1938–39 Jersey Reds season

Jersey Reds (basketball) Jersey Reds American Basketball League (revived original) 1939 19 14 Muggsy Miller Muggsy Miller(?) Muggsy Miller(?) Columbia ParkJERSEY REDS - Pro Basketball Encyclopedia en-US Pro Basketball Encyclopedia 2014-05-30 2026-10-09 https://probasketballencyclopedia.com/season/jersey-reds-5/ 3 Lost ABL championship series 3–0 to the New York Jewels. The 1938–39 Jersey Reds season was officially the eighth professional basketball season played by the Jersey Reds franchise and their fifth season played in the city of North Bergen, New Jersey under their proper Jersey Reds name after they previously played their first three seasons as the Union City Reds (two of which were played in the revived version of the Metropolitan Basketball League) in nearby Union City, New Jersey. For the first time in the franchise's history, they sought to repeat as champions in the ABL, though this season would see their league operate under a proper regular season format similar to what the rivaling National Basketball League was doing. This season would also see eight teams competing in the league this season with two new teams in the Washington Heurichs works team and the Wilkes-Barre Barons (the latter of which had history dating as far back as 1914) being added to the league while the New York Celtics were technically replaced by the Troy Haymakers in the process. Unfortunately for the defending champions, the Reds would not perform as well as a team when compared to how they did in their previous two seasons in the ABL, as they'd finish the season with an above-average record of 19–14 for a third place finish behind the Philadelphia Sphas and the Kingston Colonials, though Jersey would qualify for the newly-formatted ABL Playoffs due to its formatting having the four best teams in the league qualify for the event similar to what the rivaling NBL would later do from 1941 to 1944. However, the Reds would end up facing off against the Colonials in the semifinal round of the playoffs, with Jersey later upsetting them 2–1 to earn a shot at repeating as league champions in the ABL this season. Despite their upset semifinals victory against Kingston, however, the Jersey Reds would end up failing to repeat as champions against the #4 seeded team of the playoffs, the New York Jewels, due to the Jewels surprisingly sweeping the defending champions 3–0 in the ABL's championship series to conclude the season. 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.1938-39 Jersey Reds (ABL) en peachbasketsociety.blogspot.com Mike Wilk 2026-10-09 https://peachbasketsociety.blogspot.com/2018/02/1938-39-jersey-reds-abl.html1938 Jersey Reds basketball Statistics en StatsCrew 2026-10-09 2026-10-09 https://www.statscrew.com/basketball/roster/t-ABLJER/y-1938 1938–39 Jersey Reds #CC0000 #FFFFFF #CC0000 #FFFFFF Paulie Adamo 1 G 5 11 165 Panzer College 1907-01-11 Hook Anderson 1 G/F 5 11 185 NYU 1912-04-08 Al Benson basketball C 6 5 220 Seton Hall 1914-07-27 Ben Carnevale F 6 4 195 NYU 1915-10-30 Ace Goldstein Ace Abbott 1 G/F 6 1 190 CCNY 1917-03-20 Chuck Huntington 1 C 6 3 190 No college 1902-09-03 Tommy O'Brien basketball G/F 5 8 165 George Washington 1916-02-16 Red Paris 1 F 5 8 150 CCNY 1918-01-08 Phil Rabin 1 G/F 5 9 150 Long Island University 1913-07-10 Lou Rosenfeld basketball 1 F 6 1 190 Long Island University 1916-07-03 Eddie Schurmann 1 G 6 2 175 NYU 1918-07-27 Moe Spahn F 6 1 180 CCNY 1912-05-03 Irv Torgoff F 6 2 192 Long Island University 1917-03-06 Fats Wyka 1 F 6 1 190 No college 1907-09-19 Muggsy Miller Note: Not only would Irv Torgoff only be with the team during the ABL Playoffs (for one game) for this season, but the Reds would also be without Ben Carnevale, Chuck Huntington, Red Paris, Lou Rosenfeld, Eddie Schurmann, and Fats Wyka during that same period of time as well. American Basketball League Standings Pos. League Standings Wins Losses Win %1 Kingston Colonials 28 7 .8002 Philadelphia SPHAs 24 9 .7273 Jersey Reds 19 14 .5764 New York Jewels 19 15 .5595 Wilkes-Barre Barons 14 22 .3896 Troy Haymakers 12 21 .3647 Brooklyn Visitations 7 20 .2598 Washington Heurichs 7 22 .241 The top four teams would later compete in a playoff format this season, with the best team competing against the third-best team and the second-best team competing against the fourth-best team through a best-of-three series in the semifinal round before the winning two teams from each round would go up against each other in a best-of-three championship series. American Basketball League Playoffs For the first time since the 1927–28 season (or ever in terms of its revived history), the American Basketball League would host a proper playoff series for their league by the end of the regular season instead of a championship series between the two best teams on each half-season of play (with potential tiebreaker series of match-ups going down after each half-season is over and done with). American Basketball League Semifinals Game Date Opponent Score RecordGame 1March 15@ Kingston Colonials39–321–0Game 2March 19Kingston Colonials25–291–1Game 2March 26Kingston Colonials39–362–1 AMERICAN BASKETBALL LEAGUE - Pro Basketball Encyclopedia en-US Pro Basketball Encyclopedia 2014-05-30 2026-10-09 https://probasketballencyclopedia.com/league/american-basketball-league-16/ American Basketball League Championship Round Game Date Opponent Score RecordGame 1March 31@ Jersey Reds30–340–1Game 2April 2Jersey RedsNote1 a a36–400–2Game 3April 9Jersey RedsNote1 a a34–37 (OT)0–3 Bradley Grasso Robert John Total Basketball: The Ultimate Basketball Encyclopedia 2003 SPORT Media Publishing, Inc. 1-894963-01-6, p. 414 Awards and honors By the end of the season, Phil Rabin would end up being the leading scorer of the entire league for the third straight season in a row in its sixth season of its return and the twelfth season of its overall existence with 341 points scored for an average of 10.3 points per game. Rabin would record his third straight season of averaging at least 10 points per game in an entire season in the process there. In addition to that, he would also join Naismith Basketball Hall of Famer Bennie Borgmann as the only other player to lead the ABL in scoring (either in its original iteration or in the revived version of it) for three straight seasons in a row. Note Note1 a a Games were played in Brooklyn. References Jersey Jersey Reds Jersey Reds