Editing Philadelphia Sphas (section)

== Later years ==
With the 1946 advent of the [[Basketball Association of America]], the immediate predecessor of the NBA, the ABL became a minor-league, and the Sphas would remain there as a semi-professional team until 1949. 1949 would be the last year the Sphas were affiliated with a league, but thanks to Gottlieb's friendship with [[Abe Saperstein]], president and owner of the [[Harlem Globetrotters]], the Sphas lived on as one of the exhibition teams that the Globetrotters would play, although they would retain only the franchise name, not the Jewish makeup of the team.<ref>Stark, xiv.</ref>

Despite popular wisdom, the Sphas did not directly evolve into the [[Washington Generals]]. Instead, Saperstein had asked [[Red Klotz]] to create a separate exhibition team because the Sphas had beaten the Globetrotters on more than one occasion.<ref>{{Cite news|url=http://joeposnanski.com/a-basketball-carol/|title=A Basketball Carol|date=2011-01-05|work=Joe Posnanski|access-date=2018-01-11|language=en-US}}</ref><ref name=":0">{{Cite book|title=The SPHAS: The Life and Times of Basketball's Greatest Jewish Team|last=Stark|first=Douglas|publisher=Temple University Press|year=2011|pages=219}}</ref> After creating the Generals, Klotz sold the Sphas to one of his players, Pete Monska, who coached the team "for a year or two until it disbanded [in October 1959.]"<ref name=":0" /> The Sphas played their last game as the original team on October 17, 1959, losing to the Globetrotters in a double-header exhibition game. The Sphas were then reconstituted as the Baltimore Rockets, another Globetrotters exhibition team.<ref>Stark, xiv.</ref>