He went to the United States for a summer camp with one hand in front and one behind in 2006 and this Wednesday he was presented as the first Spanish coach to take charge of an NBA team. Jordi Fernández (Badalona, ??41 years old) has had a basketball journey like a movie until landing in the Big Apple to take charge of the Brooklyn Nets. There are already those who compare him in New York with Pep Guardiola, with whom he certainly has a magnificent relationship since they met in the 2016 finals when the Badalonese was part of the Cleveland Cavaliers structure. Fernández is the third European to lead a franchise in the North American league and the fifth youngest.
With a reputation for being a basketball scholar, he has earned a good name step by step, studying the entire North American system from below as far as his sport is concerned.
Six years as an assistant with the Denver Nuggets, before moving to the Sacramento Kings to perform the same role, have served as an operating camp to prove his worth. As has been the fact of leading the Canadian team in the last World Cup and taking it to the podium with a fantastic bronze.
At the Nets he replaces Kevin Ollie, the interim coach who took the reins in February. I challenge him, to revive a franchise that suffers from certain damn complexes and that finished the season with a poor balance of 32-50. Fernández comes from assisting Mike Brown in the Kings, whom he classified as “my father in American basketball”, while he said of Sergio Scariolo that “he is my father in European basketball”, since he also worked alongside the Spanish coach.
“This is the beginning of a new chapter for me and my family. It is a great challenge and an opportunity. What I liked most about the project is that the franchise values ??winning, but above all doing so in a sustained manner over time,” the Badalona coach told the New York press.
Within this long-term plan, Fernández spoke of surrounding himself with a solid work team capable of creating a style, a “Brooklyn way”, that his team is recognizable by its way of playing so that its fans “feel very proud.”
Fernández sees himself leading a “young team, that can play fast and that can learn day after day. This will be my goal, to make them progress week by week. Individual success only comes through collective success. If I am here today it is because of the successes of Canada and the Sacramento Kings.”
The new Nets coach believes that his example can serve as a reference for young coaches. “That they really enjoy the journey, as I have done, there are different paths and different ways of being in basketball,” he stated.
Before dedicating himself to the game with the Nets, he will face the Paris Olympic Games with Canada. He does not lack work, even if it is far from home. “Badalona is one of the best basketball places in Europe and the world. That’s where I started and fell in love with basketball. “I come back whenever I can.”
