St. Louis Hawks is the former name of the infamous Atlanta Hawks. Other names of the Atlanta Hawks were Milwaukee Hawks and Tri-cities Blackhawks. Since 1958, the Atlanta Hawks holds only 1 championship, and they were qualified to play in the finals in the years 1957, 1960, and 1961.
The Origins of the Atlanta Hawks
The franchise started in 1946, where the Buffalo Bisons of the National Basketball League played at the Buffalo Memorial Auditorium, William Gates and William King were on the same team and they were the first two African-American to join the NBL. The team needed to draw 3,600, but they lack 1,000 more fans to bring to the auditorium. That’s when the team head manager Leo Ferraris thought of moving the team to Illinois, where there’s an area called Tri-cities. Tri-cities was consist of Moline, Illinois, Rock Island, Illinois, and Davenport, Iowa.
| Country |
United States
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| City | St. Louis, Missouri. |
| Founded | 1955 |
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The Transition from St. Louis Hawks to Atlanta Hawks
In 1954, the Hawks made the best decision of drafting Bob Pettit. Before he rose to prominence, the Hawks were considered as one of the worst NBL teams. By the following year, they moved to St. Louis, Missouri, thus creating a new name for the team called “St. Louis Hawks.”
In 1967, Ben Kerner thought of gaining revenues, so he wanted to move to another area. However, he wasn’t able to resolve the issue with the arena so he sold the Hawks to an Atlanta real estate developer, then the team eventually moved to Atlanta. Three years after they transferred to Atlanta, they have formed more talented members, such as Pete Maravich.
Greatest Players in the Atlanta Hawks
Dominique Wilkins won’t be named Human Highlight Film for nothing, because he was a prolific player with amazing athletic prowess. Wilkins is one of the Hawk’s franchise players in the 1980s. In the 1990s, he improved his gameplay, making his as the unstoppable scorer of the team. In his 12 years in basketball, he had an average of 26.4 points per game.
Another notable player was Bob Pettit who won the NBA MVP twice and he was one of the best scorers on the team. He had a scoring average of 26.4, which is the 7th highest career average in the history of the NBA up to this day. In 1958, he persevered to lead the team to win the NBA Championship.
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