The final bracket includes representation for each of Boston's four major men's professional teams, with the Celtics and Red Sox each netting five nominees.
The final bracket includes representation for each of Boston's four major men's professional teams, with the Celtics and Red Sox each netting five nominees.Boston.com
Embedded in the story of each championship in Boston’s decorated professional sports history have been crucial decisions behind the scenes that helped pave the way for the eventual celebratory parades.
While free agent signings and draft picks produce their share of drama, few sports transactions create the kind of high-level excitement and intrigue as a trade.
Celtics legend Bill Russell in 1956, Red Sox star Pedro Martinez in 1997, and even Patriots coach Bill Belichick in 2000 were all acquired via trade before leaving an indelible mark on Boston. If only every deal worked out as well as those three.
But in the pantheon of great trades made by New England teams over the years, it’s worth asking a basic question: Which one stands out? More specifically, which one was the best?
This year, Boston.com is giving readers the chance to determine a winner via a bracket of 16 historically successful trades.
How exactly do you define best? It’s an inevitably subjective question, necessitating a difficult comparison of deals that span different sports, eras, and individuals. Does “best” require that the trade led to a championship or multiple championships? Can it pertain to just the legacy of a single player or coach? Is it simply about who “won” the trade, and by how much?
We leave it to our readers to vote in the round-by-round bracket to select the best trade. While simply determining a field of 16 is clearly an imperfect process — not every notable trade can warrant inclusion — the big ones are all in here. Everything from the Red Sox acquiring Hall of Fame slugger Jimmie Foxx in 1935 through the trajectory-altering Celtics trade of Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce to the Nets in 2013 has been seeded in the bracket.
The bracket will whittle down every 48 hours starting on the NCAA Tournament’s Selection Sunday and concluding on Monday, March 24, when a champion is crowned.
First round: March 16 (1 p.m.) through March 18 (12:59 p.m.)
Second round: March 18 (1 p.m.) through March 20 (12:59 p.m.)
Final Four: March 20 (1 p.m.) through March 22 (12:59 p.m.)
Championship: March 22 (1 p.m.) through March 24 (12:59 p.m.)
In the spirit of both March Madness and the past years of this bracket format — a series that has included readers voting to determine Boston’s “best comebacks” and “best uniforms” — we expect (and hope) that there will be upsets.
Let the madness begin.
Hayden Bird can be reached at hayden.bird@globe.com.