1945–46 Baltimore Bullets season

The 1945–46 Baltimore Bullets season was the second season played by the original Baltimore Bullets (who are not related to the NBA team that's currently known as the Washington Wizards) when they were in the original American Basketball League, which was in its nineteenth season of existence when combining the six seasons of its original run with the thirteen seasons in its more recent run at this point in time after their hiatus in relation to the Great Depression. After having a surprising first season where they almost won the ABL championship over the Philadelphia Sphas, they sought to improve their roster while having Red Rosan remain as their full-time head coach this time around in order to improve their chances at winning it all in their second season of existence. However, after they had started the season out rather poorly with a 2–4 start to the season, a trade with the Trenton Tigers where they acquired Ace Abbott (born Ace Goldsmith) from the Tigers would help change things around for them.^[2] His intensity and aggressiveness on the court would help the team out a bit more with them getting to a 7–8 record before the Bullets ended up making another critical trade with the Tigers, this time involving future NBA talent Art Spector being traded for another future NBA talent (one that would remain with the Bullets once they made their jump to that league, technically speaking) in Mike Bloom. That trade would help create the spark that was deemed necessary to help get them that late season push to tie their record with the Philadelphia Sphas with a 22–13 record by finishing the season with a 15–5 record under Abbott, Bloom, and Stanley Stutz's combined leadership.^[3] When the Bullets ended up beating the Sphas 63–61 to be crowned what can be deemed the divisional winners of the ABL, they soon faced off against the New York Gothams in the semifinal round and swept them 2–0 in what later turned out to be their last season under that New York name (they would later become the Brooklyn Gothams for the rest of their existence) before having a rematch with the Sphas in the championship round, with it being a best of five series this time around like the prior series was first intended to be. This time around, however, Philadelphia would win the first game of the championship series before Baltimore ended up taking the rest of the games from the series away from them in order to be crowned champions for the first time in their history with a 3–1 series victory over the Sphas, avenging their series loss from their very first season of existence.

In addition to playing in the ABL, the Bullets were also involved in the 1946 World Professional Basketball Tournament as the sole representative from the ABL's side of things that competed against teams who were either independently ran or were representing the longtime rivaling National Basketball League by comparison. For the Bullets, they competed against some very tough competition throughout the tournament by first competing against the runner-ups of the 1945 World Professional Basketball Tournament in the Dayton Mickeys (who rebranded themselves from the Acmes team name they used that previous year), the Anderson Chiefs (who later became the Anderson Duffey Packers of the NBL and then the Anderson Packers in the NBA and the short-lived National Professional Basketball League), the two-time defending NBL and WPBT champion Fort Wayne Zollner Pistons (who later became the Fort Wayne Pistons (now Detroit Pistons) due to the Basketball Association of America (later National Basketball Association) not allowing brand names to be a part of team names), and the NBL's Chicago American Gears throughout the event. However, while Baltimore ended up winning some very close matches over their first two opponents thanks in part due to some last-minute temporary roster pick-ups just for this tournament (including a pick-up from the ABL semifinal opponent they had beaten earlier on before the WPBT began, the New York Gothams), they could not complete the upset victory over the Zollner Pistons (thus eventually resulting in Fort Wayne getting a three-peat in the WPBT) and were later overwhelmed by young star center George Mikan from the American Gears when Chicago swept Baltimore in the third place consolation prize round 2–0 in their first ever appearance in that event. Despite it ending pretty badly for the Bullets, they would end up being one of the better performances from an ABL team to ever occur throughout the WPBT's history there.

Their official roster for the championship winning 1946 ABL Playoffs would involve Ace Abbott (born Ace Goldsmith), Jake Ahearn, Hook Anderson, Al Benson, Mike Bloom, Moe Dubilier, Johnny Norlander, Jackie Peters, and Stanley Stutz.^[4][1] Then, in the 1946 World Professional Basketball Tournament, three players that previously weren't on the regular roster before that point in time in Charlie Hoefer, Sidney Hertzberg, and Irv Rothenberg (all three of whom would later end up playing for the league that would later become the NBA) would end up playing for the Bullets' roster during that particular World Professional Basketball Tournament (replacing Ace Abbott, Al Benson, and Johnny Norlander only for that event), with Hertzberg's inclusion being especially notable since he was previously playing with their semifinal opponents in the New York Gothams before the WPBT even began for the 1946 year.^[5]

Tiebreaker Game: @ Philadelphia – Baltimore Bullets defeat Philadelphia Sphas 63–61 for first place finish.

(1) Baltimore Bullets vs. (3) New York Gothams: Baltimore wins series 2–0

• Game 1 @ New York: Baltimore 70, New York 59
• Game 2 @ Baltimore: Baltimore 81, New York 74

(1) Baltimore Bullets vs. (2) Philadelphia Sphas: Baltimore wins series 3–1

• Game 1: March 30, 1946 @ Philadelphia: Philadelphia 63, Baltimore 48
• Game 2: March 31, 1946 @ Baltimore: Baltimore 65, Philadelphia 48
• Game 3: April 13, 1946 @ Philadelphia: Baltimore 68, Philadelphia 45
• Game 4: April 14, 1946 @ Baltimore: Baltimore 54, Philadelphia 39

^[6]

Baltimore also played a match at Schenectady, New York on April 11, 1946 in-between Games 2 and 3 due to them playing a national professional invitational tournament there, with that game being considered a consolation prize round there. The game in question would end up going into overtime, but it ended with the Baltimore Bullets winning 61–58 over the Philadelphia Sphas in an unrelated tournament match that went to overtime.^[7]

• Stanley Stutz was considered the leading scorer of the entire ABL for the 1945–46 season.^[8] (In actuality, Art Hillhouse of the Philadelphia Sphas would claim that honor.)

