold during the early days of this century, too. The way we chronicled the early days of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.masslive.com\/topic\/tom-brady\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.masslive.com\/topic\/tom-brady\/\">Tom Brady<\/a> and the 2004 World Series looks different than our extensive coverage of the 2018 Red Sox or the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.masslive.com\/celtics\/2024\/06\/shared-climb-of-jayson-tatum-jaylen-brown-leads-celtics-to-banner-18-matt-vautour.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.masslive.com\/celtics\/2024\/06\/shared-climb-of-jayson-tatum-jaylen-brown-leads-celtics-to-banner-18-matt-vautour.html\">2024 Celtics<\/a>. It\u2019s been fun for our current staff to carry a baton for part of that evolution.<\/p>\n<p class=\"article__paragraph article__paragraph--left\" id=\"57YVUWRUTZBKVEYEHVMKVE34UE\">I had a moment where I thought, who\u2019d be on the Quarter-Century Team of MassLive\u2019s sports beat writer and inspiration struck.<\/p>\n<p class=\"article__paragraph article__paragraph--left\" id=\"S4BYLTJ7IZGUFLKOD7XKDRPUUY\">To determine our quarter-century teams, we\u2019d invite everybody who covered the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.masslive.com\/redsox\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.masslive.com\/redsox\/\">Red Sox, <\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.masslive.com\/patriots\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.masslive.com\/patriots\/\">Patriots<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.masslive.com\/celtics\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.masslive.com\/celtics\/\">Celtics<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.masslive.com\/bruins\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.masslive.com\/bruins\/\">Bruins<\/a> for the Springfield Republican or MassLive to vote on the rosters. Our current thriving staff is built on the backs of what they accomplished.<\/p>\n<p class=\"article__paragraph article__paragraph--left\" id=\"IC4ECXL6BZCYXOTQJKP5OLZEOM\">Other than the late <a href=\"https:\/\/www.masslive.com\/news\/2022\/02\/the-republicans-sportswriting-legend-garry-brown-dies-at-90.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.masslive.com\/news\/2022\/02\/the-republicans-sportswriting-legend-garry-brown-dies-at-90.html\">Garry Brown <\/a>and <a href=\"https:\/\/obits.masslive.com\/us\/obituaries\/masslive\/name\/carlo-imelio-obituary?id=56651771\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/obits.masslive.com\/us\/obituaries\/masslive\/name\/carlo-imelio-obituary?id=56651771\">Carlo Imelio, <\/a>who were both legends for their coverage of the Red Sox and Patriots at the Springfield Republican, we found everyone and invited them.<\/p>\n<p class=\"article__paragraph article__paragraph--left\" id=\"SCWDFCKHI5AQJKMG6ZT4ZLBUM4\">Some declined. Some people were too busy or had moved beyond the journalism stage of their lives. But many others sent ballots and hopefully had fun participating.<\/p>\n<p class=\"article__paragraph article__paragraph--left\" id=\"MQSQU4UWHNBH7JOHBNJIJFPNPE\">Here\u2019s the schedule of what\u2019s to come:<\/p>\n<p>Sunday, December 28 <img fetchpriority=\"low\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Tom Brady, Bill Belichick\" class=\"article__image-content\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/WJEL4WUVUBGDXI25R2V2CXWN34.jpg\"  \/>Former New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady and former head coach Bill Belichick.  (AP Photo\/Charles Krupa, File)APPatriots Quarter Century TeamMonday, December 29Red Sox Quarter-Century TeamBruins Quarter-Century TeamTuesday, December 30<img fetchpriority=\"low\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Paul Pierce\" class=\"article__image-content\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/KKHLORJYZBEJRDB63VKNSVFBOA.jpg\"  \/>Boston Celtics, from left, Kevin Garnett, left, Ray Allen, and Paul Pierce celebrate in the locker room after winning the 2008 NBA basketball championship(AP Photo\/Winslow Townson, File)APCeltics Quarter-Century TeamOur toughest calls when choosing the Quarter-Century Teams<\/p>\n<p class=\"article__paragraph article__paragraph--left\" id=\"Q6E7BSFKHFGYTLMY2AJ7XKJ2VY\">Our look-ahead was a little more adventurous. <\/p>\n<p class=\"article__paragraph article__paragraph--left\" id=\"Q4KTEBTW25B3ZILVHFAW6OUZBA\">The goal was to take what we\u2019ve learned and what we know and try to project who will be the most impactful people in the world of Boston sports for the next 25 years. <\/p>\n<p>Wednesday, December 31<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There\u2019s a good chance that we\u2019d have created some sort of quarter-century list no matter what happened in&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":500878,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3766],"tags":[7,45,75,3798,46,13124,6,70605,70606,70607],"class_list":{"0":"post-500877","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-boston-celtics","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-boston","10":"tag-boston-celtics","11":"tag-bostonceltics","12":"tag-celtics","13":"tag-gillette-stadium","14":"tag-nba","15":"tag-nflaction13","16":"tag-week-15","17":"tag-week-fifteen"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/115796674163162063","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/500877","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=500877"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/500877\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/500878"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=500877"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=500877"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=500877"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}