In my job, you get to meet some pretty remarkable people. And one of the most remarkable, Hubie Brown, touched both of the franchises in memorable ways.

Atlanta fans got to know Hubie back in 1976. After guiding the Kentucky Colonels to an ABA Championship, Brown got his first shot at a head coaching job in the NBA with the Hawks.

His first Hawks team won only 31 games, but that next season, Atlanta won 41 and Hubie won the first of his two NBA Coach of the Year awards.

Behind the scoring of John Drew and Eddie Johnson and the rebounding of Dan Roundfield, the Hawks won 46 games in the 1978-79 season, including an incredible 34 at the Omni. Only a Game Seven defeat to the Washington Bullets prevented the Hawks a shot at the Eastern Conference championship series.

A 50-win season followed in 1979-80, and under Coach Brown, the Hawks had one of the best home court advantages in the NBA.

After leaving the Hawks, Hubie coached the New York Knicks, and, after 15 years away from the sidelines, returned to add a second NBA Coach of the Year honor in lifting the Grizzlies to a 50-win season and their first taste of the NBA playoffs.

In between coaching stints, Hubie Brown became nationally recognized as one of the great television analysts the game has even seen. Much like his no-nonsense, attention to detail coaching philosophy, Hubie brings the same dedication to the airwaves. He is still on top of his game, calling the action for ESPN/ABC.

And no man has done more to teach the game of basketball, worldwide, to coaches than Hubie. He is generally considered the finest clinician in the history of the game.

Recognized for his many contributions to the game, Brown was inducted to the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame in 2005.

Coming out of Providence College in 1960, Leonard Randolph Wilkens was drafted by the St. Louis Hawks in 1960. And that was the beginning of a legendary career.

First, Lenny was one of the greatest playmakers in NBA History. Starting with the Hawks, Wilkens career achievements have been breathtaking. As a player, he was a nine-time NBA All-Star and was the MVP of the 1971 All-Star Game. He was elected to the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame as a player in 1989, and selected one of the NBA’s 50 Greatest Players in 1996. He played for the Cavaliers in the early 1970s.

And Lenny was just getting started.

While still playing, Lenny began his coaching career, a career that landed him in the Hall of Fame for a second time, become one of only three men enshrined in Springfield as a player and a coach. (John Wooden, Bill Sharman).

This month, 17 years ago while coaching the Hawks, Wilkens became the winningest coach in NBA history, notching his 939th victory to surpass Boston Celtics legend Red Auerbach’s 938. The milestone victory came when the Hawks defeated Washington, 112-90 at the Omni, with Auerbach on hand.

Lenny reached another milestone on March 1, 1996 when the Hawks defeated Cleveland, 74-68,making him the first coach in NBA history to record 1,000 regular season NBA victories. In addition to coach the Hawks, he later guided the Cavs, and when it was all said and done, Lenny coached in 2,046 regular season games, 164 playoff games, and four NBA All-Star Games.

Among his coaching trophies are a 1979 NBA Championship with Seattle, and a 1994 NBA Coach of the Year award with the Hawks. One of Lenny’s greatest achievements came here in Atlanta in 1996, when he guided the USA National Team (aka The Dream Team) to the Olympic Gold medal.

Lenny Wilkens was and still is one of the giants in NBA history. He is still in demand as a trusted advisor. He was my coach when I joined the Hawks in 1996, and was a guiding force for me as I learned how to call the pro game on a daily basis. I still recall fondly our time on the road together when he would talk of those St. Louis days. Great stories and great memories!

Yes, both Cleveland and Atlanta can lay claim to a piece of the Lenny Wilkens legacy. We here in Atlanta just claim him a little bit more.

But Crawford is not the first Blazers to have a connection with the Atlanta Hawks franchise.

Like the Hawks, the Blazers own one NBA World Championship. It came during the 1976-77 season.

Portland was the immediate beneficiary of the ABA-NBA merger that happened the summer preceding their championship run. Four ABA teams joined the NBA; the remaining teams were dissolved and their players distributed among the remaining NBA squads in a dispersal draft. The Trail Blazers selected Maurice Lucas in the dispersal draft. That summer they also hired Jack Ramsay as head coach.
The two moves, coupled with the team’s stellar play, led Portland to several franchise firsts: a winning record (49–33), a playoff appearance, and the NBA Championship.

Also that summer, the Blazers selected a point guard in the draft from the University of Dayton, Detroit native Johnny Davis.

Davis played all 82 games for the Blazers as their backup point guard to Dave Twardzik. Eventually, Davis made his way to Atlanta and served the Hawks in a variety of capacities.

