1940–41 National Basketball League (United States) season

The 1940–41 NBL season was the sixth overall season for the U.S.A.'s National Basketball League (NBL) and its fourth season under that name after previously going by the Midwest Basketball Conference (a semipro or amateur precursor to the NBL) in its first two seasons of existence. Entering this season, the NBL would drop divisional play for the first time in the league's history, with seven teams competing in the NBL this season, with the Indianapolis Kautskys leaving the NBL this season on a temporary basis in order to test out how they'd perform as a barnstorming franchise; the Detroit Eagles had initially joined in with the Kautskys on dropping out of the NBL due to the lack of a firm financial situation regarding the team and their home venue situation at the time, but they would resolve those problems in time to start out the NBL season as a team to rejoin the league properly. As such, the seven competing teams in the NBL would see themselves play a total of 24 scheduled NBL games against each other (with each team having two home and two road games against each other). Because there was no divisional play in mind for this season, the NBL Playoffs would involve the four best teams competing against each other (with the best team competing against the third-best team and the second-best team competing against the fourth-best team), with the two best teams that won their semifinals matchups competing against each other in the championship series. In this case, the Oshkosh All-Stars would sweep the two-time champion Akron Firestone Non-Skids two games to none and the Sheboygan Red Skins would beat the Detroit Eagles two games to one, with the championship series matchup seeing the Oshkosh All-Stars defeating the Sheboygan Red Skins two games to own for their first NBL championship. An entire book focusing on the NBL's existence would be released in 2009 by historian and author Murry R. Nelson called "The National Basketball League: A History, 1935–1949", with an entire chapter being dedicated to this season of play.^[1]

Following its 12th season of existence as the NBL, the NBL and Basketball Association of America (the latter league not existing until 1946) merged operations to create the National Basketball Association. Despite the NBL continuing to exist until the 1948–49 NBL season as the longer-lasting operation, the NBL would not recognize the twelve NBL seasons (nor the two MBC precursor seasons nor even the one National Professional Basketball League season that inspired the league's creation) as a part of its own history (outside of certain circumstances), sometimes without comment. As such, none of the previous twelve NBL seasons nor even the two MBC seasons would officially be recognized by the NBA, with the NBA recognizing the 1946–47 BAA season as its first official season of play instead.

Of the seven NBL teams that competed in the league this season, only one of these teams in the Sheboygan Red Skins would end up playing in what can be considered the modern-day NBA. Even then, Sheboygan would only play for the 1949–50 NBA season before leaving the NBA to create their own rivaling professional basketball league called the National Professional Basketball League (which would not be related to the NPBL that the NBL had been inspired from, as well as ultimately lasted for only one season before being forced to close up operations early). While the new NBL champion Oshkosh All-Stars were also considered for the NBL-BAA merger that became the modern-day NBA, no other NBL team from this season would end up joining the NBA once the two leagues merged.

