1945–46 Philadelphia Sphas season

American basketball team season Philadelphia Sphas American Basketball League (revived original) 1946 21 13 T–1st Eddie Gottlieb Eddie Gottlieb Eddie Gottlieb Broadwood Hotel Lost ABL championship 3–1 to the Baltimore Bullets yes The Philadelphia Sphas were an early, historical example of an American professional basketball team. The 1945–46 season was the thirteenth season played in the now-revived American Basketball League by the Sphas, although they did play in the original rendition of the ABL from 1926 to 1928 as the Philadelphia Warriors, which had no relation to the later BAA franchise of the same name that now exists in the present day as the Golden State Warriors in the NBA. As such, when including the past history of the original ABL with the revived version of the ABL in 1933 following historical problems that related to the Great Depression near the end of 1931, this would technically be the nineteenth official season played by the original ABL properly, though this would officially be the 29th season of play for the Sphas franchise when including previous seasons where they played under names like the "Philadelphia YMHA"; the "Philadelphia Passon, Gottlieb, Black", the "Philadelphia Warriors"; and the "Philadelphia Hebrews". For most historic basketball outlets, this season would also be seen as the final season where the Philadelphia Sphas would be playing in a major professional basketball league, even though the ABL's reputation as such a league wouldn't be seen as dramatically downgraded in that regard until the season after the following one at hand, as the Sphas would continue playing in the ABL up until 1949 long after its reputation as a professional basketball league would be on the decline between the continuing success of the rivaling National Basketball League and the incoming future success of a new rivaling professional basketball league to go up against them both on a national level in the Basketball Association of America.1945-1946 https://probasketballencyclopedia.com/seasons/1945-1946/ Pro Basketball Encyclopedia1946-1947 https://probasketballencyclopedia.com/seasons/1946-1947/ Pro Basketball Encyclopedia Background The Sphas played in leagues around Philadelphia since 1917, but game-by-game records before the Sphas rejoined the ABL in 1933 are not (currently) available (at least, not to the general public if official game records did exist for the Sphas) and are therefore likely lost to time itself.The SPHAS: The Life and Times of Basketball's Greatest Jewish Team Stark Douglas Temple University Press 2011 978-1-59213-633-9 Philadelphia Appendix A, 262–263 Initially, when this season began following the conclusion of World War II, there was hope within the ABL that they would be able to have some solid expansion into being a competitive major basketball league similar to that of the rivaling National Basketball League in their future seasons of play. As such, when trying to have their third repeat for what would have been their eighth ABL championship in thirteen overall seasons of play (like it would be any other season for them at this point in time in the ABL), the Sphas would end up tying with the (original) Baltimore Bullets franchise for first place in the entire league with a 21–13 record, with them securing the tie with a blowout 70–46 win over the Bullets at the initial end of the regular season. Despite the previous game giving them momentum to secure first place entirely in the first place tiebreaker match to unofficially end the regular season, the Sphas would end up losing their home court match with a close 63–61 defeat to get the #2 seed in the ABL instead. Even with that in mind, however, the Sphas would end up sweeping the #4 seeded Wilmington Bombers in a quick 2–0 route in the semifinal round before seeing the #1 seeded Bullets once again in the now-best-of-five championship series for the ABL after Baltimore had swept the New York Gothams themselves. Both teams would end up splitting their first two games in the series without blowout victories on their ends before the Bullets ended up routing the Sphas in the final two games of the championship series to win the ABL's championship series 3–1, which gave Baltimore their first (and officially only) ABL championship before they later transferred themselves into the upcoming Basketball Association of America (and later win a championship there) while the Sphas would be denied their eighth ABL championship in the franchise's history. Not only that, but that season would later be seen as the turning point for the rest of their existence going forward, with this season ultimately marking the end of the best days for both the Philadelphia Sphas themselves and the ABL itself going forward.The SPHAS: The Life and Times of Basketball's Greatest Jewish Team Stark Douglas Temple University Press 2011 978-1-59213-633-9 Philadelphia 195 Roster Due to information on American Basketball League players being generally hard to find, there are bound