Brooklyn Nets coach Jordi Fernandez mentioned his first season on the job has been as a lot about management as basketball, and his feedback made clear how a lot he values the folks round him.
“Yeah, it’s been progress, and I’ve needed to discover ways to be on this place,” Fernandez mentioned, through HoopsHype. “Clearly, if you get the job, you at all times consider that you simply’re prepared for it, and regardless that you’ve coached and also you’ve been a head coach earlier than, in all probability basketball is the best a part of it.”
Fernandez described the each day calls for of the function as one thing greater than recreation planning, pointing to the accountability that comes with managing a whole group.
“However then you may have the top teaching duties and what it means, and the quantity of individuals that you simply’re accountable for, and the quantity of individuals that you simply’ve acquired to the touch daily,” he mentioned. “I believe that’s been an excellent journey up to now. I’ve realized, I’ve grown, and the perfect factor is being round good folks.”
That theme carried by the remainder of his remarks, particularly when he spoke concerning the tradition the Nets are attempting to construct. Brooklyn completed 2025-26 with a younger core that features Michael Porter Jr., Nic Claxton, Noah Clowney and Egor Demin, and Fernandez mentioned this system remains to be shifting in the correct path.
“This group is constructed and remains to be constructing the correct issues for the correct issues,” he mentioned. “And we consider that we’ll preserve taking these optimistic steps.”
Fernandez additionally defined how he has tried to hold classes from coaches he has labored below, together with Mike Brown, Michael Malone and Sergio Scariolo.
“I’ve realized that from particularly Mike Brown, Michael Malone, and Sergio Scariolo is when anyone’s investing in you, you nearly work not simply onerous, however more durable,” Fernandez mentioned. “Since you need to give again.”
He mentioned that sort of belief modifications the best way folks method their work, as a result of it creates a shared obligation to the group slightly than the person.
“It makes you may have that willingness to do it proper, do it for the crew in the correct causes, since you need to develop and also you need to take these steps, no matter your objectives are in your profession,” he mentioned.
Fernandez closed by making clear that the Nets’ id is constructed on collaboration, not one particular person carrying the load alone.
“However I believe is also all of us, it’s not about one particular person, it’s about how we’re all organized and the way we work collectively for the crew to be the perfect that the crew could be,” he mentioned. “That’s at all times the mindset that I’ve believed in, what I’ve realized from others, and the best way I needed to do it right here.”
