Best Draft Pick In Atlanta Hawks History

Most fans will immediately say Dominique Wilkins when you ask about the greatest Hawks draft pick. This would seem like a fair argument, as Wilkins’s twelve-year career with the Hawks was nothing short of spectacular. Nine All-Star appearances, a scoring title, over 26,000 career points, and nightly highlight-reel moments. He is the face most casual fans picture when they think of Atlanta Hawks basketball. However, the thing is, while he was a rookie with Atlanta, Wilkins wasn't actually a Hawks draft pick. Utah selected him third overall in 1982, and Atlanta acquired him two months later in a trade for John Drew and Freeman Williams in one of the league’s more lopsided deals. 

Nearly thirty years before Wilkins pulled on an NBA jersey, the then Milwaukee Hawks selected Bob Pettit with the second pick in the 1954 NBA Draft (behind little-known Frank Selvy). The big man out of LSU quickly defined what it meant to be a power forward in the NBA, winning the Rookie of the Year award and then following it up the next season, claiming the first-ever MVP award. 

Pettit wasn't exactly a basketball prodigy. He was twice cut from his high school team. However, Pettit turned himself into a much sought-after college recruit, earning a scholarship to Louisiana State and becoming an All-American. It’s crazy to think that the player who would go on to become the first in NBA history to score 20,000 career points was once told he wasn't good enough to play high school ball. 

Earning just $11,000 in his rookie season, Pettit averaged 20.4 points and 13.8 rebounds, capturing the Rookie of the Year as well as a spot on the All-NBA First Team. In his eleven year career, Pettit would earn two MVP awards, eleven All-NBA honors (10 First Team), eleven All-Star selections, four All-Star Game MVPs, and a pair of scoring titles. He averaged over 26 points and 16 rebounds for his career as an undersized 6’9”, 205-pound power forward. 

Pettit would be the focal point for the Hawks' 1958 NBA title. After losing the championship to the Boston Celtics the year before, in Game 6 of the 1958 NBA Finals against the Boston Celtics, Pettit dropped 50 points and pulled down 19 rebounds, clinching the franchise’s only championship banner. Pettit’s Hawks would meet the Celtics twice more in the next three years. 

He retired in 1965 and five years later was inducted into the Hall of Fame. A member of all four NBA Anniversary Teams, Pettit may not have the highlights or the fan following of Wilkins, but he has one thing that Wilkins doesn’t, that being a championship banner, making him one of the more unappreciated superstars in NBA history.