How the Atlanta Hawks went from battles with MJ to a long playoff drought

How the Atlanta Hawks went from battles with MJ to a long playoff drought

(gentle music) – [Narrator] In the early 1990s, the Atlanta Hawks pulled
off a difficult maneuver. They traded away their superstar and lived to tell the tale. Dominique Wilkins was one of the greatest and most entertaining Hawks ever. His jersey hangs from
the rafters in Atlanta, and his name is enshrined in
the Basketball Hall of Fame. But in 1994, in the
middle of a very good team and individual season, the Hawks traded Wilkins rather than wait for their aging top
scorer to hit free agency. It was a sad and controversial move and not one that paid off directly. But Atlanta got back on track pretty fast. They figured out how to
win without Dominique. They survived. In the offseason of 1996, Atlanta executive Pete Babcock
brought in a new legend, another future recipient
of a retired jersey and Hall of Fame honors, Dikembe Mutombo, one of the greatest shot
blocking centers in the history of basketball became the
next Hawks superstar. Around this elite defensive centerpiece, the Hawks boasted an elite
defensive supporting cast. Mookie Blaylock was a pure point guard, the ideal setup man for Mutombo on offense and as destructive a back
court defender as Mutombo was around the rim. For scoring, Atlanta
depended on Steve Smith, a super crafty forward with
a sweet mid-range game. Christian Laettner’s
early NBA years had been kind of a disappointment
compared to his college stardom, but he experienced a career renewal as a role player in Atlanta, and the coach remained, Lenny Wilkins, once an all-star as a Hawks player, now a veteran coach with
championship pedigree. Babcock’s new squad started slow but rallied to finish with 56 wins in ’97, right up there with their best
seasons of the Dominique era. They were the league’s
eighth most efficient offense and third most efficient
defense, a true powerhouse. Of course, the Hawks, like everyone else, proved no match for the
Michael Jordan Bulls at the peak of their excellence. Chicago rocked Atlanta in the second round of those ’97 playoffs, and then the Hawks couldn’t even make it out of the first round in ’98. So while the Hawks remained
good and competitive, they seemed to hit a playoff plateau. Even before ’99 when they
got mercilessly swept by the eighth seeded Nicks, the Hawks were feeling
pressure to try something else. Good wasn’t good enough. Babcock decided he must once
again rebuild on the fly, somehow make major moves
without sacrificing wins, and why not? The Hawks had done it before
with Dominique Wilkins and believed they could pull it off again. This time though, the Hawks couldn’t stay
afloat, far from it. Hey, quick shout out to
those of you who subscribed to “Secret Base” on Patreon. Your support made it possible
to bring back this series, and for the rest of you, please subscribe to not only
help us make more stuff, but tell us what to make. Pete Babcock always had a tough gig. He was hired as GM in 1990 and reported to the guy he had replaced, Stan Caston, Hawks
president and right hand man of Bajillionaire team owner Ted Turner. More so than his predecessor slash boss, Babcock’s philosophy was
to avoid depending on luck, which is to say he was not
a fan of the NBA draft. Babcock wanted to build his
team from proven veterans acquired via trades and free agency. This was that. Former Denver Nugget Dikembe Mutombo was not the most important center to change teams in the summer of ’96, but Mutombo signing a
five year deal in Atlanta was one of the most significant
moves in franchise history, and it was proof of concept for Babcock, who helped create that cap space by boldly offloading Dominique
Wilkins and a draft pick a few years prior. The Mutombo signing was the keystone move of a roster constructed Babcock style. Almost none of the important Hawks of the late ’90s were
homegrown Atlanta draft picks. Late blooming late first
rounder Alan Henderson was the only career Hawk
in the regular rotation for a while there. God, I love those jerseys. Babcock just firmly believed
in improving via outside hires, which is why 1999 was such
a fascinating turning point. Even before that
disappointing lockout season, the Hawks core saw some movement. Atlanta lost Christian
Laettner in a sign and trade, so they signed LaPhonso
