Nova YorkJordi Fernández (Badalona, 1982) leads the rebuilding project of the <a href="https://www.archysport.com/2022/01/nba-dallas-mavericks-winning-streak-ends-abruptly/" title="NBA: Dallas Mavericks winning streak ends abruptly”>Brooklyn Nets. The coach from Badalona has become the third European coach to occupy a bench in the NBA. His game proposal is starting to be highlighted by leading analysts in the United States, but he is aware that the process will not be quick. As he heaps praise, he turns to the ARA to explain his more personal side.
His parents didn’t miss the first game at the Barclays Center. What does it have to do with it?
— We have always been a very close family. We had always been, but when I left home it became more pronounced. When you’re away, you miss a lot of the things you’ve experienced since childhood. The sacrifice is very big, but luckily the technology has been evolving. The fact that they were able to come to the first game in Brooklyn was very special. My parents mean a lot to me.
His mother never misses a game.
— My grandmother and father watch all the matches, but my mother watches them live. That has a lot of merit, especially when we play on the west coast, which is more hours apart. It’s been fifteen years since my mother stayed awake to watch all my matches live.
One of his personal projects consists of reforming the Canyadó track. Why?
— It is important to remember where you come from. Origins are very important to me. Remembering how and where you were trained is basic. I played on the court below the house, the historic cage of the Sant Jordi flats. We are now working to get financing so that it can be renovated. Being able to give back something of what my neighborhood and Badalona have given me gives meaning to the things that are happening to me. I think we will get away with it because we are getting a lot of people to join the project. We will take it forward.
What attracted you to the Brooklyn Nets project?
— When someone offers you a job like this, it’s because they really believe in you. This loyalty must be returned. I had always said that I would try my hardest for the first franchise that bet on me. The organization is ten and they do things very well. The owner has a great reputation and my relationship with him is very good. For me it is important to work with people who have a clear vision of the project and believe in a very well defined plan. They were able to convey it to me very well. We want to build a special project together.
You imagine here many years.
— Yes, in the world of sport you never know how long you will be in one place, but my goal is to coach only one team throughout my career. I’d like to retire here, that would be really cool.
What will be your first steps?
— We know it will be a tough season. We need to be able to improve the players, compete at our highest level and create a work culture with good habits. Losing doesn’t help anyone and what we have to do is look for wins, but it’s true that competing and improving is definitely a priority for us.
No one has given him anything.
— I bet many years ago to invest money and time from my vacations in training as a coach. It’s all part of a process that never ends. I’m an NBA coach, but I get to work at six in the morning. My children are still young and what matters to me is getting home and being able to be a father and a husband. I don’t want to come home and be at work, so I get up early so I can get a lot of work done. When they go to sleep, I also take the opportunity to do some work. Balance is very important to me.
Com es mou per Brooklyn?
— I make some journeys by car, as the Nets have put a driver at my disposal, but the traffic is not pleasant and I also have a bicycle and a scooter to move around more quickly.
Never had a coach in our house run an NBA team.
— Being able to represent Catalan basketball means a lot to me. It is the basketball in which I was trained, first as a player and then as a coach. I learned from great coaches. That makes me more proud. It is important to take a step back and look… After a hundred years of history of the Catalan Basketball Federation, being able to put my grain of sand into everything we have built in Catalan basketball is important to me and allows us look ahead In the end, being able to represent is something that fills you up a lot. I hope it will be for many years, but I will always remember everything from the courses to the teams I coached many years ago. I will never lose this memory.
