March 5, 2024 The Charlotte Hornets have appointed Jeff Peterson as its Executive Vice President of Basketball Operations, the organization announced today. Rick Schnall and Gabe Plotkin are the team’s co-chairmen. In this capacity, Peterson not only assumes leadership of the team’s daily basketball operations but also assumes the role of primary basketball decision maker for the organization.
Schnall and Plotkin expressed their excitement over Jeff’s appointment as the new head of the Charlotte Hornets’ basketball department. “He shares our values, our vision, and our aspiration to be the NBA’s top team. In our league, Jeff is a rising star who is renowned for his abilities in relationship building, communication, and player assessment. We will greatly benefit from his experience working with various enterprises and general managers. We would like to extend a warm welcome to Jeff and look forward to working with him as we grow our team.
Peterson, 35, joins the Hornets after four-plus seasons as assistant general manager for the Brooklyn Nets. While with Brooklyn, he played a key role in helping engineer several significant player acquisitions, including signing Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving as free agents, trading for James Harden, Mikal Bridges and Cam Johnson, and drafting Cam Thomas and Nic Claxton. During his tenure with the Nets, Peterson oversaw Brooklyn’s college scouting department and added the team’s pro scouting department to his responsibilities in the last two seasons.
Peterson declared, “I’m thrilled to be joining the Charlotte Hornets and I can’t wait to get started.” “I would like to express my gratitude to Rick and Gabe for this chance and for giving me this team. I think they have a great idea to become the best franchise in Charlotte. It will require effort, ingenuity, and teamwork to establish a winning culture, and I look forward to the task. The Hornets are among of the most devoted fans in the NBA, and the Carolinas are known as basketball country. I’m excited to experience that passion and be a part of this community.
Prior to his time with the Nets, Peterson spent seven years with the Atlanta Hawks, including the last three years as the team’s assistant general manager. He started his career in Atlanta as a seasonal basketball operations assistant in 2012 and after one season was promoted to coordinator of basketball operations. He was named the Hawks’ director of scouting in 2015 before being promoted to assistant general manager at the age of 27.
A native of Springfield, Missouri, Peterson played college basketball at Iowa, Arkansas and Florida State. Peterson earned an undergraduate degree in marketing at Arkansas and his master’s degree in marketing at Florida State. He was named to The Athletic’s NBA 40 Under 40 List in May 2022.
