Jeff Peterson Introductory Press Conference | 3/6/24

Jeff Peterson Introductory Press Conference | 3/6/24

Good morning everyone I’m Sam Farber the radio play byplay broadcaster here for the Charlotte Hornets and it is a pleasure and a privilege to welcome you all here a great occasion at Spectrum Center as we introduce our new Executive Vice President of basketball operations Jeff Peterson along with those in attendance

We’d like to welcome all of our Hornets fans tuned in across the Carolinas and around the world on hornets.com B sports.com and on WFNZ since taking over the team last summer co-chairman Rick schn and Gabe Plotkin have shared a number of values and a vision for building the Charlotte

Hornets into the premier franchise in the NBA and as they’ve been introducing Jeff to our staff over the last couple of days they’ve shared with us that they believe he is a culture driver someone who embodies our values around Integrity cander teamwork accountability competitiveness and resilience it’s

Clear why they are excited to pass the rain of our basketball staff over to him and we are thrilled to welcome Jeff and excited to add his leadership as we continue to build out the organization with that I’d like to pass things over to Hornet’s co-chairman Rick schn and Gabe

Plotkin thanks Sam you took uh you took a lot of our our took a lot of our lines away but that’s all right um well look thanks everyone for coming uh first uh we wanted to thank Mitch cjack who I don’t see here but uh for all that he’s

Done for the organization and will continue to do he’s obviously agreed to stay on as an adviser and we appreciate that he’ll be with us in that capacity uh in the future and and uh we appreciate him both uh doing what he did for the organization and then then

Welcoming Gabe and I working closely with us as we got through this deadline so wanted to make sure we we did that uh secondly as Sam said uh we do have the intention to create and our vision is to create the premier franchise in the NBA and that starts with people uh and

Culture and finding the right people to help us get there is essential to our success and uh finding Jeff uh and and putting Jeff in this position is just a home run for us as a franchise so we couldn’t be more excited to introduce

Jeff uh here today to all of you and uh for you to get to know Jeff but uh I’ll let Gabe talk a little bit about the process of hiring Jeff but Jeff and I have known each other about 10 years now and we met

Uh when when I got involved in the Hawks in 2015 and Jeff was 26 at that time maybe uh and uh quite frankly it didn’t take very long to figure out that Jeff was going to have a a great career uh and be incredibly successful in this

Line of work or whatever he chose to do he’s a special special person and uh we we uh we built a relationship there and maintained one and he he’s just uh has a combination of skills which uh are going to drive us to great success so maybe

Gabe will talk a little bit more about how he went through this process to find Jeff and then we’ll let Jeff introduce himself first Jeff welcome to uh Buzz City we’re super excited to have you um this obviously a very special day for the Charlotte Hornets um Sam you did

Take some of my lines about core values but I think when we met Jeff and Rick’s known him a lot longer but I met him you know several months ago and throughout this process got to know him a lot better you know he represents the core

Values that we want to have as an organization um you know we began this process you know post the trade deadline with the intention of you know bringing somebody in who could start to have an imprint you know looking forward into the draft into free agency into really

What’s a big summerhead for the organization as it relates to Player Development um I think typically in the NBA this is a somewhat unorthodox timing but I thought it was really important you know for us and and where we’re at uh to accelerate this process you know

Prior to that you know so we can move into the summer you know ready to go as it relates to those those items you know the process itself um you know we started with a pretty significant list you know through relationships through NBA sources and and reputations that people have

Throughout the league and then we had multiple rounds of interviews you know Rick and I were heavily involved in in you know each of the rounds and you know we had had presentations that were put together we had you know roster conversations strategic outlooks uh we even had personality and Leadership test

That we do and you know finally Jeff met with you know other owners um you know of the organization and you know throughout the whole process it became pretty apparent that when you looked at the values you know that we hold dear as an organization Jeff embodied all of