• Originally, the NBL season was intended to be a six-team league for this season due to both the Indianapolis Kautskys and Detroit Eagles leaving the league at the time, with the Kautskys doing it to experiment as a barnstorming franchise and the Eagles leaving (at first) because they couldn't secure any deals with home venue play for this season early on. However, before the season officially began, the Eagles (under new ownership) managed to secure a new deal to play for the Brodhead Naval Armory in order to quickly rejoin the NBL in time to start out the new NBL season, with the NBL itself accommodating the Eagles' last-minute return to have each team play other four times (with two home and two away games for each other) for a total of 24 games played for their season.^[2] Not only would this lead to the NBL having to resort to not having division play for the first time in league history (despite them having more teams on board now than when they actually would bring back divisions for the NBL), but this also resulted in every team playing the proper amount of scheduled games for the first time in league history after previously having schedules that were either done on a team-by-team basis or having certain teams not meet their originally planned number of games met for the season.
• As a result of the NBL not having divisions this season, the NBL Playoffs this season was agreed to involve the first place team competing against the third place team in a best of three series, while the second place team would compete against the fourth place team in their own best of three series, with the two best remaining teams there competing in an NBL Championship series in what was now a best of five series, similar to the 1939 NBL Playoffs/Championship series held.^[3]
• Before the NBL season began, the Detroit Eagles would change their ownership from head coach and general manager Gerry Archibald to a group ownership between a banker, an auto dealer, and a Chrysler Motors Corporation executive.^[4]
• While the NBL's season officially began on November 27, 1940 with the Oshkosh All-Stars defeating the Akron Goodyear Wingfoots works team through a 44–27 blowout victory, it wouldn't be until early December where every team would actually play a scheduled NBL game this season.^[4]
• After dealing with slow starts early in their previous two seasons, the Oshkosh All-Stars would start this season out with a 10–1 record (including a 6–0 record and then an 8–0 start to their season) for what can be considered their best start to a season in the NBL.^[5][6] This led to them getting an easy first-place finish in the entire NBL.
• For the first time in the NBL's season, Leroy Edwards of the Oshkosh All-Stars would not end up being the highest scorer in the NBL nor would finish the season as the MVP of the league due to him making sure he properly recovered from his injuries this season. Both of those honors would go to Ben Stephens of the Akron Goodyear Wingfoots (who wouldn't even make it to the revamped NBL Playoffs this season) instead.
• Near the halfway point of the season, the competition for third place primarily featured the Akron Goodyear Wingfoots, Chicago Bruins, and Detroit Eagles, with the two-time defending NBL champion Akron Firestone Non-Skids works team not being seen as likely to even return to the NBL Playoffs by the end of the regular season, never mind potentially get a three-peat as champions. However, only one of those three teams would end up making it to the playoffs this season, as the Firestone squad would surprisingly upset their way into third place by the end of the season.^[7]
• With a 65–46 blowout victory for Oshkosh over the Hammond Ciesar All-Americans, the All-Stars franchise would end up finishing their season in first place (either in the entire NBL or in the Western Division back when the NBL first used divisional formatting) for the fourth straight season in a row.^[8]
• Near the end of the season, Ralph Vaughn would leave the Hammond Ciesar All-Skins (due to economic and disciplinary issues, to the point where he had been considered suspended from play instead) to play for the Chicago Bruins in the hopes of having a last-minute playoff push for the Bruins. While Vaughn had hoped to help the Bruins out, his impact there would be minimal with three games played for them where he scored 0 points in his first game and 8 points in each of the next two matches afterward, with the first match also being notable for Connie Mack Berry of the Oshkosh All-Stars seriously injuring Wibs Kautz by opening "a three-inch cut over his eye" and potentially giving Kautz a broken nose as well.^[8] Despite the limited production during his time with Chicago, Ralph Vaughn would end up being the first All-NBL Team member (either first team or second team) to play for multiple teams in the same season while being named a member of one of the All-NBL Team honors for the season.
• Despite the Akron Firestone Non-Skids having a last minute tie with the Sheboygan Red Skins for the second place spot in the league, due to an arrangement involving a coin flip, the Non-Skids' tie for second place would be disregarded and they would be considered the third place team in the NBL Playoffs to compete against the Oshkosh All-Stars, while the Sheboygan Red Skins went up against the Detroit Eagles for the semifinal round of the playoffs.^[9]
• Following the championship series' finale, the page opposite of the recap of the last NBL championship game between the Oshkosh All-Stars and the Sheboygan Red Skins (which became the battle of Wisconsin for the NBL's championship this season) in the Oshkosh Daily Northwestern would have a half-dozen 3" × 3" and 6" × 9" advertisements congratulating the Oshkosh All-Stars' NBL championship that came from Oshkosh's various businesses, which reinforced the long-time support the franchise had within the city's business community.^[10]
• Sometime after the season ended, the two All-NBL Teams announced would end up having six players confirmed for each team instead of the usual five players confirmed for each team (likely due to tiebreaker purposes). This would mark the first NBL season to have such a thing occur.
• After the NBL Playoffs ended, over half of the NBL's teams would end up playing in the 1941 World Professional Basketball Tournament, an annual tournament that had been held in the city of Chicago with the Chicago Bruins, Detroit Eagles, the new NBL champions in the Oshkosh All-Stars, and the Sheboygan Red Skins joining the rivaling ABL's champions in the Philadelphia Sphas, the former NBL team known as the Indianapolis Kautskys alongside future NBL/NBA teams in the Fort Wayne Zollner Pistons and Rochester Seagrams (later known as the Rochester Royals) and most other teams that were considered independently ran this season. For this season, two of the NBL's teams in the Sheboygan Red Skins and the Chicago Bruins would be defeated in the first round and quarterfinal round respectively by the Toledo White Huts (who later joined the NBL as the Toledo Jim White Chevrolets and potentially returned there as the Toledo Jeeps), while the Detroit Eagles (who had beaten the Kautskys in the first round before beating the previous two WPBT champions in the world famous all-black Harlem Globetrotters and the all-black New York Renaissance in the next two rounds afterward) and the Oshkosh All-Stars (who had beaten the Zollner Pistons in the first round before beating the ABL champion Philadelphia Sphas and the Toledo White Huts in their next two rounds) would end up facing off against each other in the WPBT championship round, ensuring the NBL would have their first champions in the WPBT's history. The championship round would later end with Detroit upsetting Oshkosh with a 39–37 victory for the NBL's first ever championship representative in the WPBT, if only for this season's conclusion.