First, Johnny played for the Hawks for two seasons in 1982-84, and finished his playing days here in 1986. Before he got into coaching, Davis worked in the Hawks community relations department.

Davis got into coaching, and served as the head coach of three different franchises: the 96-97 Philadelphia 76ers; the Orlando Magic from 2003-2005; and briefly as an interim head coach at Memphis.

His Memphis stint last just three days, and ironically was replaced by Lionel Hollins, his teammate on the 1977 championship Portland team.

This season, Davis is in his first as an assistant coach with the Toronto Raptors, here two days ago to face the Hawks on MLK Day. Tonight, Davis and the Raptors are in Boston to battle the Celtics.

Good to see Johnny Monday. Good man.

As the Hawks salute Dr. King with special ceremonies, let us all pause to celebrate another doctor—Dr. James Naismith!

With the Raptors providing the opposition, let’s reflect on Dr. Naismith’s accomplishments, namely, inventing this great game of basketball!

In December of 1891, Dr. Naismith, a Canadian YMCA physical education director, was attending the International YMCA Training School in Massachusetts. The head of the school, Luther Gulick was desperate for a new game that would keep his class of 18 future YMCA directors occupied during the winter. As the story goes, Gulick gave Naismith two weeks to come up with a game to satisfy the athletic needs of his charges.

Naismith knew the new game had to be based on physical activity, but not in a contact way like rugby and football. Gulick also wanted a game that was simple to understand. Naismith decided on elevated goals, to eliminate the physical rushes that could injure players. In all, he developed 13 rules that he posted on the wall of a gym when he introduced the game to the directors in training. The men loved it, and took to it right away.

The rest, as they say, is history.

And in Hawks history, research discovered that at least two native Canadians have played for the Hawks. And ironically, both played for Atlanta in the same season.

During the 1984-85 campaign both Leo Rautins and Stewart Granger wore Hawks uniforms.

Rautins is the better known of the two. A native of Toronto, Rautins was a college star for Jim Boeheim at Syracuse (he started his college career at Minnesota and transferred). Leo was an all-Big Ten rookie for the Gophers and became an honorable mention all-America for the Orange. He holds the distinction of being the first player to ever record a triple-double in Big East play.

Hampered by knee problems, Rautins played in only four games as a Hawk that season before finishing his career overseas. Leo is the former head coach of the Canadian National Team, and serves as a Raptors television broadcaster. In fact, Leo is here today broadcasting the game back to Canada.

Granger was born in Montreal and played in just nine games. Granger had a solid collegiate career at Villanova, and was drafted by the Cleveland Cavaliers in 1983 in the first round.

See you TV!

Today, the Wolves are building around budding, young superstars Kevin Love and Ricky Rubio.

But when the franchise was in its infancy, Minnesota used an early pick to take one of college basketball’s biggest stars.

One of their first key pieces came with the third pick of the 1992 NBA Draft—Duke’s Christian Laettner.

Laettner led the Blue Devils to back to back National Championships in 1991 and 1992, and was the consensus National Player of the Year in ’92. His game winning shot that beat Kentucky at the buzzer in the East Regionals in ’92 is regarded as one of the greatest clutch shots in tournament history. Laettner played in four consecutive Final Fours.

But that collegiate success did not translate to the pros right away. Although he made the all-Rookie team, Laettner was traded away during his fourth season in the league. The Hawks were the beneficiary of that trade.

During the 95-96 season, Laettner came to the Hawks, and under Lenny Wilkens blossomed as a pro. Christian immediately became a key contributor playing the center position in Atlanta. Laettner was tremendous in the 96 playoffs. His play against Rik Smits was one of the turning points in a first round upset win over the Indiana Pacers. Laettner then had to wrestle Shaquille O’Neal in the pivot in the second round against Orlando.

Help in the middle came in the next season when GM Pete Babcock engineered the free agent signing of Dikembe Mutombo, and Laettner was moved to his more natural power forward post.
That next Hawks team, the 96-97 Hawks, was one of the franchises’ best, winning 56 games.

Laettner was outstanding, and wearing a Hawks uniform, made his only NBA All-Star team in 1997. He averaged 18.1 PPG in 96-97, 8.8 rebounds, and shot 82% from the foul line. His Atlanta tenure was brief, but Christian Laettner, via the Minnesota Timberwolves, was an impact player on some great Hawk teams of the late 90s.

He remains to this day on the basketball’s all-time great rebounders.

