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Stadium:
Philips Arena
The arena was laid out in a rather unusual manner, with the club seats and luxury boxes aligned solely along one side of the playing surface, and the general admission seating along the other three sides. This unique layout is a vast constrast to many of its contempories, which have its revenue-generating luxury boxes and club seats located in the 'belly' of the arena, thus causing the upper deck to be 2-4 stories higher.

Seating Chart:
Philips Arena Seating Chart

Team History:
The franchise was formed in 1946 as the Tri-Cities Blackhawks (named after Tri-City native Black Hawk) of the National Basketball League; it was based in the tri-city area between Moline, Illinois, Rock Island, Illinois, and Davenport, Iowa (now called the Quad Cities). Some sources state the team started the 1946-47 NBL season as the Buffalo Bisons and relocated to the Tri-Cities early in the season. When the NBL merged with the Basketball Association of America to form the National Basketball Association, the Blackhawks reached the playoffs in the NBA's inaugural year, under the leadership of coach Red Auerbach. However, the following season, after the team drafted Bob Cousy and made the blunder of trading his rights to the Chicago Stags (who would later surrender him in a dispersal draft to the Boston Celtics after they folded), they failed to qualify for the postseason. In 1951, the franchise relocated to Milwaukee, Wisconsin and became the Hawks. In 1953, the Hawks drafted Bob Pettit, a future NBA MVP. Despite this, the Hawks were one of the league's worst teams, and in 1955 the Hawks moved yet again, this time to St. Louis, Missouri. With acquisitions in the draft and free agency, the Hawks became one of the league's top teams. In 1957, the team advanced to the 1957 NBA Finals, losing to the Boston Celtics in a double-overtime thriller in game seven. In 1958, the Hawks again advanced to the NBA Finals under coach Alex Hannum and captured their only NBA Championship in game 6 against the Celtics. The Hawks remained one of the NBA's premier teams for the next decade. In 1960, under coach Ed Macauley, the team advanced to the Finals yet again, but lost - again to the Celtics - in yet another game seven thriller. The following year, with the acquisition of rookie Lenny Wilkens, the Hawks repeated their success, but met the Celtics in the Finals again and lost in five games.

Season Preview:
The Hawks had to wait a while to see which point guard would be available with their second lottery pick. With a desperate need for a young point guard to add to their mix of aging veterans, Hawks general manager Billy Knight snagged Acie Law with the 11th pick in the draft. The first senior taken, Law's nerves were just as ragged as Al Horford's as he waited to hear his name called. He sat with his hands on his head at one point, wondering if the Hawks were going to take him or one of the other point guards -- namely, Eastern Washington's Rodney Stuckey and Georgia Tech's Javaris Crittenton, both of whom worked out for the Hawks as well -- with their second selection. Law did let on afterward that he knew after pick No. 9 that he was headed to the Hawks, but he wasn't going to exhale until he knew for sure. Detroit picked Stuckey 15th overall and the Los Angeles Lakers chose Crittenton at 19.

Official Site:
http://www.nba.com/hawks/