Due to this season being the first time where the NBL abandoned the usage of divisions entirely, this season's playoffs would instead showcase the top four teams competing against each other (with the top team competing against the third-best team and the second-best team competing against the fourth-best team in the league) in a best of three format, with the two best teams remaining competing against each other in the NBL Championship series, which was a best of five series similar to the previous two NBL championships held. Following the new playoff formatting held for this season, the Oshkosh All-Stars were considered the best team in the NBL and would compete against the two-time defending NBL champion Akron Firestone Non-Skids works team, while the team that's closest to Oshkosh, the Sheboygan Red Skins, were the second-best team in the NBL and competed against the Detroit Eagles. This time around, the Oshkosh All-Stars would get their revenge on the Firestone Non-Skids by sweeping them 2–0, while the Sheboygan Red Skins would defeat the Detroit Eagles 2–1 to not just see the end of both losing squads' tenures in the NBL, but also lead to a cityside championship match-up within the state of Wisconsin between the Oshkosh and Sheboygan squads. However, unlike the previous two NBL championship matches that utilized all five of their games played, the All-Stars would sweep Sheboygan 3–0, officially giving Oshkosh their first NBL championship in the franchise's young history in the NBL.

Note: Prior to the 1969–70 NBA season, league leaders in points were determined by totals rather than averages. Also, rebounding and assist numbers were not recorded properly in the NBL like they would be in the BAA/NBA, as would field goal and free-throw shooting percentages.

• NBL Most Valuable Player: Ben Stephens, Akron Goodyear Wingfoots
• NBL Coach of the Year: George Hotchkiss, Oshkosh All-Stars
• NBL Rookie of the Year: Ed Sadowski, Detroit Eagles

For reasons ultimately unknown, the 1940–41 NBL season would be the first NBL season to have six different members listed out for both the All-NBL First and Second Teams as opposed to the usual five members for both teams there. It would later be joined by the 1945–46 NBL season as the only other NBL season to do such a thing.^[22]

For the third World Professional Basketball Tournament ever hosted, it would feature a total of sixteen teams competing in the event held in Chicago on March 15–19, 1941, with four NBL teams in the Chicago Bruins, Detroit Eagles, Oshkosh All-Stars, and Sheboygan Red Skins competing against mostly independently ran teams (including the Indianapolis Kautskys team that left the NBL this season before later returning to the NBL the following season afterward and both the Fort Wayne Zollner Pistons and Rochester Seagrams, who held roots to the modern-day Detroit Pistons and Sacramento Kings NBA teams) alongside the rivaling American Basketball League's champions in the Philadelphia Sphas. Out of the four NBL teams this season that are competing in this event, the hometown Chicago Bruins would demolish the Davenport Central Turner Rockets with a 53–17 beatdown and the Detroit Eagles would defeat the (at the time) independently ran Indianapolis Kautskys with a 58–43 victory that essentially ended the Kautskys' first (brief) run out of the NBL on March 15, while the Sheboygan Red Skins would be upset in the first round by the Toledo White Huts with a 36–28 defeat for Sheboygan, and the Oshkosh All-Stars would essentially end the Fort Wayne Zollner Pistons' time as an independent works team and begin their journey as a professional basketball team that still exists in the present day with the All-Stars winning 47–41 a day later to have three of the four NBL's (current at the time) teams survive to the quarterfinal round. Interestingly enough, the Detroit Eagles and the world famous, all-black Harlem Globetrotters would be the only two teams to compete in the quarterfinal round on March 16 (with the Eagles barely upsetting the world famous Harlem Globetrotters with a 37–36 upset victory), while the day after that saw the Chicago Bruins lose to the Toledo White Huts next with a 43–33 defeat and the new NBL champions in the Oshkosh All-Stars defeat the repeating (and at the time, officially five-time) ABL champions in the Philadelphia Sphas with a 48–41 victory to help showcase the NBL as the superior professional basketball league to the ABL by this point in time to showcase two NBL teams competing in the semifinal round, similar to the inaugural WPBT event. This time around, however, the two NBL teams would compete against the remaining two independently ran teams that remained in the event, with the March 18 matches showcasing the Oshkosh All-Stars had the talent necessary to end the Toledo White Huts' run (and subsequently let them join the NBL the following season as the Toledo Jim White Chevrolets) with a 40–37 victory and the Detroit Eagles would upset the all-black New York Renaissance (a team that's considered more like a 100% serious version of the Harlem Globetrotters) with a very close 43–42 victory in order to get the final match of the event to become an all-NBL championship match to help secure the NBL's first championship team in the event's entire history. After the third place game ended (which saw the Renaissance beat down the White Huts 57–42), the Detroit Eagles went and held a significant lead by the end of the third quarter before Oshkosh tried to have a fourth quarter push that held the Eagles to only four points scored for that quarter, though it would not be enough for the All-Stars to steal a victory away from Detroit, as the Eagles would barely get a 39–37 win to secure the first WPBT championship by an NBL team representative, if only briefly since the Eagles would end up leaving the NBL the following season afterward. Because of the results showcased throughout the event, Buddy Jeannette of the Detroit Eagles would be named the MVP of the entire event, with his teammate Ed Sadowski and Oshkosh's Bob Carpenter joining Jeannette (alongside Toledo's Chuck Chuckovits and New York's Dolly King) as members of the All-Tournament Team this time around as well.

• National Basketball League (United States)

• NBL Standings, 1937–1949 on apbr.org
• National Basketball League III – 1940–41 NBL Season Overview on retroseasons.com