Born in Prescott, AZ, in July of 1943, Silas grew up in Oakland, CA, and attended famed McClymonds High School, the school that produced athletic greats like Bill Russell, and baseball stars Vada Pinson and Frank Robinson.

Paul moved on to play collegiately for Creighton University in Omaha, NE, and was graduated in 1964.

While with the Blue Jays, Silas became well known to the professional scouts. Silas is one of only five players in NCAA history to average over 20 points and 20 rebounds over his career. (The others? Bill Russell, USF; Julius Erving, UMass; Artis Gilmore, Jacksonville; and Kermit Washington, American).
Paul’s 38-rebound game in February of 1962 still ranks eighth on the all-time single game list.

Well, the Hawks took notice, and in 1964, St. Louis selected Silas in the second round, the 12th overall pick. Except for a short stint in the Eastern League, Silas spent five years with the Hawks, and was with the team when the franchise relocated to Atlanta in 1968.

Those early years were the start of Silas’ 16-year NBA career as a player. He later earned championship glory with the Boston Celtics, helping the Green to two World titles in 1974 and 1976, and won a third ring playing for his former St. Louis teammate Lenny Wilkens in Seattle in 1979.

Paul was a two-time all star, and a five-time all defensive team member. He retired as the ninth leading rebounder in NBA history and played in over 1250 games.

He’s been a head coach in the league on and off since 1980, first at San Diego with the Clippers and later with the Charlotte/New Orleans Hornets , the Cleveland Cavaliers, and now back in Charlotte with the Bobcats.

Silas is up for nomination this year for the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame, and honor he richly deserves. He is also one of the nicest human beings ever to be involved in pro basketball.

That’s a lot of history down on that Charlotte bench. And it all started professionally with the Hawks.

Link reprinted here: http://www.shirky.com/weblog/2012/01/newspapers-paywalls-and-core-users/

That performance jogged the memory bank concerning another great player burning the Heat in Miami in the fourth quarter on the road.

None other than former Hawk Steve Smith!

How ironic, just months after the Hawks had traded for Smitty, that he would return to South Beach and light up the night.

The date was January 30, 1995. Steve was making his second trip back to South Florida as a member of the Hawks, facing his old team that made him the 5th overall pick in the NBA draft in 1991.

Smitty was on fire, scoring 23 points, and leading the Hawks to a 95-92 win. Atlanta trailed by 20, 82-62, with 9:49 left. Smith scored 19 in the 4th (Miami only had 14) and went 5-6 on three’s to lead the Hawks to win, 95-92.

That was the start of a tremendous four and a half year run for Steve in Atlanta. He teamed with Mookie Blalock to form one of the greatest backcourt combinations in Hawks history. He later served the franchise as my television partner on Fox Sports South.

The Hawks moved to Atlanta prior to the 1968 season and competed in the Western Conference their first two seasons here. Beginning in 1970, the Hawks were shifted to the Eastern Conference where they became rivals with the Baltimore Bullets.

From 1970-78, the Hawks and Wizards (then known as the Bullets) were actually division opponents. Both clubs played in the NBA’s Central Division those years. The clubs were reunited in the Southeast Division when the league realigned in 2004.

Despite their commonality, there have been only two seasons in which the Wizards and Hawks have met in the playoffs. Washington beat the Hawks in the first round in 1978 on their way to the NBA Championship.

The very next season, the Hawks and Bullets squared off again, this time in the Eastern semi-finals. Atlanta pushed Washington to the brink before losing Game Seven at the Capital Centre, 100-94. The Wizards went on to the Finals for a second straight season, this time losing to coach Lenny Wilkens and the Seattle SuperSonics, the team they vanquished to win it all a year before.

Incredibly, the Hawks and Washington have not met in the playoffs since. Yet, four men who played in those playoff series could very well be in attendance tonight.

Phil Chenier, who was a back-up guard for Washington back then, is here broadcasting the game back to DC for Comcast SportsNet.

Unless his advance scouting duties call him away, the Hawks Greg Ballard can be spotted behind the bench tonight. Greg was a key contributor for those Bullet teams. Ballard was Washington’s top draft pick (4th overall) in 1978 out of Oregon, and won a championship ring his rookie season.

Spotted in the crowd will be Hawks alums Dan Roundfield and Charlie Criss.

Roundfield was the leading rebounder for that ’79 Hawks team, that finished with 46 wins, and only two games behind San Antonio and one behind Houston in that season’s Central Division race. Criss was a backup guard for coach Hubie Brown.

(The preceeding was written for the Hawks Game Night program. Pick one up tonight at Philips Arena!)