In 1956, Bob Pettit captured the league's first official Most Valuable Player award, and the St. Louis Hawks drafted legendary Bill Russell in the first round (second overall pick).

The following year, with the acquisition of rookie Lenny Wilkens, the Hawks repeated their success, but met the Celtics in the 1961 NBA Finals again and lost in five games.

The Hawks occasionally played at the larger St. Louis Arena, mostly against popular opponents, but Kerner was not willing to move the team there full-time because it had not been well-maintained since the 1940s.

[21] One of the bidders was a New Orleans group led by future talk show host Morton Downey Jr., but the deal collapsed and Kerner temporarily took his team off the market.

Cable network entrepreneur and Atlanta Braves owner Ted Turner bought the team in 1977 and hired Hubie Brown to become head coach.

In 1982, the franchise acquired superstar Dominique Wilkins (a University of Georgia alumnus) and promoted Mike Fratello to head coach a year later.

When Turner won an NHL franchise, the Atlanta Thrashers, one condition was that a new arena had to be in place before the new team took the ice for the first time, as The Omni was unusable even for temporary use.

After reports that he smoked marijuana in an Orlando hotel room during a January road trip, the league demanded that he attend drug counseling, and fined him a total of $200,000 until he agreed to go.

In 2001, the Hawks drafted Spanish star Pau Gasol third, but his rights were ceded to the Memphis Grizzlies in a trade involving Shareef Abdur-Rahim.

[28] In his lone game for the Hawks, Wallace scored 20 points, had 6 rebounds, 5 blocks, 2 assists and a steal in a loss to the New Jersey Nets.

On March 31, 2004, the team was sold to a group of executives by the name of Atlanta Spirit LLC[31] by Time Warner (who inherited the Hawks, Braves and Thrashers upon its merger with Turner Broadcasting in 1996).

During the off-season, the Hawks sent Jason Terry, Alan Henderson, and a future first-round draft pick to the Dallas Mavericks for Antoine Walker and Tony Delk.

In the 2004–05 season, the Hawks were the league's worst team with a mere 13 victories (five fewer than even the expansion Charlotte Bobcats and the struggling New Orleans Hornets).

In the summer of 2005, the Hawks completed a sign and trade deal with the Phoenix Suns to acquire Joe Johnson in return for Boris Diaw and two future 1st round picks.

They won a hard-fought seven-game series against the Milwaukee Bucks, but they were swept by the Orlando Magic in the second round, with every game a one-sided contest.

In August 2011, it was announced that California-based businessman Alex Meruelo was buying a majority stake of the Hawks,[37][38] but in November he backed out of his intentions.

[39] In December 2011, the Hawks signed Tracy McGrady, Jerry Stackhouse, Jason Collins, Vladimir Radmanovic, Jannero Pargo, and Willie Green.

That same day, the Hawks traded small forward Marvin Williams to the Utah Jazz for point guard Devin Harris.

On January 21, 2013, following Lou Williams' season-ending injury in a game against the Brooklyn Nets,[41] the Hawks signed guard Jannero Pargo to a 10-day contract.

The 2013 free agency period also marked the end of the Josh Smith era for Atlanta as he signed a contract with the Detroit Pistons.

[49] On April 22, 2015, Atlanta Spirit reached a tentative agreement to sell the franchise to a group led by billionaire Tony Ressler (with Grant Hill, Steven Price, Rick Schnall, Sara Blakely, Jesse Itzler and Ressler's wife Jami Gertz holding minority stakes) for $850 million; the sale was approved by the NBA Board of Governors on June 24, 2015.

They signed two proven veteran players, Bogdan Bogdanovic at the wing position and Danilo Gallinari at the power forward spot.

[86] After McMillan took over head coaching duties, the Hawks immediately posted an eight-game win streak, putting them firmly in playoff contention.

[89] In the playoffs, they defeated the fourth-seeded Knicks before upsetting the top-seeded 76ers to reach the Eastern Conference Finals, only the second time in 54 years that the franchise has advanced past the second round.

[92] On June 30, 2022, the Hawks traded for San Antonio Spurs star point guard Dejounte Murray and Jock Landale in exchange for Danilo Gallinari and three future first-round picks.

In the next off-season, Dejounte Murray was dealt to the New Orleans Pelicans for Dyson Daniels, Larry Nance Jr., E.J Liddell, Cody Zeller and two future first round picks, ending the Young-Murray backcourt after just two seasons.

[106] For 2020–21, the Hawks' "City" uniform paid tribute to civil rights icon Martin Luther King Jr., featuring a black base and gold accents.

[109] The 2023–24 "City" uniform featured a black base, heritage blue and light brown trim, and lowercase "atl" in white letters.

The rivalry intensified in 2016 with Hawks All-Star center Al Horford leaving the team and joining the Celtics with whom he'd eventually win his first championship with in the 2024 NBA Finals.

The Hawks and the Orlando Magic have an intense rivalry, mostly stemming from playoff competitions and the rising stardom of Dwight Howard and Josh Smith, both from the 2004 NBA draft and who were both raised in Georgia.