The Hawks have brought aboard new personnel to head their athletic department. The team hired Ben Peterson as its vice president of player health and performance, according to a person familiar with the situation.
Peterson comes to the Hawks from the NFL’s San Francisco 49ers, where he supervised athletic training, functional performance, nutrition and strength and conditioning for the past five years. He served as head of sports science for the NHL’s Flyers for two seasons before joining the 49ers in 2019.
With the Hawks, Peterson will oversee the team’s health-and-performance group after the Hawks dealt with numerous significant injuries last season.
They lost forward Jalen Johnson to a fractured wrist for 14 games and several sprained ankles that caused him to sit out another 12 games. They also saw guard Trae Young miss six weeks with a left finger injury that required surgery.
Centers Clint Capela and Onyeka Okongwu missed several games, while rookies Kobe Bufkin and Mo Gueye missed significant time with various injuries that impacted their development.
The hire comes ahead of the Hawks on the cusp of adding a new player to their roster with the top overall pick in the NBA draft, which begins Wednesday. There’s still some mystery surrounding who the Hawks could take with the pick. But for now, French wing Zaccharie Risacher tops numerous mock drafts. Draft analysts also have linked Connecticut center Donovan Clingan to the Hawks.
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