ESPN NEWS REPORT: The Charlotte Hornets head coach is been fired due to….
According to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, former Florida State player Jeff Peterson will take over as the Charlotte Hornets’ next president of basketball operations. After spending three seasons with the Atlanta Hawks from 2013 to 2019, Peterson moved up the ranks to become assistant general manager of the Brooklyn Nets in 2019 after serving as a scout, basketball operations coordinator, director of scouting, and finally assistant general manager. He becomes the NBA’s youngest chief executive at the age of 35.
After completing his career at Iowa and Arkansas, Peterson transferred as a redshirt senior in 2011–12 to Florida State, where he averaged 15.7 minutes per game while playing in 34 games and scoring 3.1 points, 1.8 rebounds, and 1.6 assists. That season, FSU would go on to capture their first championship in the ACC Tournament. With a total of 15 minutes played, Peterson participated in both the semifinal matchup against Duke and the championship matchup versus UNC. In the season’s second game, he had tallied a season-high nine points against UCF and disheveled a season-high seven assists against Stetson.
Although Peterson only played in Tallahassee for one season, he attributes his NBA debut to Leonard Hamilton. When asked when he became interested in an off-court basketball career in a 2019 interview with NBA.com, Peterson said, “Not until after I graduated from Florida State.” I could have played at lower levels abroad, but my goal was to play professionally. The Atlanta Hawks offered me the chance to work as a seasonal assistant and intern. I was encouraged to check into it by Florida State’s coach, Leonard Hamilton. I felt that praying was the best course of action.
Peterson’s path to become the head of basketball operations after just 12 years in various front-office jobs has undoubtedly been the greatest one. He’ll get the chance to assist in rebuilding the Hornets, a team that has spent the previous several seasons around the bottom of the Eastern Conference. They do have some young talent; in his brief career, LaMelo Ball has already appeared in an All-Star game. Additionally, Brandon Miller, whom the Hornets selected second overall in the most recent draft, has shown remarkable talent and deserves to be considered for Rookie of the Year in any season where he is not up against the likes of Chet Holmgren and Victor Wembenyama.