Those and so the decision was pretty easy in the end it was really easy we’re excited to have him I think you know the special thing about Jeff f um and it’s been written about but it’s absolutely true it’s his ability to build relationships kind of across the league

Whether that’s with with players coaches staff you know the media other front offices agents ownership you know we felt like this was something that he would continue to excel at and helping us you know build the premier team both on the court uh and off the court so

I’ll move it to Jeff he’s the guy we want to hear from today thanks thank you uh Rick and gabee thank you to um all of you guys for coming out today I really appreciate it I can’t tell you how excited I am uh just to be sitting

Here in the seat today extremely thankful uh for this opportunity it’s an incredible situation um to to be a part of and again I’m I’m just very very thankful you know Rick and Gabe have communicated uh very clearly that we want to turn this thing into the premier

Franchise of the NBA and that’s exactly what we’re going to do um and I can’t tell you how excited I am to do that in this beautiful city of Charlotte and the Carolinas in general the uh the fan base here extremely loyal um knowledgeable passionate um and just the again the

Community itself I I can’t wait to get out there and and have you guys help so very thankful to uh to get started in that way um I do want to say a few thank yous before we turn it over to to to some q&as and look I’d be up here all

Day if I sit sat here and and thank everyone who has helped me along this journey because it’s been a long one but um first and foremost I’ll start with Rick and Gabe um as as Rick addressed I’ve known him now for 10 years and you know I think the beautiful thing about

Our relationship is it it extends Beyond basketball so whether that’s me beating him in golf um or or never actually happened or pick up whatever it may be um you know I think that has happen I think it’s important because you know you get to truly learn about

Someone um in situations like that and it’s it’s again as he said been clear since day one that you know I think we share a lot of the same values and um he’s just an amazing person to be around uh basketball side just a quality human being that you want to build something

With uh and then going through the process meeting Gabe uh was very fun and it it was did not take long at all to to see that we clicked and yeah we haven’t had a pre uh existing relationship but again just the core values and the vision the fact that we’re all three

Aligned um Gabe’s been tremendously successful I can’t wait to continue to learn from him and um I know the three of us are going to push each other challenge one another which excites me the most um at the same time we won’t take it personal and uh at the end of

The day we all three want the exact same thing which again is to to develop this and turn this into the to the premier franchise in the NBA um next I want to move it over to uh to the Nets organization uh there’s some amazing people affiliated with that

Organization you know I got there five years ago and quite frankly I didn’t really know what to expect um but truly one of the uh the better times in my career I’ve met so many people there and quite frankly they’ve helped develop me um and prepare me for the situation so

As Gabe touched on just all the players that I’ve interacted with there in in that organization staff members from coaching staff um performance staff front office they pushed me they made me better each and every day so um specifically I I do want to you know say

Thank you to Joe Sai CLA Sai oi Weissberg and of course Shawn Marx again they uh they were great to me my family and they uh allowed me to to ultimately take this this next jump in my career uh next uh just want to say thank you to the Atlanta Hawks organization

They allowed me to get you know get my career started in the NBA um so it’s funny you look back 12 years ago had no idea that that would that would lead to this moment now but um just really really thankful to again to develop some relationships with players and staff and

Um just develop a relationship with that that City too uh was was was amazing um lastly certainly not least my parents who uh made it here today just the uh amount of sacrifice that they made for me growing up was special so I just want

To say thank you guys and I love you guys so thank you Jeff welcome uh for our media that’s here if you would like to ask a question please raise your hand we’ll get a microphone to you and then please identify who you’re representing here today before asking your question

We’ll tip things off with Matt rinsky how’s it going Matt rinsky with hornets.com just wanted to ask all three of you up there there was obviously a good process that was put together with a handful of good candidates Jeff what do you think the one thing was that

Really made you stand out to Rick and Gabe and Rick and Gabe what was the one thing that made Jeff stand out to you it’s a good question uh you know I I think just I think they were able to truly see how excited I was about this

This opportunity um again I think it helped that our vision and values aligned and you know you guys are going to get sick of me saying this but we’re going to turn this into the premier franchise of the NBA um and the fact that again that there was no um

