Peter Babcock is a former NBA executive, serving as general manager with three franchises; the San Diego Clippers, Denver Nuggets and Atlanta Hawks. He also worked in a variety of capacities from scouting to coaching to player personnel with the New Orleans Jazz, Los Angeles Lakers, Milwaukee Bucks, Toronto Raptors and Cleveland Cavaliers over a 42-year period. He also served as president and minority owner in his final two seasons with the Denver Nuggets. His Nuggets and Hawks teams appeared in the playoffs 14 out of 15 seasons. Babcock also directed the NBA Pre Draft Camp for over twenty years, served on the competition and rules committee and steering committee for the NBA and was a member of the USA basketball men's selection committee picking the 1996 Olympic team and head coach.
Career
Denver Nuggets
Babcock was employed by the Denver Nuggets from 1984 to 1990. While Babcock was in Denver, the team made the playoffs six out of six years, winning two division championships and going to the Western Conference Finals in 1985.
During his time in Denver, he initiated the "Fast Break for Life Tour" which involved annual visits to Native American reservations throughout the country to work with young people. He continued that program for the next 15 years when he joined the Atlanta Hawks. Babcock and Alex English were honored in a Rose Garden ceremony by President Ronald Reagan for this work. Babcock testified in Congress in 1988 to push for increased funding for research dealing with substance abuse among the country's youth.
Atlanta Hawks
In Atlanta, from 1990–1993, he rebuilt the team while making the playoffs two of those three seasons and resulted in finishing the 1993-94 season with the best record in the Eastern Conference and the division championship. He added
Mookie Blaylock
Daron Oshay "Mookie" Blaylock (born March 20, 1967) is an American former professional basketball player. He spent 13 years in the National Basketball Association (NBA) with the New Jersey Nets, Atlanta Hawks, and the Golden State Warriors.
Col ...
,
Steve Smith Stephen, Steve, Stevie, or Steven Smith may refer to:
Academics
* Steve Smith (political scientist) (born 1952), British international relations theorist and senior university manager
* Stephen Smith (journalist) (born 1956), American journalist, ...
,
Dikembe Mutombo
Dikembe Mutombo Mpolondo Mukamba Jean-Jacques Wamutombo (born June 25, 1966) is a Congolese-American former professional basketball player. Mutombo played 18 seasons in the National Basketball Association (NBA). Outside basketball, he has becom ...
,
Craig Ehlo
Joel Craig Ehlo (; born August 11, 1961) is a retired American basketball player. He played fifteen seasons in the National Basketball Association (NBA) with four teams, amassing career totals of 7,492 points, 2,456 assists and 3,139 rebounds.
P ...
,
Grant Long
Grant Andrew Long (born March 12, 1966) is an American former professional basketball player. He played over 1,000 games for the National Basketball Association over a 15-year career. Long had two relatives who were playing in the NBA during hi ...
, Christian Laettner as well as hiring Hall of Fame coach Lenny Wilkens, and the team went on a six-year run of averaging 50 plus wins per season.
Babcock initiated a "Life Experience Program" to enhance players exposure to life outside of the game. Players visited a diversity of sites including Ford's Theater in Washington DC, NORAD in Colorado Springs, the Black Cowboy Museum in Denver, Ground Zero in NYC just months following 9/11, and the Pentagon to name a few. They also met with a variety of speakers such as John Lewis, John Wooden, Andrew Young and others. The effort was to broaden the horizons of professional athletes off the court. For his efforts, he was recognized as Sports Personality of the Year by Georgia Special Olympics, received the Golden Apple Award from the Atlanta Public Schools and the prestigious Phoenix Award from the Mayor of Atlanta.
The Hawks finished the lockout season of 1999 only two games off the best record in the East and lost to the
New York Knicks
The New York Knickerbockers, shortened and more commonly referred to as the New York Knicks, are an American professional basketball team based in the New York City borough of Manhattan. The Knicks compete in the National Basketball Associat ...
in the second round. The team decided to rebuild again following that season, and traded away Steve Smith for
Isaiah Rider
Isaiah Rider Jr., nicknamed J.R. (born March 12, 1971), is an American former professional basketball player who played 9 seasons in the NBA.
Rider was born in Oakland, California, and was raised in nearby Alameda. He starred in both baseball and ...
and Dikembe Mutombo for
Theo Ratliff
Theo is a given name and a hypocorism.
Greek origin
Many names beginning with the root "Theo-" derive from the Ancient Greek word ''theos'' (''θεός''), which means god, for example:
*Feminine names: Thea, Theodora, Theodosia, Theophania, ...
,
Nazr Mohammed
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,
Toni Kukoč
Toni Kukoč, nicknamed ''“The Waiter”'' (; born September 18, 1968) is a Croatian-American former professional basketball player who serves as Special Advisor to Jerry Reinsdorf, the owner of the Chicago Bulls. After a highly successful perio ...
and
Pepe Sanchez
Pepe is a pet form of the Spanish name José (Josep). It is also a surname.
*
People
Mononyms
*Pepe (footballer, born 1935), real name José Macia, Brazilian footballer
*Pepe (footballer, born 1983), real name Képler Laveran Lima Ferreira, ...
. The Hawks were not successful during the next few years, and Babcock was fired in April 2003. Babcock's teams were built through trades and free agency with draft picks as role players as they normally drafted later in the first round.
"Hawks fire longtime GM Babcock"
Associated Press
The Associated Press (AP) is an American non-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association. It produces news reports that are distributed to its members, U.S. newspa ...
at SI.com
''Sports Illustrated'' (''SI'') is an American sports magazine first published in August 1954. Founded by Stuart Scheftel, it was the first magazine with circulation over one million to win the National Magazine Award for General Excellence twice ...
, April 2, 2003.
Toronto Raptors
After leaving the Hawks, Babcock was hired by the Toronto Raptors, joining his brother Rob Babcock
Robert "Rob" Babcock (1953 – May 15, 2019) was an American basketball executive. He served as a Vice President of Basketball Operations with the Minnesota Timberwolves of the NBA, and also as general manager of the Toronto Raptors from 2004 to ...
, then the general manager. Babcock left after two years.
Cleveland Cavaliers
In 2007, Babcock was hired by the Cleveland Cavaliers to be a scout and he served in that capacity for ten years finishing with an NBA championship in 2016 and retiring. During his time with the Cavs, he was recognized by the National Cystic Fibrosis Foundation in Washington DC, with the annual Hitchcock Humanitarian Award, for his community service over his NBA career. He currently teaches as an adjunct professor at Emory University in Atlanta.
References
External links
Official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Babcock, Pete
Living people
Atlanta Hawks executives
Toronto Raptors executives
Year of birth missing (living people)