1939–40 Troy Haymakers / Celtics season

The 1939–40 Troy Haymakers / Celtics season was unofficially considered the ninth professional basketball season ever helped by the team that was known as the Original Celtics officially, as well as the second and final season ever played by the team known as the Troy Haymakers before they ended up merging operations with the Kingston Colonials to become the Troy Celtics for the rest of that season going forward. It could also potentially be seen as (at least) the 25th season of independent play as well for the overall history of the Original Celtics franchise, though it can reasonably be considered (at least) their 24th season properly due to the New York Hakoahs briefly replacing the Original Celtics entirely during the original era of the American Basketball League before it got revived in 1933 as a regional league instead of an entirely national league as the ABL had originally envisioned itself to be at the time, with it being arguable that this could actually be (at least) the 23rd season properly due to the Troy Haymakers' only full season not truly counting as an Original Celtics season properly. In any case, the Troy franchise would initially start out as the Troy Haymakers once again, though the Haymakers would start the eight team regular season (the second straight season where the ABL would not compete in its original split season formatting) out with a poor 3–9 record (with one of their losses including a lucky break from the Jersey Reds, who had an older player named Chuck Huntington show up at the literal last minute for a lucky break on their ends due to all but four of the team's own players getting into a car accident that day, with Jersey not being willing to forfeit from such an unlucky incident^[5]) by comparison to the Kingston Colonials, who were considered one of the best teams of the league at the time with a 8–3 record on Kingston's end. However, by December 19, 1939, the Troy Haymakers would end up merging operations with the Kingston Colonials, with the Kingston franchise's 8–3 record surprisingly getting left behind by comparison to the Troy franchise's 3–9 record to start out their season (though this would not be the only merger to occur within the ABL this season). Following the merger's completing, Marty Friedman would be let go of as the head coach of the team and be replaced by now-former Kingston Colonials head coach Barney Sedran, with the Troy Haymakers subsequently being renamed the Troy Celtics for the rest of the season going forward by this point in time.

Luckily for the now-rebranded Troy Celtics franchise, the merger the previously named Troy Haymakers had with the Kingston Colonials earlier in the season would end up being exactly what the newly christened Troy franchise would desire for the rest of this season, as Barney Sedran's coaching for the newly implemented Troy franchise led to the Celtics reversing their fortunes for the season, going from a 3–9 start as the Troy Haymakers to finishing the season out with an above-average 19–15 record to finish the season with a third place result behind what would be the tied first place teams of the league in the Philadelphia Sphas and the newly rebranded Washington Heurich Brewers through two extra losses on Troy's ends (though if the Troy franchise had kept the original record held by the Kingston Colonials instead, there would be little to no doubt that Troy would have finished the season in first place instead of either one of those two teams in question). Still despite them not getting a first place finish to the season, the newly-branded Troy Celtics would have normally qualified for the ABL Playoffs all the same due to the regular season formatting from the previous season requiring the top four teams to compete in a semifinal round and then a championship round not long afterward. However, because of not just the Troy Celtics becoming who they are now following the merger between the Troy Haymakers and the more successful (at the time) Kingston Colonials franchises, but also the defending ABL champion New York Jewels surviving their season due to a merger on January 26, 1940 between themselves and the previous ABL champion Jersey Reds franchise alongside the (original) Wilkes-Barre Barons deciding to drop out of the league nearly a week after the Jewels' successful merger on February 2 that same year, the ABL would end up dropping their number of competitive teams for the season down from a solid eight to a dangerously low five teams remaining for the season. This would lead to the ABL ditching their originally planned ABL Playoffs set-up from the previous season in mind for a newly-planned round-robin tournament for the remaining (surviving) five teams in the league in the Philadelphia Sphas, the Washington Heurich Brewers, the (current) Troy Celtics, the (newly-merged) New York Jewels, and the Baltimore Clippers (the last of whom barely had a losing record instead of just an average at worst record) all competing (or at least planning to compete) in two different matches against each other (one at home, the other on the road) for eight total games against each other to determine the overall champion of the round-robin tournament setting, with tiebreakers being set-up later on, if necessary. Unfortunately for Troy, while the Celtics would end up winning six out of the eight games the played in that tournament, the two games they would lose to the Philadelphia Sphas within the round-robin tournament on March 16 & April 3, 1940 would later be the determining factor for the league's ultimate champions that season, as the Sphas would have a perfect 8–0 record that would be above Troy's 6–2 record there,^[6] which led to the Sphas winning the ABL's championship once again in their history after the Troy Celtics had their closest shot at winning an ABL championship yet following their original first two seasons in the original ABL as the Original Celtics. Following this season's conclusion, however, the Troy Celtics would end up losing access to the Troy State Armory due to the U.S. military utilizing it in likely preparations for World War II should they be called up for it, which led to the Troy Celtics only briefly playing under that name before they later permanently went by the Brooklyn Celtics name for the rest of that season due to the team finding a new home in the nearby city of Brooklyn for that following season of play.