Metropolitan Basketball League II (MBL2)
History: 1932-1933 (2 seasons)
Metropolitan Basketball League II (MBL2)
History 1932-1933 (2 seasons)
Leagues
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Basketball
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MBL2
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 late February of 1932, with only a month to go in the basketball season, the Metropolitan League finally got underway and played a limited 12-game their first season and a 39 game schedule in 1932-33. The seven-team league had three teams in Brooklyn, two on Long Island, and two in New Jersey. Most of the interest in the league was focused on the Brooklyn Jewels, led by Mac Kinsbrunner and 4 other rookies, all from St. John University. In their college days they had compiled a 86-8 record in their 4 years together. As pros, they continued to dominate, making the championship in both of the league's seasons.
During the summer of 1933, the Metropolitan Basketball League recruited the Eastern Basketball League’s two best teams to join with five clubs from the MBL to form a reorganized version of the American Basketball League for the 1933-34 season.
what a year. the competitiveness of the ABL really brought the NBA out of its duldrums.