Can Emory End the Hawk’s 60 year Championship Drought?

The last time the Hawks won a championship was in1958—in St. Louis.

The Hawks have never won a championship for Atlanta—their home since 1968. It’s been a very long, dry run.

Last year the Hawks won the Southeast Division title of the NBA’s Eastern Conference.

The team is working its way up the standings. And they are due.

That’s also the opinion of new owner, Tony Ressler. To get his team to the Promised Land, Ressler has made it clear that the Hawks need a new practice facility.

And—with a little help from a local spine surgeon—Ressler scored one of the best practice facilities in the NBA—a sparkling new $50 million dollar basketball Valhalla.

Four people sat on the podium with Ressler at the ground breaking ceremony for this amazing facility: his head coach, the team CEO, the incoming president of Emory University and a surgeon. A local spine surgeon to be exact.

But it’s one spine surgeon that, in terms of Emory University and its medical center, is the go-to guy to get big initiatives designed and launched.

No surprise to those who know him, it was Dr. Scott Boden.

Boden, for those who may not know, is a practicing spine surgeon and founder and director of the Emory Orthopaedics & Spine Center. That center, which is now 22 years old, has been the incubator for some of the most important discoveries in orthopedics. A dozen years after he started the center, Boden spearheaded the design and completion of a massive 100, 000 square foot expansion making room for an ambulatory surgery center, CT scan, MRI X2, and physician offices.

In 2006 he oversaw the creation of the Emory University Orthopaedics & Spine Hospital—a free standing hospital that focuses exclusively on ortho/spine surgery and receives consistently the highest possible patient satisfaction ratings from Press Ganey of any hospital they measure in U.S. The hospital has eight ICU beds and does tertiary care ortho cases including complex joint revisions and complex adult scoliosis cases.

Apparently Boden had a little spare time on his hands because when the word went out that the Hawk’s new owner was looking for a new practice facility, Boden and the rest of the Emory team stepped up. Emory, after all, is one of the most comprehensive health systems in Georgia, and Emory University is one of the nation’s leading academic medical centers.

The two organizations were a natural fit.

The new facility will be the first in the NBA to be co-located with an entire sports medicine center. Emory will utilize roughly 30, 000-square feet to offer what they refer to as “the most comprehensive in preventative and rehabilitative treatment and sports performance training.” Brookhaven will become the treatment center for the entire roster of doctors, surgeons and specialists who currently practice at Emory’s older Sports Medicine Center. Physicians plan to treat patients at the new facility.

The facility is privately funded and will feature the most advanced technology in sports medicine and athletic care built within a training center. Located on Executive Park Drive in Brookhaven, the center will serve as the team’s official practice site and will feature the most advanced technology in sports medicine and athletic care.

Emory will become the official sports medicine provider for the team.

And Dr. Boden, along with new owner Ressler, is embarking on a very interesting if not potentially championship journey.