1939 World Professional Basketball Tournament
The 1939 World Professional Basketball Tournament was the first edition of the World Professional Basketball Tournament. It was held in Chicago, Illinois, during the days of 26–28 March 1939 and featured 11 teams who were mostly independently ran alongside both the Oshkosh All-Stars and Sheboygan Red Skins of the National Basketball League and the Troy Celtics of the American Basketball League competing for a prize money of $10,000, which was later revealed to be a $1,000 prize given to each player on the winning team. Originally, the Philadelphia Sphas of the ABL were supposed to have been invited to the inaugural tournament, but they ultimately cancelled their invitation due to multiple injuries to their players entering the tournament this year, leading to the Illinois Grads from nearby Champaign, Illinois taking their spot instead. Because of the awkward formatting for this year's tournament with the odd number of teams competing, this led to the independently ran Chicago Harmons and New York Renaissance alongside the ABL's Troy Celtics receiving first round byes in the tournament, while the NBL's Oshkosh All-Stars received a quarterfinal bye following their first round victory over the independently ran Clarksburg Oil team from West Virginia. The upper half of the quarterfinals involved teams that were originally based in Chicago competing against each other and teams based in New York competing against each other, while the lower half of the quarterfinals featured the three teams that remained in professional leagues at the time in the NBL & ABL. The highlight game of the tournament involved the match between the New York Renaissance and the Harlem Globetrotters in the semifinal round, which saw the Rens control the game for most of the match until the moment when Harlem scored six straight points to cut New York's lead down to two, though the Renaissance would tighten up their defense in order to win 27–23 over the Globetrotters. The inaugural WPBT tournament was won by the independently ran New York Renaissance, who defeated the NBL's Oshkosh All-Stars 34–25 in the title game. The Harlem Globetrotters came in third after beating the Sheboygan Red Skins 36–33 in the third-place game. Puggy Bell of the New York Rens was named the tournament's Most Valuable Player.