Atlanta Hawks

The Atlanta Hawks are an American professional basketball team based in Atlanta. As a member of the nba's Southeast Division of the Eastern Conference, the Hawks compete within the National Basketball Association. The squad plays at their home games at the State Farm Arena. The team's roots can be traced back to its establishment in 1946 in Buffalo, New York, of the Buffalo Bisons, a member of the National Basketball League founded by Ben Kerner and Leo Ferris. After 38 days at Buffalo, where they were named the Tri-Cities Blackhawks, the team moved to Moline, Illinois. They joined the NBA in 1949 as part of the merger between the NBL and the American Basketball Association, and for a short time they had Red Auerbach as coach. In 1951, Kerner moved the team to Milwaukee, where they changed their name to the Hawks. In 1955, Kerner and the players moved back to St. Louis, where they won their first NBA Championship in 1958 and in 1957, 1960 and 1961 qualified for the NBA Finals. On all four of their NBA Finals trips, the Hawks beat the Boston Celtics. The St. Louis Hawks moved to Atlanta in 1968, after Kerner sold the franchise to Georgia's former governor Thomas Cousins and Carl Sanders. The Hawks in turn own the second-longest drought with 60 seasons not to win an NBA title. The franchise's lone NBA title, as well as all four NBA Finals appearances, took place at the St. Louis based club. Meanwhile they have gone 48 years without advancing past the second round of the playoffs in either process, until finally breaking through in 2015. However, the Hawks are one of four NBA teams that emerged in the 21st century to play 10 straight seasons in the NBA playoffs. From 2008 till 2017 they accomplished this feat. The squad has endured numerous badge changes and modifications to the uniforms over the history of the team. On May 1, 2014, the team introduced a stylised version of the 'Pac-Man' logo that it used from 1972 to 1995. The 'Pac-Man' logo will become the franchise's signature symbol after the team finishes the 2014–15 season. On June 24, 2015, the team unveiled their new home, road and alternate jerseys as well as their updated logos and colours. Main colours: Torch Yellow, Volt Green, and Georgia Granite White. The players have unveiled their new socks and shoes, in line with the National Basketball Association contract with Stance's current official game footwear. Official socks for the game were generally either white or black, depending on the preference of a player. The club plans to wear green for home games, Georgia Granite Gray for road games and Torch Red as an alternate, custom shade. The Hawks hold the exclusive rights to the following unprotected draught picks who were played outside the NBA; A drafted player can sign with any non-NBA teams, either a foreign draftee or a college draftee who has not been signed by the team that drafted him. In this case, after a year after the non-NBA team's contract with the prospect has expired, the club owns the draught rights to the prospect in the NBA. The statement also includes the draught rights acquired from the transactions of other teams. The Celtics – Hawks rivalry is a rivalry that has persisted for over five decades in the Eastern Conference of the National Basketball Association, though the two franchises have played together since the 1949–50 season, when the then-Tri-Cities Blackhawks joined the NBA as part of the National Basketball League and the American Basketball Association merger. However, the Blackhawks did not field a reliably productive roster after a four-year stopover at Milwaukee until they moved to St. Louis as the St. Louis Hawks. The two sides faced one another eleven times in the NBA playoffs, four times in the NBA Finals, with the Celtics winning ten out of twelve over the Hawks, and three out of four NBA Finals. While the Hawks have twice out of eleven games defeated the Celtics in the NBA Playoffs, they have always also managed to make their games with the Celtics unforgettable. The rivalry intensified in 2016 with Hawks All-Al Horford spurning the team and joining the Celtics.