On Thursday, the entire Brooklyn Nets organization was surprised as it was announced that assistant general manager Jeff Peterson will transfer to the Queen City and assume the Charlotte Hornets' head of basketball operations position. The young executive has been a renowned presence within the Brooklyn brass with his savvy skill set, draft emphasis, and relationship building and is being pegged to potentially lead the franchise one day.
While it is truly tough to see him go, the Nets franchise fully supports Peterson taking the big break and fulfilling his utmost promise as the league's youngest top executive.
Fingers crossed
While their basketball partnership is brief, Nets interim head coach Kevin Ollie stands delighted and proud about Peterson stepping in for the huge opportunity that awaits him in Charlotte.
On behalf of the franchise, Ollie expressed his good wishes towards the 35-year-old as he embarks on a grand yet challenging responsibility of cultivating the Hornets to a new era.
“Jeff has been great. We played a lot of golf together. Gonna miss him, but super-excited for his opportunity with the Charlotte Hornets — to run that organization,” he said during the postgame of the Nets' Thursday home win over the Atlanta Hawks.
Jeff will bring his wonders from Brooklyn to Charlotte
Peterson joined Sean Marks' basketball operations group in 2019. Since then, he has not only blossomed into one of the rising basketball minds in the business but also aided the franchise’s growth and emergence in his four-and-a-half seasons as an assistant general manager.
As Marks’ right-hand man, he played an important role in the team's superteam formation of Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving, and James Harden. Peterson is also widely credited with discovering and drafting both Cam Thomas and Nic Claxton, who are now the franchise's important centerpieces of their future.
“He is not afraid to get a little dirty,” Marks said of Peterson in a 2022 interview with The Athletic’s Mike Vorkunov. “Just because you’re the assistant GM doesn’t mean you can’t do some of the other tasks, and I think for what we do here, we’re responsible for everything. Titles don’t mean anything. So it doesn’t matter who has a great idea, whether it’s a draft pick, a free agent, or whatever or trade, and Jeff is somebody who’s a great listener.
“I think that certainly helps, you know, if you have a leader that listens to people, and I think that he does that really well. I think that that’s why his peers look up to him.”
More must-reads: