1943–44 Philadelphia Sphas season

American basketball team season Philadelphia Sphas American Basketball League (revived original) 1944 12 14 4th (1st half), 1st (2nd half) Eddie Gottlieb Eddie Gottlieb Eddie Gottlieb Broadwood Hotel Lost ABL championship 4–3 to the Wilmington Blue Bombers The Philadelphia Sphas were an early, historical example of an American professional basketball team. The 1943–44 season was the eleventh 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 seventeenth official season played by the original ABL properly, though this would officially be the 27th 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". 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, 259–260 After deciding to have their previous season of play actually utilize a full season of play instead of two half seasons due to them missing out on a championship playoff match-up from the season before that one, the ABL decided (for what would later become for the final time in its entire existence) to utilize the two half season formatting of play one last time, with the two best teams in each half-season later competing in a best-of-seven championship series this time around. Not only that, but similar to the previous season, due to the trying times of the World War II period at hand, the ABL would agree to terms with the rivaling NBL to prohibit the transfer of players between their two professional basketball leagues without due compensation in order to minimize the effects of many players joining the war effort during this period of time (with this agreement only now being held again without the inclusion of the minor league Connecticut State Basketball League, who had folded operations following the conclusion of the previous season of play1942-1943 https://probasketballencyclopedia.com/seasons/1942-1943/ Pro Basketball Encyclopedia1943-1944 https://probasketballencyclopedia.com/seasons/1943-1944/ Pro Basketball Encyclopedia).Nelson Murry R. The National Basketball League: A History, 1935–1949 McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers 2009 978-0-7864-4006-1, p. 114 Due to the ABL deciding to utilize the two half season formatting one more time instead of a full regular season format like they had done the previous season, teams in the ABL were given a lot more games to play in their official schedules than the varied amounts they had throughout the prior season despite not only having the same amount of teams for the first half of the season, but less teams entering the second half of the season by comparison to the previous season of play. With that being said, in the Sphas' quest to repeat as champions once again and become ABL champions for the seventh time in eleven overall seasons of play, their first half of the season would go about as poorly as it could have possibly gotten for them, as the Sphas finished the first half of the season with a very poor 4–10 record for a fourth place finish, placing only higher than the Brooklyn Indians with their 2–9 record that later caused them to withdraw from the ABL's second half of the season entirely (though they did later compete in the 1944 World Professional Basketball Tournament as the Brooklyn Eagles, where they surprisingly made it all the way to the championship round there before ultimately losing that match to the eventual champions of both the WPBT and the rivaling National Basketball League, the Fort Wayne Zollner Pistons). Looking to have a sense of redemption for their second half of the season, the Sphas would kick things into overdrive for that second half of the season and have a much better 8–4 record to close things out with a first place finish for that second half of the season. Despite finishing the overall season with a below-average 12–14 record (which would be the first time in their ABL history that the Sphas would end their season with a losing record, as well as their first season since technically their second and final season of play in the Philadelphia Basket Ball League, if not their first season in the Philadelphia League or even the 1920–21 American League of Philadelphia season where the Sphas would end a season of theirs with a losing record), due to the formatting of the two half seasons utilized within the ABL, the second half champion Sphas would compete against the first half champion Wilmington Bombers (who revived their operations under a shortened up name from their original Wilmington Blue Bombers name from their inaugural championship season, though with an entirely new roster at hand outside of veteran guard Moe Frankel, center Ed Sadowski and head coach Barney Sedran leading the team this time around despite the fact that the Trenton Tigers had a better overall record for both halves of this season (15–11) than the Sphas did. In any case, initially, it did appear as though the Sphas would pull off the championship series upset at first and get their seventh championship in eleven straight seasons of play in the revived ABL after getting a 3–1 series lead following a 31–44 Game 1 defeat at home. However, similar to what Philadelphia had done to the Jersey Reds in the 1937 championship series, the Wilmington Bombers would end up winning three straight games back themselves to deny the Sphas their seventh championship (and a secured dynasty) in the ABL this season, thus technically giving Wilmington back-to-back championship teams for the seasons their franchise actually played in the ABL during this point in time. 