Serge Ibaka was still an unknown prospect during his second summer training at IMPACT Basketball in Las Vegas. The 6-foot-11 center who would one day be named to three All-Defensive teams in the NBA spoke little English as a teenager. Spanish and French were his preferred languages.
Jordi Fernandez, a young and hungry bi-lingual player development intern from Spain, was willing to do just about anything to earn his keep and make good on Joe Abunassar’s investment in him. So, in addition to his other daily tasks, he was asked to translate for Ibaka and ensure his day-to-day survival in the states.
It was rarely glamorous work. Chauncey Billups would yell at a raw Ibaka during pick-up games after mistakes, and Fernandez was stuck as the awkward middleman that had to explain what Ibaka was doing wrong and why.
“I mean, we work guys out from eight in the morning until five at night, so if you’re not ready to go you have problems,” said Abunassar, owner of IMPACT Basketball. “Jordi was very helpful of course with Serge, but it was funny because Serge spoke Spanish, but he kept speaking French… Serge is a character, and he especially was back then.”
IMPACT basketball demands a lot from its interns, who work for free in most cases. They are on the court all day, passing, chasing down rebounds, playing defense. Each day can be a grind that leaves a sharp pain in the soles of their feet.
But Fernandez was never afraid to do the dirty work, and that is one of the aspects of Fernandez’s character that impressed Abunassar the most. He asked smart questions and took meticulous notes. Always doing something. Never sitting down.
Fernandez’s desire to coach basketball at the highest level is what drove him. He did not care if he was asked to train a high school kid, a pro, or serve as a translator. He just wanted to absorb as much knowledge as he could and grow.
Even then Fernandez possessed the traits of a great basketball mind. While his coaching journey began long before he arrived in the states, his stint at IMPACT Basketball gave him the tools and relationships needed to launch his coaching career in the NBA. And those sometimes-thankless hours obviously paid off, because on Tuesday it was reported that Fernandez is set to become the Nets’ next head coach. However, since Fernandez is currently serving as the Kings’ associate head coach, the formal announcement will have to wait until Sacramento is eliminated from postseason contention.
Speaking to reporters during exit interviews on Monday, Nets players shared which qualities they would like to see from their next head coach. Nic Claxton, who will be an unrestricted free agent this summer, wants a coach who practices transparency if he decides to stick around. Dennis Schröder wants someone who can galvanize the troops and keep everyone on the same page, while Mikal Bridges and Cam Johnson want someone that is detail-oriented and can help the team develop good habits.
The Daily News reached out to multiple coaches from Fernandez’s professional past to better understand how he can lead Brooklyn into a more competitive future. Based on their detailed accounts, the franchise appears to be in capable hands.
“Jordi is a story we tell all the guys,” Abunassar told the Daily News. “You get a lot of aspiring coaches coming in that only want to hang out with the NBA players, and they can do that. But Jordi was just taking out the trash, doing the stuff that people like me look and say, ‘You know what? Let’s give that guy more responsibility’.
“He just has a really good feel for people. He can read a room very carefully. He has incredible relationships with the players, can really relate to them, and I believe that with what I know about him as a person.”
Abunassar’s relationship with Fernandez began in Barcelona, Spain. He was sent over almost a decade ago to train Rudy Fernandez, a EuroLeague star and a rising NBA prospect. The agency that courted Abunassar’s services hired Fernandez, who had a pre-existing friendship with Rudy, to be his guide. Fernandez was a graduate student at the time who had already begun his coaching career at just 15 years old.
Fernandez did not leave Abunassar’s side. He was with him at the workouts. He drove him around to different places and showed him everything Barcelona had to offer. And when Rudy’s training was complete, Fernandez asked Abunassar if he could join him as an intern at IMPACT Basketball in Las Vegas. Abunassar agreed and Fernandez joined his staff in the summer of 2006 as a player development intern.
Again, it was Fernandez’s willingness to do whatever was asked of him that played a major role in his coaching rise. One of the high school kids he was assigned to work with his first summer on the job was Elijah Brown, son of Kings head coach Mike Brown, who was head coach of the Cleveland Cavaliers at the time.
