The Hawks franchise has been a professional team since 1949, although they started as the Tri-Cities Blackhawks. Since then, they have been the Milwaukee Hawks, St. Louis Hawks and now Atlanta Hawks.
Despite Hall of Famers and All-Stars playing for the Hawks in its rich history, the franchise has won only one NBA championship. That came way back in 1958 when the St. Louis team defeated the Boston Celtics in six games to capture the 1958 championship.
That Hawks team was coached by Alex Hannum and led in scoring by Bob Pettit, who averaged 24.6 points and 17.4 rebounds per game. Cliff Hagan was second on the team with averages of 19.9 points and 10.1 boards.
St. Louis began the season sort of uneven, going 12-8 through its first 20 games. They wound up finishing with a record of 41-31. The team averaged 107.5 points per game, which was good for third in the NBA. They were also fifth in defense.
At this time in the NBA, there were only eight teams in the league. The Hawks finished with the best record in the Western Division while the Celtics had the top mark in the Eastern Division. St. Louis and Boston were the two favorites to win the title.
The Hawks would face the Detroit Pistons in the Western Division Finals. Since there were so few teams in the NBA, the league didn't have a first or second round of the playoffs.
St. Louis defeated Detroit in five games to advance to the NBA Finals. The team was led by Hagan, who averaged 30.8 points in the quick five-game series.
The 1958 NBA Finals featured Pettit and St. Louis taking on Bill Russell and the Celtics. The series went six games, with St. Louis winning in six. Pettit led the Hawks to the title by averaging 29.3 points and 17.0 rebounds. He probably would have won Finals MVP if that award was given at that time.
Hagan was brilliant as well, putting up 25.2 points per game en route to finishing the 1958 playoffs with the most points (305).
Since that magical team won the '58 Finals, the franchise has been to three more NBA Finals, losing all three. The 2014-15 Hawks won 60 games during the regular season and were primed to get to the Finals. However, the team lost to LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers in the 2015 Eastern Conference title match.
With All-Star point guard Trae Young now leading Atlanta, hopefully the franchise can turn into a winner again, sooner rather than later. Until a team wins it all, the 1957-58 St. Louis Hawks will continue to hold the title of best team in franchise history.
In total, that 1957-58 team had four Hall of Famers in Pettit, Hagan, Ed Macauley and Slater Martin.
Hawks fans of today are certainly hoping the current front office has the means to improve the roster around Young. Atlanta had the second-worst record in the Eastern Conference standings before the 2019-20 season was suspended due to COVID-19, garnering just 20 wins while losing 47.
It's unrealistic to ask the Hawks to surround Young with Hall of Famers like what the 1957-58 St. Louis squad did with Pettit. However, Atlanta has to do something drastic soon because Young isn't used to losing this much and it will definitely test his patience both as a player and man.
Whenever basketball starts up again, the clock will begin to tick on the Hawks.
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