The Atlanta Hawks is an NBA team based in Atlanta, Georgia. The team's origins can be traced to the establishment of the Buffalo Bisons in 1946 in Buffalo, New York. The franchise lasted only 38 days in Buffalo when, on December 25, 1946, Leo Ferris, the team's general manager, announced that the team would be moving to Moline, Illinois, which at that time was part of an area then known as the "Tri-Cities": Moline, Rock Island, Illinois, and Davenport, Iowa. Upon relocation to Moline, the team was renamed the Tri-Cities Blackhawks. In 1949, the Blackhawks became one of the NBA's 17 original teams after a merger of the twelve-year-old National Basketball League (NBL) and the three-year-old Basketball Association of America (BAA). In 1950, the franchise relocated to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and