The
Atlanta Hawks are an American professional
basketball team based in Atlanta
, Georgia
. They are part of the
Southeast Division of the
Eastern Conference in the
National Basketball
Association (NBA). The Hawks are coached by
Mike Woodson, who is in his fifth season at the
helm.
Franchise history
The first years

Original Tri-Cities Blackhawks
logo
The franchise was formed in 1946 as the
National Basketball
League's
Buffalo Bisons.
The Bisons featured
center Don Otten and coach Nat Hickey, but on December 27,
1946—only thirteen games into their inaugural season—owner Ben
Kerner moved the team to Moline, Illinois
(See Buffalo Memorial Auditorium
). (At that time, the area was known as the
"Tri-Cities" (Moline, Rock Island, Illinois
, and Davenport, Iowa
.), though today it is called the Quad Cities
). Kerner renamed the team the
Tri-Cities Blackhawks; the Blackhawks were named
after the Black Hawk War that was
mostly fought in Illinois
. The
Blackhawks became one of the
National Basketball
Association's 17 original teams after a merger in 1949 of the
12-year-old NBL and the four-year-old Basketball Association of
America. The Blackhawks reached the
playoff in the NBA's inaugural year, under the
leadership of coach
Red Auerbach.
However, the following season, after the team drafted
Bob Cousy and made the blunder of trading his
rights to the
Chicago Stags (who would
later surrender him in a dispersal draft to the
Boston Celtics after they folded), they
failed to qualify for the postseason.
In 1951, the franchise
relocated to Milwaukee
, Wisconsin
, and became the Milwaukee
Hawks. In 1953, the Hawks drafted
Bob Pettit, a future NBA MVP.
Despite this, the
Hawks were one of the league's worst teams, and in 1955 the Hawks
moved yet again, this time to St. Louis, Missouri
.
In 1957, the team advanced to the
1957
NBA Finals, losing to the
Boston
Celtics in a double-overtime thriller in game seven. In 1958,
the Hawks again advanced to the
NBA
Finals under coach
Alex Hannum and
captured their only NBA Championship in game 6 against the
Celtics.
The Hawks remained one of the NBA's premier teams for the next
decade. In 1960, under coach
Ed
Macauley, the team advanced to
the
Finals yet again, but lost—again to the Celtics—in yet another
game seven thriller. The following year, with the acquisition of
rookie
Lenny Wilkens, the Hawks
repeated their success, but met the Celtics in
the Finals again and lost in five games.
Relocation to Atlanta
The next few years the Hawks remained contenders, every year
advancing deep into the playoffs and also capturing several
division titles.
Despite the success, Kerner became wary of
the now-aging 10,000-seat Kiel Auditorium
. The Hawks occasionally played at the St. Louis
Arena
(mostly against popular opponents), but Kerner was
not willing to move the team there full-time because it hadn't been
well-maintained since the 1940s. Kerner wanted a new arena
to increase revenue. However, he was rebuffed by the city on
several occasions.
Tom Cousins/Carl Sanders' ownership
In 1968,
the team was sold to Atlanta real estate developer Tom Cousins and Georgia Governor Carl Sanders and moved to Atlanta,
Georgia
. While a new arena was being constructed, the
team spent its first four seasons playing in Georgia
Tech
's Alexander Memorial Coliseum
. Cousins' firm soon developed the Omni Coliseum
, a 16,500-seat, state-of-the-art downtown Atlanta
arena, for the Hawks and the expansion Atlanta Flames hockey franchise, which opened
in 1972 as the first phase of a massive sports, office, hotel and
retail complex, most of which is now the CNN Center
.
Logo from when the Hawks first arrived in Atlanta
years after the move showcased a talented Hawks team, including
Pete Maravich, and
Lou Hudson. However, after this period of
success, the Hawks experienced years of rebuilding. The rebuilding
process appeared to be the right direction when they ended up with
the 1st and 3rd picks overall in the 1975 NBA Draft. However, it
took a turn for the worse when draft picks
David Thompson and
Marvin Webster both signed on with ABA
franchises.
Ted Turner's ownership

