The Atlanta Hawks are an American professional basketball team based in Atlanta. The Hawks compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Eastern Conference Southeast Division of the league. The team plays its home games at State Farm Arena.

Dominique Wilkins

Dominique is the Atlanta Hawks' all-time leading scorer, nicknamed the `` Human Highlight Film, '' for his amazing athletic prowess and showmanship. Wilkins was the Hawks' franchise player in the 1980s and early 1990s, displaying a brand of athleticism that made him a virtually unstoppable scorer. In a Hawks uniform, Wilkins averaged 26.4 points per game in 12 years. His highest-scoring season came in 1986 when he threw in 30.3 points per game. Dominique Wilkins was a nine-time All-Star, slam dunk champion and the greatest goalscorer in Atlanta Hawks history. He retired in 1999 and is now an NBA announcer for Hawks games at Sports South.

Bob Pettit

Bob Pettit spent his entire career with the Hawks while playing in Milwaukee and then St. Louis. He was a two-time NBA MVP and remains one of the game's greatest scorers ever. Bob Pettit posted a career average of 26.4 points per game, currently the seventh highest career average in NBA history. He carried the Hawks to their NBA Championship in 1958. Pettit was an NBA All-Star in each of his eleven seasons, was selected ten times on the All-NBA First Team, and was once on the All-NBA Second Team. Pettit still has the top two NBA All-Star Game recovering performances with 26 in 1958 and 27 in 1962, and has the second highest All-Star Game points per game average at 20.4.

History of the Atlanta Hawks

The team's origins can be traced back to the creation of the Buffalo Bisons in 1946 in Buffalo, New York, a member of the National Basketball League (NBL) owned by Ben Kerner and Leo Ferris. After 38 days in Buffalo, the team moved to Moline, Illinois, where they were renamed the Tri-Cities Blackhawks. In 1949 they joined the NBA as part of the merger between the NBL and the Basketball Association of America (BAA), and briefly had Red Auerbach as coach. In 1951 Kerner's team moved to Milwaukee, where they changed their name to the Hawks. Kerner and the team moved to St. Louis again in 1955, where they won their only NBA Championship in 1958 and qualified to play in the NBA Finals in 1957, 1960 and 1961. The Hawks played the Boston Celtics in all four their trips to the NBA Finals. The St. Louis Hawks moved to Atlanta in 1968 when Kerner sold the franchise to Thomas Cousins ​​and former Georgia governor Carl Sanders. The Hawks currently own the second-longest drought (after the Sacramento Kings) of not winning an NBA championship after 60 seasons. The franchise's only NBA Championship, as well as all four NBA Finals appearances, took place while the team was based in St. Louis. Meanwhile, they passed 48 years without progressing beyond the second round of the playoffs in any format, until finally breaking through in 2015. However, the Hawks are one of only four NBA teams to have qualified to play in play the NBA playoffs in 10 consecutive seasons. In the 21st century. They achieved this feat between 2008 and 2017.