Hesitations on in terms of how we were going to do it um it it may take a you know a process and we’re not going to skip steps but um I think that that’s what ultimately helped that that we were uh completely in alignment from that standpoint Jeff uh Steve Reed from the

Associated Press welcome to Charlotte um I just wonder if you you can tell us you’ve had a chance now to probably look at the roster what are your thoughts on you know how you go about turning this into you know a premier fan franchise in

The NBA what what do you feel like needs to improve thanks Steve uh I want to say thank you to to the entire team for coming out and showing support first of all but uh look I I’m I’m very excited about our roster we have um you know I

Think we have different kind of phases we have a young Core group and and lamelo Brandon Mark miles and then we got some veterans and Davis and Seth Cody um Grant and just some some more you know developmental pieces and and Bryce and Nick and JT so look um I think

We have a lot a lot of good pieces um I’m excited to take this time quite frankly to evaluate um and see exact what you know where we can uh tweak some things to get better um you know I had a chance to spend some time with them

Yesterday and you know one of my main things was just like let’s use these last 21 games to get better um there’s no excuse that we can’t have individual goals and Collective goals led by coach coach Cliff um and just sit down and um really use this time to get better and

Improve Jeff uh Scott Fowler from the Charlotte Observer welcome to Charlotte um I wonder what you would tell directly to to Hornets fans who have been a very passionate group for many years also have now experience the the longest playoff drought in the NBA and are frustrated about that how how

What would you tell them how far away is this process that you’re speaking of yeah Scott thank you uh I I don’t I don’t think it’s fair to necessarily put a timeline on it um as I said you know when the three of us sat down and and

Realized that this was you know the best direction that we’re going to go it’s you know it’s not fair we want to skip steps we want it to happen organically now I will say all three of us are very competitive so we’re going to find ways to to try to expedite that

Um without jeopardizing our future in any any fashion so um you know as as as Rick and gab have both touched on characters the number one priority in this organization we’re going to continue to build around that hopefully these guys can play a little basketball

As well um and uh and we’ll go from there about just continue to bring the energy you know again I I’m fortunate I get to go to each NBA arena and and Scout and watch games and you know ever since I was able to do that for a living uh

Charlotte has always been a place that I thought had the best fans in the NBA um again just their passion their knowledge uh their loyalty and I there will be hope uh we just have to continue to stay patient and just know that we’re going to not skip steps because our main goal

Is to have sustainable success right we don’t want to make the playoffs one year and then we’re out for another three or four years we want this thing to be sustainable and turn it into a consistent winner Jeff over here uh will pic from WFNZ in Charlotte um in terms of the

Timeline you mentioned the fact that you know there’s still a lot you can possibly learn out of 21 games but how does that maybe change how you evaluate this last little bit with it being a smaller sample size and and for gab and Rick you know how imperative is that

Timeline to kind of get the ball rolling in terms of making decisions on roster and also even coaching staff yeah you know what I actually look it as a as a positive I know it’s a small sample size but it’s better than you know no sample

Size at all so I think every day you’re trying to collect a little bit more data and figure out how to factor into those decisions but I see it as actually a blessing because most of the time you know obviously in these situations the turnover doesn’t happen until the summer

So I’m looking at it as a positive Jeff Nick Carboni from NBC here in Charlotte welcome bit of a question for you and also Rick and Gabe um what do you think of what they were able to do as owners to put together the trade deadline that they did and their

Knowledge of the game and for Gabe and Rick you call Jeff the chief basketball decision maker how involved will you guys be in key decisions and any decisions for these franchise and this roster yeah I you know for a minute I was like they may not even hire a GM

They may just be uh GM Co GMS assistant GMS um but no I in all seriousness I thought they they did a nice job I think again they’re they’re they’re realistic in terms of their approach um so in in any situation if you can step back and

