Atlanta Hawks: 20 best players of all-time

Best Atlanta Hawks of all-time – Moses Malone (1988-1991)

Moses Malone had an incredible 20-year career stretched through both the NBA and ABA. Malone was drafted to the ABA by the Utah Stars in 1974, and then to the Portland Trail Blazers in 1976 after the ABA merger.

Malone moved around quite a bit in his first few years in the league, playing with four other franchises and leading the Philadelphia 76ers to an NBA Championship before landing on the Atlanta Hawks’ roster as an unrestricted free agent in 1988. He joined a Dominique Wilkins-led team that had won at least 50 games in the 3 seasons before Malone’s arrival. They would make the playoffs two of his three years with Atlanta and lose in the first round both times.

Though his 3 MVP seasons did not come during his time with the Hawks, there’s still much to be said about Moses Malone’s time in Atlanta.

He did have an NBA All-Star selection with the Atlanta Hawks in the 1988-1989 season. In his 3 years with the Hawks, Malone averaged 16.6 points per game and 10.0 rebounds, which was extremely solid given his age and time in the league. Malone led the league in rebounds in 4 separate years and is currently 9th on the NBA all-time scoring list with 27,409 total points, behind Shaquille O’Neal. The 13-time NBA All-Star was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2007.

Best Atlanta Hawks of all-time – Al Horford (2007-2016)

After winning back-to-back NCAA National Championships with the Florida Gators in 2006 and 2007, Al Horford was drafted 3rd overall to an Atlanta Hawks team that included Joe Johnson and Josh Smith but had only won 30 games the year prior to Horford’s arrival. He was unanimously selected to the NBA All-Rookie First Team averaging 10.1 points and 9.7 rebounds in his first year.

Horford would play 9 seasons with the Atlanta Hawks and make the playoffs in 8 of them. He would make four NBA-All Star games with the Hawks and got an All-NBA Third Team selection during the 2010-2011 season.

Horford would be one of the best post presences the Hawks had in years and was a solid two-way player. He averaged 14.3 points and 8.9 rebounds per game in his time in Atlanta. He was a member of the well-known starting five that won an NBA record 17 straight games during the month of January 2015. That team that included Jeff Teague, Paul Millsap, and Kyle Korver would make it to the Eastern Conference Finals that year, only to run into LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers, who swept them handily.

He left in 2016, signing a contract with the Boston Celtics, whom the Hawks had battled with in the playoffs for several years. He would return to All-Star status in 2018 with the Celtics, played for the Philadelphia 76ers for a few years, and is currently a member of the OKC Thunder.