Spanish basketball broke down one of the most complicated barriers it had left with the signing of Jordi Fernández as the first coach of an NBA team. He was the safest option because last year he entered the pools to manage a League team, however it did not happen and he continued to perform his position as an assistant in the Sacramento Kings.
But starting this season, Fernández will be the head coach of the Brooklyn Nets. The Badalona coach, who had just arrived in New York where he was introduced a few days ago, held a press conference via Zoom with a large number of Spanish journalists to talk about the new chapter that is opening in his career.
Roadmap
They are always steps forward although this one has more impact. It seems to be a little bigger. It is not the end of a route or path, but at the media level it has more impact. It is an honor, but it is not only about arriving, but about staying. Make a competitive project. But the perception outside may be different. I have the goal of maintaining myself and having a very competitive group.
Train in the NBA
I have never had the goal of coaching in the NBA. I was eager to learn and when I went to the Netherlands my mind opened, and then projects arrived in Norway, Oklahoma, Las Vegas. When the opportunity presented itself to me, I didn’t miss it.
Role with the Canadian team
The success of the team and the visibility it gave me was important. If last year I had the opportunity to interview with several teams, this year the perception was different. Last summer I coached a team that had 8 NBA players and this was very good for me because it was clear that I could handle something like that. The collective success made me visible.
Conversations regarding the team
The important thing is the project and thinking about the process. We are not here to win a game but to establish a group and see the talent we have. How we will play will be according to the roster we have, but I will value things like speed in the game, defense, identity as a group. Establishing this direction from the beginning is the most important thing, starting to work from the summer so that the players already have an education of what we want. The League is so competitive that we can’t wait until October to have these things.
Combine the position of coach with the Nets
I have a commitment to Canada until the Olympics. And I think we will have a very special group to compete and to aspire to everything. These two months I have to structure Brooklyn’s work like the Summer Leagues. In this sense I am comfortable. I like to train in FIBA but it is something that I cannot decide for myself. I just want to be grateful to the Canadian federation for the opportunity they gave me to coach the team and to be able to be in the Olympic Games as head coach.
Assessment of a team like the Nets and their bench
You have to generate enthusiasm, and showing the change from the beginning is important. But the expectations from outside are not the same as those inside. There are no impossible or perfect benches, they are all complicated in the NBA. Brooklyn is a large market, with an owner who provides all the necessary means, an excellent organization, a general manager who has a lot of experience and who has proven to do things very well. What is obvious is the illusion of having an exciting project. We can’t compare ourselves to the Knicks, it doesn’t make sense, we have to create our own identity. “I have a lot of respect for the Knicks and the rivalry between the two teams, but I am confident that we can win against them the more games the better.”
The relationship with the players
Relationships are important, but as an assistant and a first coach they are very different. And I have been able to confirm it as the first coach in the G-Legue, in Canada and an assistant in the NBA. The demands you ask of a player are very different in both positions.
Core of the team, structure of the next season
Now with the Draft and the preseason comes a period that I do not completely control because it partly has to do with the owner, the general manager and then I who have to execute the plans. It is important to understand that we have youth, they are not rental players, and they give you group identity.
2024-04-30 16:32:13
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