Reflect and say listen in order to get where we ultimately want to go we may have to um make some short-term decisions that that’s going to help us in the future so again being able to add Seth Davis uh Vasa and um Trey Grant um to this mix obviously a couple assets uh

Pick so I think they did a really nice job in terms of uh just putting the whole picture in perspective Jeff uh Michael said from Queen City News oh I’m sorry you guys don’t really want to hear from us but I I will uh I will answer the question on on to

Make it clear Jeff will be the chief decision maker in our basketball Ops but of course uh everything will be done in consultation with us but Jeff will be the will be The Driver of those decisions with with his team and uh um we do have passion for basketball we did

Go through the deadline I I just would add in the deadline because we haven’t had a chance to talk about it but there’s a bunch of these guys here you know we we set Into the Dead set out in the deadline to acquire assets we didn’t necessarily plan to get better but we

Did get better so we got assets and we got better we brought in five unbelievably High character guys into our locker room who have made a big difference for our team and so uh we’re proud to have all five of the guys as Hornets they represent what we’re going

To be about and I think they’ve really uh changed the dynamic for for our guys and we now feel great about the group and obviously we’re battling every night uh without a couple of of of our young players and uh you know that that was an important deadline and a first first

Step but having someone here with Jeff’s caliber who help us uh do it going forward yeah the the other point I’d add to that is you know we view this as a partnership you know we really wanted somebody that would partner with us um and that was one of the special

Things about Jeff is his ability to you know partner with a wide variety of constituents Jeff Michael said from Queen City News uh injuries have been a major part of the story of this team for the last two years I know they’re part of the game but how can that be

Addressed to to keep guys healthy and and keep guys on the floor yeah like it’s I think that’s a fair question you hit it on the head it is part of the game some of them I think have just been quite frankly a little bit unlucky you

Know Seth came down the other day got his ankle and you know just random things happen you know it is part of it but uh I think look that quite frankly it’s something that over these next 20 21 games I’m going to be able to sit

Back and evaluate and and see if there’s there’s a way that we can you know avoid them uh sometimes I think you can sometimes you can’t it’s just unfortunate so down here in the front Mike sarte Spectrum news one uh I want to go back to Matt rinsky’s first question for Gabe

And Rick because you guys were what made and I have a followup as well Jeff or what was Jeff why was Jeff the guy in your eyes this is for Matt well I think you know there’s a few things when you know when you you we’re looking for someone who possesses both

Uh very high uh EQ or ability to manage people get along with people have relationships very high IQ intellect can make decisions can look around corners and then ultimately the most important thing maybe is Drive to be successful and Jeff has all three of those so put

Those three together with a really good cultural fit similar value system and uh someone who can be with us for his career you know we wanted someone who looked at it and said I can do this for 20 years and uh I want to be part of something special and obviously uh Jeff

Being only 35 years old has a has a a long tenure in front of him of of great success and so you know he he’ll be here probably hopefully long after I’m not and uh that that was the goal yeah I would agree with all that and just add leadership

You know I think with with Jeff you know we’ve already seen I mean he’s somebody that people believe in uh I mean we certainly believe in him he’s somebody that people want to work with and for and ultimately you know this is a leadership role and I think from the

Outside you look at and say okay you know the head of basketball UPS made this decision or that decision but but there’s a team behind them and so the ability to integrate some of the talent we have currently on our basketball Ops Team the ability to bring in additional

Talent you know that takes real leadership and I think that’s something that he possesses at the highest level right that was for Matt now my question for Jeff you guys have talked about making the Hornets the premier NBA franchise where’s the pressure level as

You step in at the age of 35 with two owners that believe in you and and have your back where’s the pressure level for you to make that happen I I don’t feel any pressure uh you know I think again I just keep going back to I think it’s an

Incredible opportunity you know I I’ve I’m 35 but I’ve also seen a lot in this league um been in for now 12 years and a lot of things happened in Atlanta and a lot of things happened in Brooklyn uh so I think I’m fortunate to have those