Because the Baltimore Bullets officially held the best record in the regular season for the American Basketball League (and later won that league's championship), they were given their first ever invitation to the World Professional Basketball Tournament in Chicago, as well as the first official ABL representative of the WPBT since either the Brooklyn Eagles in the 1944 WPBT or the Philadelphia Sphas in the 1941 WPBT, depending on whether one would count the Brooklyn squad's first half inclusion that year in the ABL or not. In any case, the original Baltimore Bullets franchise would enter the 1946 World Professional Basketball Tournament that would run from March 25–April 8, 1946 for what would become its longest period ever for the WPBT's history as they competed against other teams that were either independently ran franchises or were from the longtime rivaling National Basketball League. In the first round, the Bullets saw themselves go up against the Dayton Mickeys (who were the rebranded version of the runner-up team from the previous year's WPBT event in the Dayton Acmes alongside the Dayton Aviators in 1944 and the Dayton Dive Bombers in 1943), a team that was composed of servicemen players that were primarily from the American Basketball League itself alongside the independently ran New York Renaissance team that had been stationed at the Wright Field in Riverside, Ohio despite World War II officially being over with. Despite the Dayton squad looking to get back into the championship round to potentially get revenge on the two-time NBL and WPBT champion Fort Wayne Zollner Pistons, the Bullets would end up making the first round match go down to the wire with Dayton, with the Baltimore roster upsetting the previous runner-up Mickeys 61–58 in what later became their final match ever played in the history of the WPBT.

As for the Bullets, their second round opponent would see them go up against another independently run team, this time going up against the Anderson Chiefs (sometimes being referred to as the Chief Anderson Meat Packers due to them being a works team that was created by Duffey Meat Packing, Inc.), a newly-created team that would beat an NBL team themselves in the Cleveland Allmen Transfers in what later became their final game ever played. Similar to the first round match that Baltimore had against the previous year's runner-ups in the WPBT, the Anderson Chiefs would prove to have a competitive edge to themselves that would get them noticed by the rivaling National Basketball League not long afterward (later being renamed to the Anderson Duffey Packers in the process there), but the Bullets would end up winning another close match in the end, this time with a 67–65 victory instead. The Bullets would later see the Anderson Packers (removing the Duffey part of their name by that time) when both franchises left the ABL and NBL respectively to join the BAA (first for the Bullets) and the National Basketball Association, with them playing against each other a few more times afterward during the 1949–50 NBA season.

In the semifinal round, the Baltimore Bullets would get their own chance to dethrone the two-time defending WPBT champion Fort Wayne Zollner Pistons after they had previously been dethroned as repeating NBL champions by the Rochester Royals earlier on in their season. For the third match in a row, the Bullets would have themselves go down to the wire in a very close match-up with their opponent, this time against the two-time defending champions of the NBL and WPBT. However, unlike their other two matches against the Dayton Mickeys and Anderson Chiefs, the Fort Wayne Zollner Pistons would end up being the team that would get that close finish in the end with a 50–49 defeat that would cause the Zollner Pistons to get back to the WPBT championship round for a third straight year in a row, while the Baltimore Bullets would end up going to the third place consolation round in their first visit to the WPBT ever. Funnily enough, similar to the Anderson franchise, the Bullets and Fort Wayne franchises would end up being able to meet up with each other later on when they both decided to leave their respective leagues to first join the newer Basketball Association of America (though with the Pistons removing the Zollner part of their name due to that league not allowing for sponsorships to be a part of team names) and then the present-day National Basketball Association as regular, competitive teams there from 1948 until 1954 when Baltimore decided to fold their franchise early into the 1954–55 NBA season.

Finally, in the third place consolation prize round, the Bullets would see themselves go up against the National Basketball League's Chicago American Gears, who had been the local favorites to win the entire event (especially with their star center George Mikan playing for the roster), but the fouling out of George Mikan in the second half of their semifinal match against fellow NBL opponents in the Oshkosh All-Stars led to the American Gears losing their semifinal match 72–66 to see the Baltimore Bullets of the ABL for the only time both the championship round and third place consolation prize round were placed into a best of three series instead of a winner takes all match-up. While the championship match-up would prove to utilize the best of three series to its full advantage between Fort Wayne and Oshkosh, the third place consolation prize round would prove to not need it so much by comparison. In the first game of the third place consolation prize round, the Bullets would still keep things competitive with the Chicago American Gears, but the American Gears would end up coming out on top with their first game with a 59–54 victory in Chicago's favor. As for the second and final game in the series, George Mikan and the American Gears would prove to be far too much for the ABL's Baltimore Bullets to overcome in their rematch, as it was the only match Baltimore could not keep close in the WPBT, as they would lose the third place consolation prize with a 65–50 defeat in the second match to be swept 2–0 to Chicago. To make matters worse for them, despite the American Gears not even being in the championship match-up series, George Mikan would end up being named the WPBT's MVP this year, though the Bullets would see two players of theirs in Mike Bloom and Stanley Stutz appear in the All-Tournament Second Team to make up for it.

• Won first round (61–58) over the Dayton Mickeys
• Won quarterfinal round (67–65) over the Anderson Chiefs
• Lost semifinal round (49–50) to the Fort Wayne Zollner Pistons
• Lost third place consolation prize series (0–2) to the Chicago American Gears
  • Lost April 5, 1946 third place consolation prize series match (54–59) to the Chicago American Gears
  • Lost April 6, 1946 third place consolation prize series match (50–65) to the Chicago American Gears

• Mike Bloom, All-Tournament Second Team
• Stanley Stutz, All-Tournament Second Team