Logo during the early 1970s
1976,
Atlanta Braves owner
Ted Turner bought the team and hired
Hubie Brown to become head coach. In 1980, the
Hawks finished with 50 wins and won the Central Division. In 1982,
the franchise acquired superstar
Dominique Wilkins and promoted
Mike Fratello to head coach a year later.
Due to
sagging attendance, 12 home games during the 1984–85 season were played at the
Lakefront
Arena
in New
Orleans
, Louisiana
. The New Orleans games were paid for by
Barry Mendelson for $1.2 million with the Hawks going 6–6 in
Louisiana.
From 1985–89, the Hawks were among the league's elite, winning 50
games or more each season. However, the team could not advance past
the semifinals of the Eastern Conference playoffs, losing to
eventual Eastern conference and/or NBA champions in
Boston and
Detroit. After several seasons of
mediocrity, Lenny Wilkens was hired as head coach in 1993. In the
1993–94 season, coach
Wilkens led the team to 57 victories, tying a team record. However,
the team fell short again in the playoffs, losing to the
Indiana Pacers in the Eastern semis in six
games. The season was also marred with the trading of Dominique
Wilkins, who remains the franchise all-time leading scorer, for
Danny Manning, who quickly left via
free agency to Phoenix after the season ended. In 1995, coach
Wilkens broke the record (previously held by coach
Red Auerbach) for most victories by an NBA head
coach with victory number 939. Despite a couple of 50+ win seasons
afterward, the Hawks were quickly ousted from the playoffs on both
occasions, which led to further apathy by local fans, who quickly
grew accustomed to Hawk failures in the playoffs.

"Pac-Man" Hawks logo (1972–1995)
In
1999, the Hawks
traded
Steve Smith to
Portland for
Isaiah Rider and
Jim Jackson. Smith had been one of
the Hawks' most popular players during the 1990s and had recently
been awarded the
J. Walter Kennedy Citizenship
Award for his charitable endeavors. By contrast, Rider had a
history of behavioral problems both on and off the court. Rider's
troubled conduct continued after his arrival in Atlanta. Rider
missed the first day of training camp and was late for two games.
After reports that he smoked
marijuana in an
Orlando hotel room during a January road trip,
the league demanded that he attend drug counseling, and fined him a
total of $200,000 until he agreed to go. When he showed up late for
a March game, the Hawks released him.
[11179]. The Hawks later traded Jackson away
the following season. The Smith/Rider trade sent the Hawks into a
downward spiral; they would not return to the playoffs for nine
years.
In 2001, the Hawks drafted Spanish star
Pau
Gasol 3rd , but his rights were ceded to the
Memphis Grizzlies in a trade involving
Shareef Abdur-Rahim. In February
2004, the Hawks had the distinction of having NBA All-Star
Rasheed Wallace play one game for the team.
Wallace was traded from
Portland to the Hawks along with
Wesley Person for
Shareef Abdur-Rahim,
Theo Ratliff, and
Dan
Dickau. In his lone game for the Hawks, Wallace scored 20
points, had 6 rebounds, 5 blocks, 2 assists and a steal in a loss
to the
New Jersey Nets. After the
game he was dealt to the
Detroit
Pistons in a three-way trade with the
Boston Celtics. In turn, Detroit sent guard
Bobby Sura, center Zeljko Rebraca, and a first-round draft pick to
the Hawks. The Boston Celtics also sent forward
Chris Mills to Atlanta to complete the
deal.
Atlanta Spirit LLC's ownership
In March
2004, the team was sold to a group of executives by the name of
Atlanta Spirit LLC [11180] by Time
Warner (who inherited the Hawks and Braves upon its merger with
Turner Broadcasting in
1996), along with the Atlanta
Thrashers pro ice hockey team, with
which the Hawks share the Philips Arena
, which replaced the Omni. After the change
in ownership, though, the Hawks still struggled. In the
2004–05 season, the Hawks gained
the notorious reputation of the league's worst team with a mere 13
victories (five less than even the expansion
Charlotte Bobcats and the struggling
New Orleans Hornets). Despite
their league-worst record though, the Hawks only landed the number
two pick in the
2005 NBA Draft (the
first pick went to the
Milwaukee
Bucks).
With the second pick in the 2005 NBA Draft,
the Atlanta Hawks selected Marvin
Williams of the University of North Carolina
. The previous year, the Hawks drafted
Josh Childress and
Josh Smith from the 2004 Draft and
Salim Stoudamire in the second round of the
2005 Draft.
In the 2006 Draft, the Hawks selected former
Duke
star
Shelden Williams with the fifth
overall pick.
However, despite the recent influx of talent acquired in the draft,
they still hold the longest drought of not drafting an All-Star or
Pro Bowl player in North American pro sports (23 years), going back
to their 1984 selection of Kevin Willis.
In the summer of 2005, the Hawks completed a sign-trade deal with
the
Phoenix Suns that landed Atlanta
Joe Johnson in return for
Boris Diaw and two future 1st round
picks. They also signed
Zaza Pachulia
from the
Milwaukee Bucks. These
changes occurred after an apparent power struggle between the
owners for nearly three weeks before the moves were made.
[11181]. Unfortunately, while the power
struggle over Johnson has been resolved, the ownership situation
remains in flux, with litigation still ongoing.
Hawks logo from 1995 to 2007.
When the
Golden State Warriors
qualified for the 2007 NBA Playoffs, the Hawks acquired the dubious
distinction of being the NBA team that had gone the most
consecutive seasons without a playoff appearance. (Eight in a row,
see
Active NBA
non-playoff appearance streaks). They also held the dubious
distinctions of most consecutive 50-loss seasons (four) and having
the 2nd longest run (behind the Rochester/Cincinnati/Kansas
City/Sacramento Kings) of not winning an
NBA title (49 years). All of
the franchise's NBA Finals appearances and lone NBA championship
took place over 40 years ago when the team resided in St. Louis.
Meanwhile, they have yet to advance beyond the second round of any
playoff format in their entire Atlanta existence, which now spans
39 seasons.

