Jordi Fernández already seduces Brooklyn. The first Spanish coach in NBA history achieved his first victory this Sunday as head of the Nets. A duel that remains for the annals, Giannis Antetokounmpo’s Milwaukee Bucks defeated in a Barclays Center that finally, after a few months of waiting, was able to meet first-hand the new captain of the black ship.
The Badalona coach did not want to be alone, who was accompanied by a good part of his family, with Kelsey, his wife, and Lluna and Bowie, his little ones, in front, and also by several friends. “It was very special, all my loved ones were here,” the coach congratulated himself after the game. It was no wonder the appointment, the debut at home and the first real contact with his new audience.
For the memory
Schröder (29) and Cam Thomas (32) gave Fernández the first victory, who kept the ball in the duel
The forecasts for these Nets this season are not rosy, the franchise is in full reconstruction, no one denies it, but after what we saw against the Bucks, one of the contenders for the ring, exciting days can be experienced in Brooklyn. No one now refuses to get the license to dream of more ambitious aspirations in a future not as distant as one might think.
If anything was clear in the game, it is that if Brooklyn wants to have a good time this season, the ball must go through the hands of Denis Schröder and Cam Thomas, the two leaders of these Nets on the hardwood. “He’s the coach on the court,” Jordi Fernández himself said happily, and “wet” after celebrating the victory in the locker room. “We have gone a little crazy, the coach He deserves it,” Schröder himself confirmed in the press room. The statistics of the game did not deceive anyone. Thomas climbed to 32 points and the German star added another 29. Although the coach wanted to highlight his good ball handling, with only two losses each due to the 8 assists distributed.
Fernández, a always calm coach, who seems to live the games in Zen mode, did not change his script and toured his technical area again and again, but always appearing to have an almost enviable calm if the tension of the situation is taken into account. The only moment in which he showed his character – because having it, he has it – was in the last minute, when he changed his entire quintet and the less common players lost three balls in a row. “This is the NBA!” he encouraged them with a good shout. The only one of a night to remember.
Beyond the memories, Fernández kept the ball for the match, as the players awarded it to him. A ball that will not be displayed at home, but will stay in your office. “My wife is the one who decorates the house and she hasn’t let me, she tells me that these things go to my office,” he revealed jokingly.
