This Spring, we went from hearing from Jordi Fernández nearly every day, to not hearing from him at all. The coach hasn’t been “ghosting” us. There wasn’t break-up between he and the Nets. In fact, they seem to be more committed to each other than ever. The season just ended, and so did our chance to chat with him for a bit pre and postgame.
This week, however, Fernández reemerged alongside a familiar face from The YES Network, appearing as a guest on Nets Pod with Sarah Kustok. Basketball and Branzino
were both discussed in great detail…
Kustok opened the conversation asking Fernández what stood out to him the most from his sophomore season in Brooklyn. His response mirrored the one he gave during his exit interview roughly a month and a half ago — blending honesty with positivity.
“It’s been growth, and I’ve had to learn how to be in this position,” Fernández said. “Obviously, when you get the job, you always believe that you’re ready for it, and even though you’ve coached, and you’ve been a head coach before, probably, basketball is the easiest part of it. But then you have the head coaching duties, and what it means — the amount of people that you’re responsible for, the amount of people that you have to touch every day. I think that’s been a great journey so far. I’ve learned, I’ve grown, and the best thing is being around good people, and this organization is built, and is still building the right thing for the right things, and we believe that we’ll keep taking those positive steps.”
Fernández later called controlling his emotions over results his biggest point of growth last year. He explained how he’s learned to see wins in on-court advancements, specifically with his younger players, rather than merely concentrating on what the scoreboard tells him.
“Egor [Dëmin]’s shooting, Nolan [Traoré]‘s play making, Ben [Saraf]’s touching the paint, Danny [Wolf]‘s versatility, and Drake [Powell]‘s ability to guard the ball — all those things that we have the results and the numbers, those are wins. And it’s not just the rookies, everybody else. Nic [Claxton’s playmaking, and then Mike [Porter Jr.], his usage, and Ziarie Williams’s 3-point percentage is improved a little bit. Those are wins.”
The 42-year-old also slipped in a fun fact. The Nets, noted, had played the rookies 6,400 minutes this season, “which is, I think, the most rookies have ever played.” Add that the fact that the Nets roster this season was the league’s youngest in 20 years and you get a better sense of his challenge.
Fernández also went on to shout out the coaches he’s previously worked under, including Mike Brown, Michael Malone, and Sergio Scariolo, explaining how their “investments” in him empowered him to do well. Positivity remained a theme for the entire discussion as well. When asked about how he and the team kept their heads up even during the prior season’s difficult stretches, he called doing so a non-negotiable whilst continuing to pay homage to his mentors.
“One of my mentors, a retired high school coach, he always said one thing that you can always control is your attitude,” Fernández said. “Positive energy is contagious, and so is negative energy, so you can wake up every day you’re alive, and believe that it’s going to be a good day, and tell yourself that today’s going to be a good day. I’d rather do it this way than the other way.”
Foodie Nets fans might disagree, as much of the podcast’s latter half concentrated on Fernández favorite dishes to cook and restaurants to visit, but in my opinion, the episode reached its high point about a third of the way through. Since his coaching tenure began, Fernández has often talked about how he and Brooklyn’s front office have detailed developmental plans for each player on their team. Here, he finally shared some details on how those are put together.
“It’s very collaborative here, from the front office, to medical performance, obviously nutrition, player development on the court,” Fernández said. “Everybody brings in what the plan should look like, and then the players have to understand. This process works through the year. In season, we do it in different ways, and we can show how their development impacts what they do on the court.”
On the topic of development, Fernández also shared that from what he’s seen, many of Brooklyn’s younger players are progressing down their tracks well already this offseason.
“They already look older, they look bigger, they look like they’ve been working, their bodies look really good, and it’s exciting,“ he said.
The coach also touched on the players Brooklyn could add to the team soon, wisely not giving an inch when it came to revealing the team’s plans for its three picks in June.
“We may get younger, because we’re going to select, most likely, from one to three new players,” he said. “But also at the same time, the ones we’ve had, they’re a year older, so it’s very exciting because you acquire talent, and you develop talent, and there’s the unknowns of the beauty of the NBA. It’s free agency, all that stuff, and which obviously Sean and his group do a great job with, and there’s always the communication day to day on how we want to take the next step.”
The conversation then took a more personal route. Fernández priased the From Badalona to Brooklyn documentary the team put together for him, took us through his upbringings in the kitchen, expressed how Brooklyn’s embraced he and his family, and some of his favorite bands, two of which are based in the area.
The full episode is available to watch on Youtube above. It’s also streamable on Spotify and Apple Music.
