The Philadelphia Sphas were an early, historical example of an American professional basketball team. The 1939–40 season was the seventh 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 thirteenth official season played by the original ABL properly, though this would officially be the 23rd 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. This would also become the second straight season in the American Basketball League's revived format (and the third overall season in the ABL's history) where the league would have one whole season properly instead of instead of two half seasons of play, though this season would become the only season in the ABL's history where the league's championship would be determined by a round-robin tournament style of formatting instead of either a regular playoff formatting or a championship series match-up between the two best teams in each half-season of play due to the amount of teams either merging with each other or otherwise leaving the league by the end of the season.
When trying to reclaim their place as champions of the ABL for the fourth time in seven seasons, the Sphas would end up tying this season with the now-rebranded Washington Heurich Brewers for a first-place finish with an above-average 19–13 record (though the Sphas would later be named the sole winners for first place in the ABL this season following a 34–27 home victory on March 9, 1940, over the Heurich Brewers that was considered the official tiebreaker first place match of the season). Not only that, but the ABL was originally planning on utilizing another playoff format similar to the previous season they had due to them using a full season format instead of two half-season formats for a potential championship series match-up between the two half-season winners before the ABL decreased its number of teams from eight to five due to the merger of the Troy Haymakers and the (original) Kingston Colonials into the Troy Celtics, the merger of the New York Jewels and the Jersey Reds into the same New York Jewels team that would survive for the long-term, and the (original) Wilkes-Barre Barons dropping out of the league respectively. Because of the sudden, drastic reduction of teams throughout the season with every surviving team having relatively close records toward each other, the ABL decided that instead of having a proper playoff format like its previous season of play, they would utilize a round-robin tournament format where each one of the Philadelphia Sphas, Washington Heurich Brewers, Troy Celtics, New York Celtics, and Baltimore Clippers would play each other twice in a row before one of them was declared the league's champions for this season (though this round-robin tournament would result in the Sphas not participating in the 1940 World Professional Basketball Tournament alongside the Washington Heurich Brewers), although one game between the New York Jewels and Washington Heurich Brewers was ultimately cancelled without ever being played since it failed to make a difference in the overall tournament's standings (outside of potentially having Washington be tied with Baltimore for last place). Following the Sphas' first tournament win over the Troy Celtics on March 16, 1940, Philadelphia would end up going undefeated throughout the rest of the round-robin tournament, finishing it in first place with a perfect 8–0 record (with the Troy Celtics being in second place for a 6–2 finish, followed by the New York Jewels with a 3–4 record, then the Washington Heurich Brewers with a 1–6 record, and finally the Baltimore Clippers with a 1–7 finale) to give the Sphas their fourth ever ABL championship in seven seasons played within the revived ABL's history.
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.
Note: Mike Bloom, Leo Gottlieb (not related to team owner, general manager, and head coach Eddie Gottlieb), and Phil Rabin would not play for the team during the 1940 ABL Round-Robin Tournament that would end up replacing the usual ABL Championship Series this time around.
ABL Standings Pos. League Standings Wins Losses Win % T–1 Philadelphia SPHAs 19 13 .594 Washington Heurich Brewers 19 13 .5943 Troy Celtics 19 15 .5594 New York Jewels 15 15 .5005 Baltimore Clippers 15 16 .4846* Kingston Colonials 8 4 .6677* Jersey Reds 7 14 .3338* Troy Haymakers 3 9 .2509* Wilkes-Barre Barons 5 17 .227 * – Unofficial placement for the team this season.