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.1943-44 Philadelphia SPHAs basketball Roster on StatsCrew.com https://www.statscrew.com/basketball/roster/t-ABLSPH/y-1943 StatsCrew.com 1943–44 Philadelphia Sphas #4070C0 #FFFFFF #FFFFFF #CC0000 Moe Becker G/F 6 1 185 Duquesne 1917–02–24 Irv Davis 1 F/C 6 2 195 NYU 1915–01–10 Jerry Fleishman G 6 2 190 NYU 1922–02–14 George Garber 1 G/F 6 2 180 George Washington 1918–02–26 Jack Garfinkel G 6 0 190 St. John's 1918–06–13 Ed Hall basketball 1 G/F 6 2 190 Unknown Unknown Art Hillhouse C 6 7 220 Long Island University 1916–06–12 Herm Knuppel 1 C 6 8 240 Panzer College 1915–02–20 Inky Lautman 1 F/C 6 2 205 Central HS (PA) 1914–05–22 Chink Morganstine 1 G 6 0 200 Temple 1918–05–09 Paul Nowak basketball C 6 5 210 Notre Dame 1914–03–14 Irv Reichman 1 G 5 10 170 La Salle 1922–01–27 Red Rosan F/C 6 2 195 Temple 1911–05–22 Petey Rosenberg G 5 10 165 Saint Joseph's 1918–04–07 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 Dan Silver 1 C 6 3 180 Unknown Unknown Nat Silverberg 1 C 6 3 180 Long Island University 1922–09–06 Irv Torgoff F 6 2 192 Long Island University 1917–03–06 Leonard Weiner 1 G/F 6 1 180 Unknown 1923–10–26 Red Wolfe basketball G 5 11 165 St. John's 1905–07–18 Eddie Gottlieb Note: The official team for the 1944 ABL Championship Series would involve Jerry Fleishman, Jack Garfinkel, Art Hillhouse, Herm Knuppel, Inky Lautman, Red Rosan, Ossie Schectman, Butch Schwartz, Irv Torgoff, and Red Wolfe (which would be close to half of the team's overall roster for this season, if not exactly half of the team's overall roster, depending on whether Dan Silver was actually Nat Silverberg or not).PHILADELPHIA SPHAS https://probasketballencyclopedia.com/season/philadelphia-sphas-15/ Pro Basketball EncyclopediaWilk Mike Peach Basket Society: 1943-44 Philadelphia SPHA's (ABL) https://peachbasketsociety.blogspot.com/2018/03/1943-44-philadelphia-sphas-abl.html Peach Basket Society 23 March 2018 ABL Standings +First HalfTeamWinsLossesWinning %Wilmington Bombers124.750New York Americans96.600Trenton Tigers86.571Philadelphia SPHAs410.286Brooklyn IndiansNote1 a a29.182 +Second HalfTeamWinsLossesWinning %Philadelphia SPHAs84.667Trenton Tigers75.583Wilmington Bombers55.500New York Americans28.200 ABL Schedule For the last time in the ABL's history, the Sphas would compete in a season where it was held with a first half and a second half before utilizing a championship series between the two best teams in each half that season (which involved the Wilmington Blue Bombers and the Sphas competing in a best of seven championship series this time around). +First Half#DateOpponentScoreRecord1ANovember 12@ New York Americans43–440–12ANovember 13Trenton Tigers35–400–23ANovember 20New York Americans44–421–24ANovember 21@ Brooklyn IndiansNote1 a a46–352–25ANovember 28@ Wilmington Bombers39–373–26ADecember 4Wilmington Bombers43–483–37ADecember 11Brooklyn IndiansNote1 a a46–434–38ADecember 12@ Trenton Tigers42–474–49ADecember 15?@ New York Americans37–574–510ADecember 18Trenton Tigers33–504–611ADecember 19@ Wilmington Bombers44–504–712ADecember 25Wilmington Bombers36–504–813AJanuary 2@ Trenton Tigers32–38 (OT)4–914AJanuary 8New York Americans40–484–10 +Second Half#DateOpponentScoreRecord1BJanuary 15Trenton Tigers42–460–12BJanuary 16@ Wilmington Bombers52–361–13BJanuary 21@ New York Americans37–381–24BJanuary 22New York Americans52–442–25BJanuary 29Wilmington Bombers63–423–26BJanuary 30@ Trenton Tigers33–443–37BFebruary 5Trenton Tigers54–464–38BFebruary 12New York Americans49–475–39BFebruary 19Wilmington Bombers39–366–310BFebruary 20@ Trenton Tigers52–517–311BFebruary 26New York Americans62–498–312BFebruary 27@ Wilmington Bombers30–388–4 +Championship SeriesGameDateOpponentScoreRecordGame 1March 4Wilmington Bombers31–440–1Game 2March 5@ Wilmington Bombers42–351–1Game 3March 12@ Wilmington Bombers50–442–1Game 4March 18Wilmington Bombers56–513–1Game 5March 19@ Wilmington Bombers38–453–2Game 6March 25Wilmington Bombers36–573–3Game 7March 26@ Wilmington Bombers33–574–3 Notes Note1 a aThe Brooklyn Indians would drop out of the ABL by the end of the first half of the season, later rebranding themselves as the Brooklyn Eagles for independent play before the second half of the season officially began (notably playing under that name by the time the 1944 World Professional Basketball Tournament happened). References Category:Philadelphia Sphas seasons Philadelphia Philadelphia Sphas Philadelphia Sphas