Sarah Kustok and Sean Marks introduced Brooklyn’s newest head coach
The Brooklyn Nets introduced their new head coach, Jordi Fernández, on Wednesday morning in front of a packed HSS Training Center. Cam Johnson and Dariq Whitehead stayed behind after their workouts to watch the spectacle, which featured bushels of family, friends, and Spanish and Catalan media. After all, Fernández becomes just the eighth foreign-born head coach in NBA history (though the third for the Nets, a new record.)
“I don’t want to say that it’s a lot of pressure on my shoulders, because I want to be myself and I want to enjoy what I’m doing,” said Fernández of his unique status. “So what I can say is that it’s an honor to represent Spanish basketball, Catalan basketball, and the basketball from my hometown. So I will always be proud of it. I will work really hard to keep getting better.”
But aside from a few non-English questions, Fernández’s opening presser was as standard as they come. The 41-year-old discussed his desire to build a top-10 offense and a top-10 defense — no surprise there — but won’t skip steps on the path to success: “We’ll have a team that’s extremely competitive on both sides of the floor. Very competitive at both ends. A team that is connected, so that means that they care about each other, and a team that is selfless — that will put the team first. I think this will give us the identity that we need.”
Competitive
Connected
SelflessHead Coach Jordi Fernández on the team’s identity pic.twitter.com/VtN2w5utcS
— Brooklyn Nets (@BrooklynNets) April 24, 2024
That all sounds great, of course. During the event, Fernández was asked what excites him about the roster he’s inheriting, to which he responded: “A team that has the ability to play fast in the full-court, half-court. The youth is always great, right, because that allows you to have a team for the long run. That’s what excites me the most, and to make players better. Our job as coaches is to work with those guys and to take them to the next step. If they don’t get better it’s on me and the rest of the coaching staff, so I’m excited about the process.”
Like Sean Marks, who joined moderator Sarah Kustok on stage for the introduction, Fernández spoke with the poise and discretion of a politician. Asked about his busy upcoming summer, where he’ll coach Team Canada in the Summer Olympics while preparing for his first season as an NBA Head Coach, he had this to say:
“The challenge will be to be extremely organized because I think the opportunity I have in front of me will make myself better and the organization better … Thanks to Joe [Tsai] (a Canadian citizen) and Sean [Marks] for allowing me to do it in the Olympics this summer, because right now, we have time to organize our summer, start working. Then I would have six weeks to work on the tournament then be back here right around, before mid-August. I think the timing works very well.”
The timing indeed works well. Training camp for Canada will take place in Las Vegas throughout the first half of July, a crucial setting for the NBA’s offseason, whether it be Las Vegas Summer League or, of course, free agency … and the trade market.
fernandez family portrait time pic.twitter.com/24Knq9eQI7
— James Herbert (@outsidethenba) April 24, 2024
Most importantly, Marks is on board with the situation: “I would never take the opportunity to play for or coach a national team away from anybody. I think that’s a chance of a lifetime to go and do that. I think, especially on that level, on that stage, right? When you get to go to the Olympics, that’s very rare. So the more opportunities Jordi has behind the clipboard, the better.”
The Olympics weren’t the only thing Fernández and his boss were in agreement on. Most notably, the two are in lockstep on Nic Claxton’s importance to Brooklyn, long-term. Claxton is entering unrestricted free agency for the first time in his career, but the Nets are eager and confident in their ability to retain the 25-year-old.
“I believe he’ll be Defensive Player of the Year,” said Fernández. “For us, he’s a priority in this summer, and the way we can play through him … he fits perfectly, what we want to do moving forward.”
(Quite telling, the question was asked by a member of Brooklyn’s own social content team.)
Marks used similar language when discussing the longest-tenured Net: “I think Nic is the number one priority for us. There’s no doubt about that. We hope he’s a Net for a very long time. We hope we can continue to build around him and build with him and so forth.”
No matter who’s on the roster in Jordi Fernández’s inaugural season, Nets fans are hoping for a marked improvement from the most recent campaign, in which the team lost 50 games and was out of even Play-In contention before April.
Will the future be different? Maybe yes, maybe no, but either way, Jordi Fernández is set to give it a shot.