Brown watched Fernandez train his son that summer and was not only impressed by his basketball knowledge but by how personable he was. So much so that after Brown reported back to Cleveland, he called Abunassar to offer Fernandez a job on his staff.
The rest is history. Fernandez served as a player development coach under Brown in Cleveland in 2009 and remained on staff with the Cavaliers through 2013, even after Brown was fired by owner Dan Gilbert in a play to satisfy a disgruntled LeBron James. And Fernandez’s rise continued. He would later be named an assistant coach for the G League affiliate Canton Charge in 2013 before earning his first head coaching job with the team in 2014. He then went on to become an assistant for the Denver Nuggets under Mike Malone from 2016-22 before reuniting with Brown in Sacramento.
The NBA does an annual survey with general managers before each season. This season’s survey ranked Fernandez as the “best assistant coach in the NBA”, edging out Terry Stotts, Kevin Young and Sam Cassell.
“I’ve known him for 17 years now and have seen his growth,” Brown said of Fernandez ahead of the Kings’ Play-In Tournament game against the Golden State Warriors on Tuesday. “He’s an amazing person. He’s got a beautiful, amazing wife, Kelsey, and two beautiful kids. And he’s ready for anything. He’s ready for any head job in the NBA. So, whoever gets him will be very, very lucky to have him as their head coach.”
Fernandez once served as an assistant coach for Spain’s men’s national team and had a similar role under Brown for Nigeria’s men’s national team at the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo. That international experience was a major factor when the Spaniard was asked to replace Nick Nurse as the Canadian men’s national team head coach last year.
Under Fernandez, Canada earned a third-place finish in last season’s FIBA World Cup. It was Canada’s first medal in team history. Canada had the second-best offense in that tournament behind the United States and will try to build on that success in the 2024 Paris Olympics.
“When he was hired as the Canadian national team men’s head coach, obviously I spent every day with him for about 40 days last summer in our preparation for the World Cup,” said former Indiana Pacers head coach Nate Bjorkgren, who served as an assistant for Canada under Fernandez at the World Cup. “He really came in with a great presence about him. He came in knowing exactly what he wanted to do, how he wanted to coach, how he wanted this Canadian national team to play. He was very clear with his message.
“The thing that impressed me most was his demeanor. He won’t get too down. He won’t jump up and down and get too excited. How he carries himself, how he talks to the team before games, in huddles, after games, I think he just has a great feel. And being his assistant, I could sit back and watch and see that and see how good he is at doing that.”
A current Kings assistant, who asked to remain anonymous until Sacramento’s season is complete, described Fernandez as a “relationship builder” who possesses the personality, sense of humor, humbleness and confidence that great leaders have. He said Fernandez is a competitor who obsesses over preparation. He is not afraid to have tough conversations with players when the situation calls for it. His desire to innovate guides this thought process at both ends of the court.
Some Nets fans wanted a more proven head coach to get the job, like former Milwaukee Bucks head coach Mike Budenholzer. But the 41-year-old’s inexperience as a head coach at the NBA level should not condemn him to failure. Because his history proves that if anyone can connect with and make the most out of this young Brooklyn roster, it is him.
The Nets have good, young pieces in Bridges, Cam Thomas, Noah Clowney, Jalen Wilson and others, and Fernandez appears to be the kind of coach that can grow with them. Despite having a bounty of future draft picks and salary cap flexibility, Brooklyn will not become a contender in the Eastern Conference overnight. There will be more adversity in the road ahead. Player movement. Tough decisions. But Fernandez has the qualities of a coach built to outlast the storm.
“You really get to know someone when you’re with them every single day for 40 days like we were last summer,” Bjorkgren told The News. “That’s why I’m telling you the Brooklyn Nets did a great job in hiring him. [Jordi] is really ready to lead a program, to lead an organization. We were in some tough moments in different countries, and he did a good job of making sure everyone stuck together and nobody wanted to go home… He kept the atmosphere fresh, and we were determined to get that medal.
“I don’t care if you’re one of the top seeds or a team that didn’t make the playoffs this year. There are highs and lows and how you navigate those things during the season is important… He will coach the team he has as hard as he can, as well as he can, and the little things won’t bother him. He’ll fight through tough times, and when things are good, he’ll keep working to make them better.”
