The Indiana Pacers were unable to retain Lance Stephenson but they are keeping one integral piece on the basketball side of the organization.
Dinwiddie has worked for the Pacers since 2006.
Peter Dinwiddie, the Vice President of Basketball Operations, was a finalist for a top executive job with the Memphis Grizzlies but he has decided to stay with his hometown team, a source confirmed to VigilantSports.com.
Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports first reported Memphis’ interest in Dinwiddie and that he was staying put. Wojnarowski reported on Tuesday that Dinwiddie and former New York and Toronto GM Glen Grunwald, also an Indiana University graduate, “had advanced to the final stages of the search.”
Dinwiddie works under Pacers President Larry Bird and is part of the four-headed brain trust, along with GM Kevin Pritchard and Donnie Walsh, who now serves in an advisor/consultant role.
He completed undergrad at IU in 1999 and then New England School of Law in 2004. For a short time, Dinwiddie worked at Finish Line’s headquarters before David Morway, the former Pacers GM, helped get him on with Pacers’ ticket sales team. Obviously, that wasn’t his goal but he stuck around for two and a half years with his dream in mind. After a while, Walsh, who has a law degree, found out that someone on the sales team had a law degree and wanted to meet with him.
From there, Walsh gave Dinwiddie tasks to challenge and test his skills. In 2008, Dinwiddie moved to basketball offices of Bankers Life Fieldhouse and then was promoted to his current title, VP of Basketballs Operations in August 2012. His main role is to master the NBA’s Collective Bargaining Agreement, help make deals work and construct contracts, research specific tasks and lately, he’s spent more time on the road to scout. Bird is the voice of the team, and has the final say.
Dinwiddie isn’t a familiar name to Pacers fans, but he is highly respected in The Association and is an underrated part of the team’s success.
“These guys in Indiana, from Peter Dinwiddie to Ryan Carr to Donnie Walsh to Larry Bird, these guys are the best people in the world to ever do business with,” a respected NBA agent told VigilantSports.com. “Seriously. I’ve dealt with every NBA team. I’ve been around these guys for a long time and with God as my witness, that operations staff at Indiana has got to be the classist group of people I’ve ever met in my entire life.”
Dinwiddie’s goal is to ultimately run an NBA franchise. That’s not a matter of if, but when. He is incredibly hard working and successful. The Indy native and Cathedral High School graduate is loyal to the Pacers and isn’t going to jump at any offer. He and his wife, Jessica, have three kids.