ABL Schedule This season would mark the second straight season in the revived version of the ABL's history to have a regular, full regular season instead of two half seasons merged into one whole season of play. However, due to the way this season of the ABL went down, the playoff formatting for this season would eventually get reduced down into a round-robin tournament format for a championship setting (which was the first and only time the ABL would do such a thing). # Date Opponent Score Record1November 4Wilkes-Barre Barons50–341–02November 8@ Kingston Colonials44–292–03November 11Kingston Colonials39–412–14November 16@ Wilkes-Barre Barons59–423–15November 18Jersey Reds47–374–16November 19@ Jersey Reds44–464–27November 24@ Baltimore Clippers32–384–38November 25Washington Heurich Brewers51–375–39December 9Troy Haymakers59–456–310December 10@ New York Jewels32–247–311December 14@ Washington Heurich Brewers35–268–312December 16Baltimore Clippers35–368–413December 20@ Troy Celtics38–40 (OT)8–514December 23Jersey Reds40–319–515January 6New York Jewels39–419–616January 13Baltimore Clippers46–4410–617January 14@ New York Jewels44–2111–618January 17@ Troy Celtics36–1912–619January 20Troy Celtics36–3812–720January 27Washington Heurich Brewers38–3113–721January 29Wilkes-Barre Barons44–3214–722February 3New York Jewels39–5114–823February 4(Game 1)@ Washington Heurich Brewers33–4314–924February 4(Game 2)@ Baltimore Clippers40–3415–925February 10Troy Celtics32–3815–1026February 14@ Troy Celtics30–4315–1127February 17Washington Heurich Brewers30–3115–1228February 18@ New York Jewels34–2516–1229February 22@ Washington Heurich Brewers29–2117–1230February 24Baltimore Clippers51–3618–1231February 25@ Baltimore Clippers35–3718–1332March 2New York Jewels44–2719–1333 (T)March 9Washington Heurich Brewers34–2720–13 The last game played would technically be considered a tiebreaker match for first place in the ABL this season. At least one resource would misconstrue the tiebreaker first place game against the Washington Heurich Brewers as something that would be considered as the equivalent of a proper championship series playoff (match-up) that the ABL would normally have held by this point in time due to the fact that the ABL had previously held championship series tournaments before this point in time combined with the facts that both Philadelphia and Washington were the two best teams in the league, both Philadelphia and Washington would compete in the impromptu round-robin tournament that the ABL held this season, and the Philadelphia Sphas eventually became the champions of the league anyway by having a perfect record in that event all the same.
ABL Round-Robin Tournament Standings Pos. League Standings Wins Losses Win %1 Philadelphia SPHAs 8 0 1.0002 Troy Celtics 6 2 .7503 New York Jewels 3 4 .4294 Washington Heurich Brewers 1 6 .1435 Baltimore Clippers 1 7 .125 One game between the New York Jewels and the Washington Heurich Brewers ultimately became cancelled near the end of the Round Robin Tournament.
ABL Round-Robin Tournament Due to the unique circumstances involved with this season of play (namely seeing the eight-team league go down to only five competitive teams by the end of the season due to multiple team mergers and a folding occur in the case of the (original) Wilkes-Barre Barons franchise), the ABL would implement their first and only round-robin tournament setting instead of a more typical playoff format like what was done in some past ABL seasons or like within the rivaling National Basketball League or even only utilizing a championship round with the two best teams of the league (in this case, the Philadelphia Sphas and the Washington Heurich Brewers) similar to most other ABL seasons by comparison. With this round-robin tournament, the remaining five teams from this season (the Philadelphia Sphas, Washington Heurich Brewers, Troy Celtics, New York Jewels, and Baltimore Clippers) would compete in a unique tournament where each of the five remaining ABL teams would compete against each other twice (once at home and once on the road, though it wouldn't always be the case during this tournament) in order to help determine the champion of the ABL (with a potential tiebreaker series later being in mind if it was deemed necessary in the end). Luckily for the ABL's case, they wouldn't need to do a tiebreaker afterward, as the Philadelphia Sphas would end up having a perfect 8–0 record after defeating each of the Washington Heurich Brewers, Troy Celtics, New York Jewels, and Baltimore Clippers twice in that round-robin tournament, with their wins over the Troy Celtics on March 16 & April 3, 1940 in particular being the games that helped lead to the Sphas winning the ABL's championship (their fourth one in seven seasons in the revived league) in the process. +ABL Round-Robin TournamentGameDateOpponentScoreRecordGame 1March 16Troy Celtics32–291–0Game 2March 17@ New York Jewels33–272–0Game 3March 23Baltimore Clippers43–363–0Game 4March 24@ Baltimore Clippers51–324–0Game 5March 30New York Jewels37–355–0Game 6April 3@ Troy Celtics32–286–0Game 7April 6Washington Heurich Brewers51–447–0Game 8April 8@ Washington Heurich Brewers48–308–0 The Philadelphia Sphas would be crowned the league's champions for this season due to them finishing the ABL's Round-Robin Tournament with a perfect 8–0 record.
Notes The Philadelphia Sphas would defeat the Washington Heurich Brewers on March 9, 1940, with a 34–27 final score to secure first place officially with what could be considered a 20–13 record (.606 win percentage) on the Sphas' end and a 19–14 record (.576 win percentage) on the Heurich Brewers' end instead of an officially recorded 19–13 record (.594 win percentage) for both teams.