to be more gaps and/or inaccuracies found in certain areas on the team's roster spots than usual.1945-46 Philadelphia SPHAs basketball Roster on StatsCrew.com https://www.statscrew.com/basketball/roster/t-ABLSPH/y-1945 StatsCrew.comWilk Mike Peach Basket Society: 1945-46 Philadelphia SPHA's (ABL) https://peachbasketsociety.blogspot.com/2018/04/1945-46-philadelphia-sphas-abl.html Peach Basket Society 19 April 2018 1945–46 Philadelphia Sphas #4070C0 #FFFFFF #FFFFFF #CC0000 Irv Davis 1 F/C 6 2 195 NYU 1915–01–10 Jerry Fleishman G 6 2 190 NYU 1922–02–14 Jack Garfinkel G 6 0 190 St. John's 1918–06–13 Art Hillhouse C 6 7 220 Long Island University 1916–06–12 Ralph Kaplowitz G/F 6 2 170 NYU 1919–05–18 Julius Kasner 1 G 5 11 170 Brooklyn College 1915–01–10 Red Klotz G 5 7 150 Villanova 1920–10–21 Inky Lautman 1 F/C 6 2 205 Central HS (PA) 1914–05–22 Bernard Opper G 6 0 185 Kentucky 1915–09–01 Petey Rosenberg G 5 10 165 Saint Joseph's 1918–04–07 Irv Rothenberg C 6 7 215 Long Island University 1921–12–31 Ossie Schectman G/F 6 0 175 Long Island University 1919–03–30 Butch Schwartz 1 G/F 6 2 190 Long Island University 1919–02–14 George Senesky G 6 2 179 St. Joseph's 1922–04–04 Irv Torgoff F 6 2 192 Long Island University 1917–03–06 Butch Weintraub 1 G 5 11 190 CCNY 1917–10–08 Eddie Gottlieb Note: Jack Garfinkel, Julius Kasner, Irv Rothenberg, George Senesky, and Butch Weintraub would not take part in the 1946 ABL Playoffs for the Sphas for one reason or another.PHILADELPHIA SPHAS https://probasketballencyclopedia.com/season/philadelphia-sphas-17/ Pro Basketball Encyclopedia ABL Standings Pos. Team Wins Losses Win % T–1 Baltimore Bullets 21 13 .618 Philadelphia SPHAs 21 13 .618 3 New York Gothams 18 16 .529 4 Wilmington Bombers 15 19 .441 5 Trenton Tigers 14 20 .412 6 Paterson Crescents 13 21 .382 ABL Schedule For the rest of the ABL's entire existence going forward, the ABL would utilize a proper, full regular season instead of two half-seasons for its regular season formatting. ABL Regular Season Game Date Opponent Score Record1November 3Paterson Crescents63–551–02November 17Trenton Tigers60–562–03November 18@ New York Gothams68–653–04November 25@ Trenton Tigers47–533–15December 1New York Gothams50–484–16December 7@ Baltimore Bullets62–724–27December 8Baltimore Bullets62–664–38December 9@ Wilmington Bombers49–554–49December 15Paterson Crescents76–665–410December 16@ Paterson Crescents53–406–411December 22Wilmington Bombers48–576–512December 23@ New York Gothams59–547–513December 29Trenton Tigers86–618–514December 30@ Trenton Tigers62–589–515January 5New York Gothams60–5910–516January 11@ Baltimore Bullets61–6710–617January 12Baltimore Bullets61–5611–618January 13@ Wilmington Bombers47–4012–619January 19Paterson Crescents59–5213–620January 20@ Paterson Crescents57–5314–621January 26Wilmington Bombers72–6015–622January 27@ New York Gothams61–7515–723February 1@ Baltimore Bullets56–6515–824February 2Baltimore Bullets55–5715–925February 9New York Gothams53–6015–1026February 16Wilmington Bombers70–5816–1027February 17@ Wilmington Bombers43–5816–1128February 23Baltimore Bullets68–4717–1129February 24@ Trenton Tigers48–6317–1230March 2Wilmington Bombers70–6118–1231March 3@ Paterson Crescents74–73 (OT)19–1232March 9Trenton Tigers72–6920–1233March 10@ Wilmington Bombers58–6220–1334March 13@ Baltimore Bullets70–4621–1335 (T)March 16Baltimore Bullets61–6321–14 ABL Playoffs ABL Semifinals Game Date Opponent Score RecordGame 1March 17@ Wilmington Bombers69–651–0Game 2March 23Wilmington Bombers75–722–0 ABL Championship Series This would end up becoming the last ABL Championship Series the Philadelphia Sphas would ever (officially) participate in. This series would also end up becoming a best-of-five series this time around after last season's championship series against the (original) Baltimore Bullets franchise was a best-of-three series for some unknown reason. # Date Opponent Score RecordGame 1March 30Baltimore Bullets63–481–0Game 2March 31@ Baltimore Bullets48–651–1Game 3April 13Baltimore Bullets45–681–2Game 4April 14@ Baltimore Bullets39–541–3 Philadelphia also played a match at Schenectady, New York on April 11, 1946 in-between Games 2 and 3 due to them playing a national professional invitational tournament there, with that game being considered a consolation prize round there. The game in question would end up going into overtime, but it ended with the Philadelphia Sphas losing 61–58 to the (original) Baltimore Bullets franchise in an unrelated tournament match that went to overtime.Bradley Grasso Robert John Total Basketball: The Ultimate Basketball Encyclopedia 2003 SPORT Media Publishing, Inc. 1-894963-01-6, p. 417 Awards and honors By the end of the season, Art Hillhouse would end up being the leading scorer of the entire league for the thirteenth season of its return and its nineteenth overall season of its existence with 423 points scored for an average of 12.4 points per game. References Category:Philadelphia Sphas seasons Philadelphia Philadelphia Sphas Philadelphia Sphas