Experiences so I don’t see this pressure I just I go back to an incredible opportunity to partner with these guys and as Gabe just touched on the basketball operation staff to ultimately um you know turn this into the Premier franchise uh Eric spanberg with the Business Journal over here uh I have a

Question for Gabe and Rick and then Jeff as well for Gabe and Rick there was just the news in the past week or so about expanding The Practice Center and building it sooner uh about $130 million project which is roughly double what it was going to be before so I’d like to

Hear a little bit about what you’re going to do in addition that warrants that and then for Jeff I’m curious what’s your assessment of the facilities and the things you need to have to not only bring in players but to keep players and build that Premier franchise

For the um for the practice facility um look I think it’s really important that we have you know state-of-the-art practice facility if we want to become the premier franchise you know we need a great Arena we need a great practice facility um I think that can create better collaboration between you know

The different elements of basketball and obviously for our players we want great experience um you know some of the increase in the cost is just relative to when we started the project the reality is we’ve had tremendous inflation in the economy uh and building costs and so you

Know that’s an element and and some of it is and it’s not totally defined yet but in visiting other practice facilities throughout the NBA you know you get a lot of ideas and we you know you kind of see the the latest and greatest is typically the best because

You incorporate all those ideas and we get the opportunity to layer those into what we’re trying to do do and make sure that this makes the most sense and is the best outcome for our players and it’s definitely something that you know we think is worthy of

Investment yeah I um again I to me it’s it’s more about the people you’re working with and and the product you know that that we’re we’re able to put out there so look we could work right here and we’ll figure it out so I’m not worried about that I’m I am excited

About the practice facility um you know the goal is of course to to make it a place that’s desirable for the players first and foremost and the staff to never want to leave you know if it’s you want to get away it’s because you’re stressed at home and you want to work on

Your game or you want to bring your kids up there um so I’m excited to to to build that that out with uh with Gabe and Rick hey Jeff uh Jeremy granis ESPN Charlotte you mentioned your relationship with Gabe and Rick but you also have a relationship with Steve

Clifford can you just talk about your relationships with not only only the front office but also the coaching staff as well yeah thanks Jeremy uh yeah it’s funny you just you never know how life’s going to work out so cliff and I we uh we crossed paths uh in Brooklyn um he

Was a part of our our coaching staff there and um before that I didn’t know him um I thought he was just this angry guy that that never SM that never smiled and stuff um but I quickly realized that was not true uh whether it was at

Dinners or on the golf course or whatever it was and I’m so thankful to to be able to really have that year with him because I learned you know I can’t tell you how valuable it was just to sit with him and pick his brain and stories and what he’s seen that’s been

Successful what hasn’t been successful um so know I’m I’m excited to uh to to be reunited with Cliff hey Jeff John Tre wccb you’re of the age where the Hornets became wildly popular among young people as you were growing up what are some maybe your foundational impressions of the

Organization and and whether it be the starter jackets or the Lonzo and Larry do you have any of those yeah all that I mean growing up playing NBA Jam Lonzo um you know Baron Davis uh Mugsy the starter jackets all that stuff you know I always like the colors um so yeah

Spend a lot of time playing playing with Charlotte on on the video games any other questions all right well thank you everyone for joining us today uh again thank you to Rick schn and Gabe plin for spending some time with us and welcome to Jeff Peterson our new Executive Vice President of basketball

Operations that’s going to do it for today’s press conference we look forward to seeing everyone back here on Saturday evening for the Hornets game against the Brooklyn Nets thanks everyone all right

Limited 2024-25 Memberships Available Now: https://www.nba.com/hornets/tickets/hive-society

👀 SUBSCRIBE HERE 👀 https://www.youtube.com/hornets?sub_confirmation=1

📱 Follow us on social! 📱
Twitter: https://twitter.com/hornets
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hornets/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/hornets/
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@hornets/

👕 Get Your Merch! 👕 http://www.hornetsfanshop.com/

#LetsFly35