Eastern Basket Ball League II (EBL2)
History: 1929-1933 (5 seasons)
Eastern Basket Ball League II (EBL2)
History 1929-1933 (5 seasons)
Leagues
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Basketball
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EBL2
As professional basketball prepared to begin the 1931-32 season, it seemed as if the preceding decade had not existed. All traces of the progress of the past ten years, including the ambitious American Basketball League, had been swept away. The sport’s leading players were distributed once again in small regional leagues such as the Eastern and Metropolitan Leagues. Depression realities forced performers back to the draining practice of playing with multiple teams in more than one league at a time.
In 1932, the Eastern Basketball League, the preeminent circuit from 1912 until it folded in 1923, returned to its position at the forefront of the pro game thanks to the collapse of the ABL the year prior. Throughout its short existence, the league was dominated by the Philadelphia Sphas. Led by coach and basketball legend, Eddie Gottleib, the Sphas won 3 straight championships in the EBL.
During the summer of 1933, league disbanded as the Eastern Basketball League’s two best teams joined five clubs from the MBL to form a reorganized version of the American Basketball League for the 1933-34 season.