Hawks alternate logo from 2007.
Signs of Hope
However, hope and redemption appeared to be on the horizon for the
Hawks in 2007. With the third pick of the NBA draft, they selected
Al Horford from the
Florida Gators.
They also acquired,
from the Indiana Pacers, the 11th pick of the draft, which they
used to select Acie Law IV from Texas
A&M University
.
The season started brightly as they won the season opener against
the
Dallas Mavericks 101–94,
sending hope to Hawks fans. In addition, the last time they won a
season opener was 1998, the last time the franchise made the
playoffs.
But once again, the Hawks organization made dubious headlines when
the NBA granted the first appeal of a protested game in 25 years on
January 11, 2008. The
Miami Heat
protested a scoring error during the clubs' December 19, 2007
contest. Due to a communications error, the Hawks official scorer
had erroneously assessed a sixth foul on Heat center
Shaquille O'Neal with 51.9 seconds
remaining in overtime, disqualifying him from the game. The Hawks,
who had won that game by a 117–111 margin, were stripped of the
victory. On March 8, 2008, both teams replayed the final 51.9
seconds of the game as the Hawks won 114–111. The replay was held a
few weeks after O'Neal had been traded to the Phoenix Suns from the
Miami Heat.For the 2007–08 season, the Atlanta Hawks changed their
colors and uniforms to navy blue, red, and white, which marks the
first time since their days in St. Louis that they wore those
colors.

The Hawks' mascot, Harry the Hawk,
during a game in 2008.
On February 16, 2008 Atlanta acquired guard
Mike Bibby from the
Sacramento Kings in exchange for
Anthony Johnson,
Tyronn Lue,
Shelden
Williams,
Lorenzen Wright and a
2008 second round draft pick.
On April 14, 2008, despite having a 37–45 record, the Hawks
clinched their first playoff berth since the 1998–99 season, and in
the first round surprised the favored
Boston Celtics, the #1 seed in the Eastern
Conference and eventual NBA champion, by pushing the series to
seven games. The Hawks won all three games in Philips Arena before
falling in Boston 99–65 in game seven.
On May 7, 2008
Billy Knight resigned as
general manager being effective July 1, 2008. Knight said it was
time to "take a break" following a season when his authority
appeared to be weakened by unsuccessful lobbying with owners to
fire coach
Mike Woodson.
On March 23, 2009, the Hawks earned its first winning season since
the 1998–99 season with a win over the
Minnesota Timberwolves. They clinched
a playoff berth for the second straight year as well as earning
home-court advantage for the 1st round of the playoffs against the
Miami Heat. They defeated the
Miami Heat in seven games but were swept by the
Cleveland Cavaliers in the Eastern Conference Semi-finals.
Season-by-season records
Home arenas
Players
Basketball Hall of Famers
Hagan, Pettit, Macauley, Lenny Wilkens, and
Bob Ferry, all of whom played for the Hawks in St.
Louis, have been inducted into the Missouri Sports Hall of
Fame.
Retired numbers
Slogans
- 2007 – Rise Up
- 2008 – Shock the World
- 2009 – Now You Know
Current roster
International Rights
Coaches
Individual awards
All-time Leading scorer
NBA
MVP of the Year
NBA
Defensive Player of the Year
NBA Rookie of the
Year
NBA Most Improved
Player of the Year
NBA Coach of the
Year
NBA Executive of
the Year
All-NBA First
Team
All-NBA Second
Team
All-NBA Third
Team
NBA All-Defensive
First Team
NBA All-Defensive
Second Team
NBA Rookie First
Team
NBA Rookie Second
Team
See also
References
- Ted Turner's 17 stands for his television station Atlanta's
Channel 17, WTBS
External links