The Philadelphias SPHAs and the Harlem Globetrotters

TV Confidential with Ed Robertson · Mar 16, 2026 · 12m

TVC 728.6: Actor, author, and documentary filmmaker James Rosin talks to Ed about how the Philadelphia SPHAs, the first professional basketball team in Philadelphia, were also one of the best teams on the East Coast during the first part of the twentieth century, competing against—and often beating—some of the best teams in the country, including the Harlem Globetrotters; and how the SPHAs eventually morphed into the Washington Generals, the traveling exhibition team that became the Globetrotters' permanent perennial opponent. Jim's documentary Philly Hoops is available on DVD through…