The same words of wisdom basketball pioneer and Hall of Famer Wayne Embry hooked Rick Sund with during his first job interview are the same simple words that Sund lives by 34 years later.

"I told him that to achieve success in any business, you have to be able to communicate and manage people," Embry, then the general manager of the Milwaukee Bucks and the NBA's first black general manager, said Saturday afternoon."

So when Sund walks into his new office in a couple of days at Atlanta Spirit headquarters, those words will echo in his every move.

The Hawks' new general manager as of last Wednesday, Sund will draw on a lifetime full of front office experiences to help steer the Hawks onto the path to the NBA's elite.

The Hawks are looking for a new path after Billy Knight, architect of the team went 106-222 the past four seasons, resigned May 7.

After ending a nine-year playoff drought by extending the Boston Celtics to the limit in the first round, the second phase of the Hawks' continued rise from the ashes begins now. Sund will try to usher in a culture change in an organization that has been somewhat resistant to outside influence, until now.

"So much of my philosophies and management thoughts were developed by Wayne," Sund said last week from Orlando, where he served as co-chair of the NBA's predraft camp. "Back then there were only five people in the front office."

Sund also learned the guiding rule for any general manager in the NBA.

"If you don't have the ability to be a people person with basketball knowledge you're in trouble, because what happens, I think, all too often is that it's not just about making basketball decisions anymore," Sund said. "It's about being able to get everybody on the same page. It's about management."

When Sund started out in the business in 1974, he was Embry's intern while finishing the sports management program at Ohio University. Sund had just earned All-Big Ten honors his senior year at Northwestern and the NBA was a shell of the global, multi-billion dollar behemoth it is now.

"You only had one coach, not five assistant coaches who all have aspirations of being a head coach," said Sund, who will celebrate his 57th birthday Wednesday, the day he'll meet and greet the local media. "College basketball wasn't the monster then that it has become. You didn't have to scout globally. A general manager can't do it all anymore. You have to have somebody now that can manage all of that."

It's the same realization that Sund's contemporaries, guys like Jerry West and Donnie Walsh, learned and adapted to over the years as well.

And the same reality Sund dealt with after leaving Milwaukee for positions in Dallas, Detroit and Seattle.

Sund built or helped build playoff teams from the ground up in each of his previous stops. His 1988 Mavericks lost in Game 7 of the Western Conference finals to the eventual champion Lakers.

"Knowing Rick," Embry said, "I'm sure that is part of the appeal, whether it would have been starting from scratch or building on what's already there. He welcomes the challenge."

The build-through-the-draft approach used in Dallas is the blueprint the Hawks used five years ago when they decided to start from scratch. Knight discussed it with Sund, then Seattle's general manager.

"Of the 13 players on our roster in Dallas [in 1988], 11 were guys we drafted," Sund said. "We had the patience and we developed. In Seattle, they had been to the NBA Finals two years before I arrived, so we had a different scenario. We had to redo the whole club and not just use one vehicle. This situation here is closer to Dallas. Somewhere along the line we're going to have to make some moves. Every situation is a little bit different. But this is on its way."

Crucial decisions — including the fates of Hawks coach Mike Woodson, his staff and restricted free agents Josh Smith and Josh Childress — must be made. And the wrong ones could prove fatal, as in Seattle.

Two years after a magical ride with the Sonics, Sund had eight players and coach Nate McMillan playing out contract years with a tight-fisted ownership group not interested in a soaring payroll,

Portland snatched McMillan away with a generous offer. A new ownership group took over. Sund was reassigned and team captain and All-Star Ray Allen was traded to the Celtics, proving that as quickly as you build it, the end can be just as swift.

"Obviously, his hands were tied with the organization and the possible future of the team," said Allen, whom Sund traded for in a blockbuster deal in February 2003 that sent Sonics legend Gary Payton to Milwaukee. "But as far as him bringing talent there, he did a great job. He's got pretty talented guys lined up [in Atlanta]. I'm pretty sure he'll do a pretty good job the rest of the way with that."

Allen sent Sund one of the scores of text messages and phone calls the general manager received from former players, fellow executives and numerous job hunters.

Sund, who keeps his Blackberry nearby and won't hesitate to slap on his reading glasses to look at messages in front of company, is well aware that he'll be the center of attention for various reasons for at least the next few weeks, from friends and well wishers as well as critics that inevitably come with the job.

"I think I've gotten better as I've gotten older," Sund said. "Your skin thickens. It's maturity. It's the same way with decisions. You work as hard as you can to make the best decision you can at the time.

"Listen, you're not going to bat [a thousand] in this business. We all know that. You're going to make good decisions, bad decisions and average decisions. But at the end of the day, it's the sum of what you do, the entire magnitude of it that is left. And did those decisions, collectively, put you in a position to reach your goals."