Ellis hoping he could become their new star at power forward. Cool idea, but Ellis got
hurt and hardly played. After that season with an
upset sweep in their rear view, Atlantans got restless. The Hawks had to and
would shake things up, but not in the usual way. Babcock took an uncharacteristic interest in that offseason’s draft. He wanted to make a splash, and decided that hurling
Mookie Blaylock overboard was the way to get it done. After trading their stalwart
point guard to the Warriors, the Hawks held four first
round picks in the ’99 draft, beginning with the 10th selection. Everyone agreed that the 10th pick should go toward replacing Blaylock, and ’99 was a point guard draft, but the best of the bunch
all went in the top nine. Steve Francis, Baron Davis, Andre Miller, all excellent pros, none of them Hawks. The hawks settled for Jason Terry, who was not as pure a
point guard as some others, but a fine pick, a fine player, and a very solid Hawk for years to come. If that could be said of any of the remaining Atlanta ’99 draft picks, the Hawks might have been in
business, but I’m afraid not. These guys all became actual
pro basketball players, but none were real
difference makers in Atlanta. Usually that would be an
adequate draft outcome, but not so for a team that had invested so heavily in one specific
night of roster building. Just as a deeply unfair,
but still very fun exercise, here’s who Atlanta could have added. So there’s no world in which
a point guard list team wouldn’t have drafted Terry
or William Avery at 10, but give me Ron Artest there just for fun. And with the next three picks, we could get ourselves Andre
Kirilenko and Mono Ginobili. After that, who cares? I just built like a sick
ass Hawks team in one day. Look at the defensive excellence
in my lineup, lockdown. All I needed was, I don’t know,
several decades of hindsight and a complete disregard for realism. Anyway, the actual Hawks got Jason Terry, and a couple other deep bench guys for whom I have made kind
of cruel photo choices. Pete Babcock followed that
uncharacteristic draft haul with a much more typical move. The Hawks traded away their
popular leading scorer, Steve Smith for a high
risk, high reward return. Isaiah Rider and Jim
Jackson were super talented offensive players who’d
been kind of unreliable as teammates in Portland. They, along with Center Lorenzen Wright, represented the incoming veteran talent in the ’99 offseason. All of a sudden, all that remained of the 56
win Hawks core was Mutombo, now flanked by a bunch of
rookies and iffy veterans, and they switched to these
McDonald’s ass jerseys, which should have been the
first red flag, literally. Rebuild on the fly 1999
edition did not work at all. It was so bad. Atlanta’s calling card
had always been defense, but suddenly a team still built around one of the best rim protectors
in basketball history could not compete on that end at all. Lower numbers are better on defense. This is a very high number. 28 wins, now that’s a low
number you don’t wanna see. So Babcock’s sudden transaction
frenzy failed. Now what? Well, he still held the default card of every executive who’s
ever beefed a rebuild, ditch the coach. Lenny Wilkins resigned before
the Hawks could fire him. Atlanta had a new guy in mind. Days after Michigan State
won the 2000 NCAA title, Atlanta started pursuing
their head coach, Tom Izzo, making him a lucrative offer
to jump up to the pros. Plenty other coaches were available, including several guys who
would get hired elsewhere and go on to make playoff
runs and win awards and stuff. But the Hawks stayed laser-focused on Izzo well into springtime,
and they didn’t get him, settling instead for
Illinois Coach Lon Kruger. The Hawks were just really,
really sure for some reason that the solution to their
problems lay in the Big 10. Not the case. The Hawks got even worse. Jason Terry broke out as
kind of an offensive star in the back court. Lottery picked rookie DerMarr Johnson showed flashes of potential, and Mutombo stayed doing
his thing on defense, but the parts just didn’t add up. Here’s Hanno Mottola. As the 2001 trade deadline approached, Babcock stared down his
last available big move, trading away the legend. Unlike the old Dominique Wilkins trade, Babcock was operating from
