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The '''Atlanta Hawks''' are a [[NBA|National Basketball Association]] ([[NBA]]) team based in [[Atlanta]], [[Georgia]]. They are members of the Eastern Conference, Southeast Division.

==Franchise Historyand League Success==The franchise began in the National Basketball League (NBL, a predecessor to the NBA) as the '''Buffalo Bisons''' in 1946. The team lasted a mere 38 days in Buffalo before relocating to [[Moline, Illinois]] and renaming themselves the '''Tri-Cities Blackhawks''' ("Tri-Cities" representing the metropolitan area of Moline and neighboring [[Rock Island, Illinois]] and [[Davenport, Iowa]]; the area is now known as the "Quad Cities" with [[Bettendorf, Iowa]] becoming a major city in its own right). The Blackhawks would later become one of the original six NBA franchises when the NBL and the rival Basketball Association of America merged.

However, two years later it was clear that the Tri-Cities area was too small to support the franchise, so it relocated to [[Milwaukee, Wisconsin]] and changed its name to the '''Milwaukee Hawks''' (the Hawks name would continue through two more relocations). They lasted four years there before relocating again to [[St. Louis, Missouri]].

In St. Louis the team had its most success, making four NBA Finals (1957, 1958, 1960, and 1961), competing against the [[Boston Celtics]] all four times, winning once (1958). The franchise has not won a championship since then, (and has not even appeared in the NBA Finals since); the drought is the second-longest in the NBA (only the [[Sacramento Kings]] have a longer title drought) and among the longest in all of professional sports.

Problems with St. Louis' arena situation and the inability to reach a successful resolution resulted in the team relocating one last timeagain, this time in 1968 to Atlanta.