The 1928–29 Brooklyn Visitations season was their eighth professional basketball season in Brooklyn, New York, as well as their second (full) season in the original American Basketball League (under its fourth season of existence) after previously entering the ABL as a last-minute replacement for the Washington Palace Five team on January 3, 1928. During the offseason, the ABL had entered a crossroads of sorts where the league's popularity was considered to be rather high, but it came at the cost of the Original Celtics dominating the rest of the competition and risked ending the rest of the league due to games featuring the Original Celtics (usually) showcasing high attendance values upon road matches (to the point where some crowds would chant "Break up the Celtics!", p. 28), but often displaying poor attendance values for the rest of the games in the league by comparison (to the point where only five teams looked certain to enter this season originally)., pp. 152–153 Not only that, but the Celtics' own team owner, Jim Furey, would have to go to prison during this upcoming season due to him embezzling $187,000 from a company he worked with in his spare time called the Arnold Constable Corporation., p. 88, pp. 121–122 This combination of factors alongside the change of league presidents from NFL president Joseph Carr to former Interstate Basketball League and Metropolitan Basketball League (the latter league the Visitations and a couple of the new teams for this season were previously a part of) creator and president, Naismith Basketball Hall of Famer John J. O'Brien, led to the ABL accepting the wishes of both the fans and other league owners in breaking up the Original Celtics (and having them replaced by the New York Hakoahs for this season by extension) in order to help bolster other ABL teams up for plans of long-term success going forward (although the final results of that planned decision ultimately resulted in them creating a different superteam of sorts with the Cleveland Rosenblums taking on most of the Original Celtics' players instead)., pp. 165 During the first half of the season, the Visitations would end up tying with the Chicago Bruins to have an above-average 15–12 record to have them both finish in third place behind the Fort Wayne Hoosiers and the first half champion Cleveland Rosenblums. As for the second half of the season, the Visitations would end up finishing the half-season in another tie, this time with the Rosenblums, as they both finished the second half of the season with a 10–4 record for a second place finish that put them both behind the Fort Wayne Hoosiers for a first place finish instead. Despite the good overall record that the Visitations had this season, Brooklyn would fail to qualify for the ABL championship series due to them failing to finish in first place in either half-season of play.
Roster Due to information on American Basketball League players being generally hard to find, there are bound to be more gaps and/or inaccuracies found in certain areas on the team's roster spots than usual.
Note: Supposedly, John Frank from the previous season's roster for the Metropolitan Basketball League briefly was a part of the roster for a game during this season as well.
American Basketball League Standings +First HalfTeamWinsLossesWinning %Cleveland Rosenblums199.679Fort Wayne Hoosiers1810.643Brooklyn Visitations1512.556Chicago Bruins1512.556New York Hakoahs1316.448Rochester Centrals1115.423Trenton (Royal) Bengals1316.448Paterson Whirlwinds619.240
+Second Half TeamWinsLossesWinning %Fort Wayne Hoosiers113.786Brooklyn Visitations104.714Cleveland Rosenblums104.714Rochester Centrals77.500New York Hakoahs59.357Trenton (Royal) Bengals48.333Chicago Bruins410.286Paterson Whirlwinds39.250
References