a position of weakness. The Hawks were bad this time, so they needed to nail the trade itself to become good quickly. Not outlandish since they were looking to trade away a player who, even past his prime, offered elite center play in a league where basically any team with championship aspirations was gonna have to battle Shaq. Teams wanted Dikembe, and we’ll never know exactly what offers Atlanta had on the table. But here’s a very rough lay of the land I got from reading
rumors in the newspapers. Atlanta could have gotten Glen Rice and Marcus Camby from the Knicks. They could have gotten Shareef Abdur-Rahim from the Grizzlies, if not more. Perhaps most compelling in hindsight was the Suns’ interest in Mutombo since any deal would’ve probably had to include either Shawn
Marion or Jason Kidd, but that didn’t sound likely. Dallas was in there,
Portland was in there, but in the end, it was Philadelphia. The Hawks got the solid
but injured Theo Ratliff, past his prime Tony Kukoc, and youngsters. Mutombo went to Philly and did indeed battle Shaq in the finals. Not a bad haul in 2001, but not enough to make the
Hawks good again anytime soon. The hawks of the ’90s were now demolished, with only their architect left
to sort through the rubble. Again, with the unfair
benefit of hindsight, we can identify one more moment at which the Hawks could have recovered. They had the third pick
in that year’s draft, their highest selection in decades. And for a few moments on that
evening of June 27th, 2001, the Hawks used that pick
to acquire the rights to yet another legend, a future Hall of Famer and champion, one of the greatest
big men in NBA history, but they didn’t wanna wait on Pau Gasol. Pete Babcock was back to his old ways and had agreed to trade
Gasol’s rights to Vancouver for an already rising
star native to Atlanta, the guy they didn’t get
in the Mutombo trade. Shareef Abdur-Rahim. Shareef was very good in Atlanta, but Gasol could have been
a franchise cornerstone if the Hawks just had the
patience to rebuild around him. They explicitly did
not have that patience. What’s amazing is that
they had a second crack at a similarly influential draft pick, but one that would’ve
required more patience that, again, they lacked. As part of that trade,
Atlanta acquired the rights to the 27th pick. Babcock seriously considered using it, but ultimately decided the
guy his scouts preferred at 27 came with too much youth and uncertainty. The Hawks traded away the pick. Babcock would deem passing on Tony Parker as the biggest regret of his Hawks tenure. And the rest of that Hawks
tenure was spent trying to avoid a full rebuild. The 01-02 Hawks had a true
all-star in Abdur-Rahim, but still finished with just 33 wins. Before the 02-03 season,
Babcock kept pushing. He traded Tony Kucoc and yet another draft pick for yet another all-star entering his 30s, Glenn Big Dog Robinson. As the season approached, Atlanta’s remaining youth
core took a tragic hit. Rapidly improving swing
man DerMarr Johnson was badly injured in a car crash that put his career on
pause for over a year. Still, the Hawks made a guarantee, either we make the playoffs or all season ticket
holders get a $125 refund. The Hawks did not make the playoffs. Pete Babcock fired Coach
Lon Kruger mid-season, then got fired himself at season’s end. Their former employer returned about a half million bucks in rebates. The GM reins went to Billy Knight, an executive who wanted to use Atlanta’s high draft picks, but made too many mistakes with them. The Hawks would not return
to the playoffs until 2008 and wouldn’t post a winning record again until 2009 under a new GM. That’s how it goes when
you trade away a superstar. It can be done and done well, as long as you have a sound plan B. The very good late ’90s Hawks were an example of that
plan B coming to fruition. The decade following? Well, that’s what happens
when you trade a star and plans B through, I don’t
know, F, all fall apart. (graphic whooshing) (logo chimes)

In the early ’90s, the Atlanta Hawks traded away their superstar and survived to become a contender worthy of battles with Michael Jordan and the Bulls. In the early 2000s, the Hawks traded away their superstar and … did not survive. This is the story of that second thing.

Written and produced by Seth Rosenthal
Directed and edited by Ryan Simmons

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