Atlanta Hawks
The Atlanta Hawks are one of the oldest NBA franchises, founded in 1946 as the Tri-Cities Blackhawks (a combined Moline, Illinois / Rock Island, Illinois / Davenport, Iowa franchise). They have won one NBA championship (1958, as the St. Louis Hawks). They have relocated three times, played in five cities, and in 2026 have been based in Atlanta for 58 years. The Hawks have never reached the NBA Finals since the franchise’s 1968 relocation to Atlanta. The current majority owner is Tony Ressler, the co-founder of the private-equity firm Ares Management, who purchased the franchise from the Atlanta Spirit ownership group in 2015 for approximately $850 million.
Founding and the 1958 championship
The Tri-Cities Blackhawks played their first National Basketball League season in 1946. They joined the NBA as part of the 1949 BAA-NBL merger. The franchise moved to Milwaukee in 1951 and to St. Louis in 1955 under owner Ben Kerner.
The 1957-58 St. Louis Hawks, coached by Alex Hannum and starring Bob Pettit, went 41-31 in the regular season. In the 1958 NBA Finals against Bill Russell’s Boston Celtics, Pettit averaged 29.3 points and 17.0 rebounds. The Hawks won the series 4-2. Russell had injured his ankle in Game 3, which allowed the Hawks to win the middle games. It remains the franchise’s only NBA championship. It also remains the last NBA championship won by a franchise whose starting five included a Southern-born white superstar against Russell’s Celtics.
The Atlanta era (1968–present)
The Hawks relocated to Atlanta in 1968, becoming the first NBA franchise in the Deep South. The 1970s and 1980s produced consistent playoff appearances but no Finals. Dominique Wilkins (drafted third overall in 1982) became the face of the franchise for the next decade, winning two NBA Slam Dunk Contests (1985 and 1990) and making nine All-Star teams. The 1988 Hawks went 50-32; they reached the second round of the playoffs and lost to the Celtics in seven.
The 2014-15 Hawks, under head coach Mike Budenholzer, went 60-22 (their franchise-record best). They swept the Brooklyn Nets and Washington Wizards and reached the Eastern Conference Finals, where they were swept by LeBron James’s Cavaliers.
The 2020-21 Hawks, with Trae Young as the 21-year-old star point guard and under first-year interim head coach Nate McMillan, reached the Eastern Conference Finals and lost to the Milwaukee Bucks in six games. Young’s performance in that playoff run (28.8 points per game through three rounds) was his statistical peak. The Hawks have not reached the conference finals since.
Current ownership
Tony Ressler purchased the majority share of the Atlanta Hawks in 2015 for approximately $850 million from the Atlanta Spirit ownership group. Ressler is the co-founder and co-chairman of Ares Management Corporation, an American asset-management company. He was a minority owner of the Milwaukee Brewers before purchasing the Hawks. Minority owners include Jami Gertz (the actress and widow of Ressler’s fellow Ares co-founder Antony Ressler), Grant Hill, Jesse Itzler, and Sara Blakely. The Hawks are publicly valued by Forbes (2025) at approximately $2.6 billion.
Retired numbers and legacy
The Hawks have retired five jersey numbers: Bob Pettit (#9), Dominique Wilkins (#21), Dikembe Mutombo (#55), Lou Hudson (#23), and Ted Turner (#17, in a ceremonial tribute for his ownership tenure from 1977 to 2004).
The franchise’s 58-year Atlanta tenure includes exactly one conference finals appearance per decade on average (2015 and 2021 being the two most recent). The franchise has not made an NBA Finals in Atlanta’s history. The 1958 St. Louis Hawks championship remains the anchor of the franchise’s title history.
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Sources
Basketball-Reference is the primary franchise statistical source. The 1958 championship narrative is from the NBA’s 1957-58 season archive. The Ressler ownership purchase details are from the 2015 Atlanta Journal-Constitution coverage. The 2015 and 2021 Eastern Conference Finals runs are from NBA.com’s Finals-era broadcast archives.
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