The Washington GreenHawks were a team of the

Atlantic Coast Professional Basketball League The American Professional Basketball League (APBL) was a semi-professional men's basketball sports league, league that began play in 2010. Originally known as the Atlantic Coast Professional Basketball League (ACPBL), the league changed its name ...

(ACPBL) based in

Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

As the Maryland Nighthawks they were formerly part of the

American Basketball Association The American Basketball Association (ABA) was a major men's professional basketball league from 1967 to 1976. The ABA ceased to exist with the ABA–NBA merger, American Basketball Association–National Basketball Association merger in 1976, ...

(ABA) and a founding member of the

Premier Basketball League The Premier Basketball League, often abbreviated to the PBL, is an American professional men's basketball minor league that began play in January 2008. The league folded after the 2017 season. It was announced that the league would be revived un ...

(PBL), in which they later played as the Maryland GreenHawks. The team began play in the fall of 2004.

History

2004–2007: Nighthawk ABA Years

The Nighthawks were first located in

North Bethesda, Maryland North Bethesda is an unincorporated, census-designated place in Montgomery County, Maryland, United States, located just north-west of the U.S. capital of Washington, D.C. It had a population of 50,094 as of the 2020 census. Among its neighb ...

when they joined the ABA. In their first season they finished in third place in the Blue Division with a 15-9 record. They lost in the second round of the playoffs to the

Bellevue Blackhawks Bellevue means "beautiful view" in French. It may refer to: Placenames Australia * Bellevue, Western Australia * Bellevue Hill, New South Wales * Bellevue, Queensland * Bellevue, Glebe, an historic house in Sydney, New South Wales Canada ...

, 133-120. Entering their second season, owner Tom Doyle relocated the team from

Show Place Arena The Show Place Arena is a 5,800-seat multi-purpose arena in Upper Marlboro, Maryland, which is used for sporting events, concerts, boxing and professional wrestling events, consumer shows, trade shows, religious services, graduations and other eve ...

Prince George's County, Maryland ) , demonym = Prince Georgian , ZIP codes = 20607–20774 , area codes = 240, 301 , founded date = April 23 , founded year = 1696 , named for = Prince George of Denmark , leader_title = Executive , leader_name = Angela D. Alsobroo ...

, to

Montgomery County, Maryland Montgomery County is the most populous county in the state of Maryland. As of the 2020 census, the county's population was 1,062,061, increasing by 9.3% from 2010. The county seat and largest municipality is Rockville, although the census-design ...

. The Nighthawks played their home games at the Hanley Center for Athletic Excellence of

Georgetown Preparatory School Georgetown Preparatory School (also known as Georgetown Prep) is a Jesuit college-preparatory school in North Bethesda, Maryland for boys in ninth through twelfth grade. It has a 93-acre (380,000 square meters) campus. It is the only Jesuit boar ...

on Saturday evenings and Sunday afternoons. Celebrity players such as the

New England Patriots The New England Patriots are a professional American football team based in the Greater Boston area. They compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) AFC East, East divisio ...

Adalius Thomas Adalius Donquail Thomas (; born July 18, 1977) is a former American football player who was a linebacker in the National Football League (NFL) for ten seasons. He played college football for the University of Southern Mississippi. He was drafte ...

and former Washington Bullet

Gheorghe Muresan Gheorghe is a Romanian given name and surname. It is a variant of George, also a name in Romanian but with soft Gs. It may refer to: Given name * Gheorghe Adamescu * Gheorghe Albu * Gheorghe Alexandrescu * Gheorghe Andriev * Gheorghe Apostol ...

suited up for the Nighthawks and played as the "11th man", a unique rule in the ABA that allows celebrities to play in a game for an ABA team. The Nighthawks finished the 2005-06 season with a record of 25-10. They also signed 7' 8¾" Chinese player Sun Mingming, the largest player ever to play professional basketball in the US. In the playoffs, they faced the

Montreal Matrix The Montreal Matrix were an American Basketball Association team based in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The team's first season was in 2005–06 and their home court was the Centre Pierre Charbonneau. The team was known as the Montreal Royal during ...

in the first round. They won 145-114, advancing to the second round. There, they faced the

SoCal Legends The Southern California Legends, known commonly as the SoCal Legends, were a team in the Continental Basketball Association. The Legends are owned and coached by former NBA player Gary Grant. They played their home games at Azusa Pacific Unive ...

, to whom they would lose, 121-123. In the 2006–2007 season, they finished 13-16. This was the first losing record in the franchise's history. This was also the first season in which they missed the playoffs.

2008–2009: Nighthawk PBL years

In late 2007, the Maryland Nighthawks left the ABA. They would then move on to become one of the charter franchises of the newly formed PBL.

2008

For the 2008 season, the Nighthawks signed

Tamir Goodman Tamir Goodman (born January 18, 1982) is a former American-Israeli professional basketball player. He was dubbed by ''Sports Illustrated'' magazine as the "Jewish Michael Jordan, Jordan". After playing basketball for the Talmudical Academy of Ba ...

with former player

Lawrence Moten Lawrence Edward Moten (born March 25, 1972) is an American retired professional basketball player. Moten attended Archbishop Carroll High School in Washington, D.C. and the New Hampton School in New Hampton, New Hampshire before playing his colle ...

now the new head coach. Their first season in the PBL would be the worst in their franchise's history as they posted a 6-14 record. As there were only ten teams in the league, they made the playoffs against the 11-9

Wilmington Sea Dawgs The Wilmington Sea Dawgs are a professional basketball team and founding member of the Tobacco Road Basketball League. The team is based in Wilmington, North Carolina, and began play in 2006 as a member of the American Basketball Association. T ...

. They defeated Wilmington 125-112. In the second round, they went on to face off against the Rochester Razorsharks, who easily defeated the Nighthawks 123-102, thus ending their season.

2009

On October 10, 2008, the team announced that they would be representing the PBL as the official "Travel Team" of the PBL in China and the Far East. Since the schedule of international play was set to occur concurrently with the PBL regular season, the Nighthawks did not play any regular season games in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

2010–11: GreenHawks years

On October 26, 2009, the team launched a new website revealing a new team name and location. The team claimed to be the first

environmentally friendly Environment friendly processes, or environmental-friendly processes (also referred to as eco-friendly, nature-friendly, and green), are sustainability and marketing terms referring to goods and services, laws, guidelines and policies that clai ...

(i.e. "green") professional sports team, changed their name to the Maryland GreenHawks, and moved to

Rockville, Maryland Rockville is a city that serves as the county seat of Montgomery County, Maryland, and is part of the Baltimore–Washington metropolitan area. The 2020 census tabulated Rockville's population at 67,117, making it the fifth-largest community in ...

. In August, 2010, the ACPBL announced the GreenHawks had joined their league and moved to Washington, changing their name to the Washington GreenHawks. However just two games into the ACPBL season, the GreenHawks announced they were ceasing operations.

References

External links

Official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Washington Greenhawks Former Premier Basketball League teams Former American Professional Basketball League teams Basketball teams in Washington, D.C. North Bethesda, Maryland Rockville, Maryland Defunct basketball teams in Maryland Basketball teams established in 2004 2004 establishments in Maryland Sports clubs disestablished in 2011 2010s disestablishments in Washington, D.C.