Jordi Fernandez is not Eric Adams. He was not just sworn in as the mayor of New York City. However, his new position as Nets head coach should still be viewed as a public office that requires significant amounts of responsibility, commitment and execution.
After the Nets finished 32-50 this season and missed the playoffs, delivering a winning brand of basketball to Brooklyn will be Fernandez’s top priority going forward. But now that the pageantry of his hire is behind us, what matters most is if the Spaniard actually has a concrete plan to get the job done.
Within Fernandez’s first 100 days as Nets head coach, he promised fans will see a shift in culture, for the better. It starts with kindness, as cliche as that may sound, and creating an environment that players, coaches and potential free agent acquisitions want to be a part of.
“Working with a group of people, you need to get to know everybody and get to touch everybody, and then from there you can organize everybody,” Fernandez said during his introductory news conference on Wednesday in Brooklyn. “I trust that building relationships is extremely important — that’s how you get connected.
“And it’s not just me with the players. It’s myself with the coaching staff, the front office, with every single department, strength and conditioning, health, sports performance, the business side, the community. So, I think if you do care and you spend the time to do it, in the long run it’s going to work out. You know, everybody says I build relationships. The reality is I know I’m not good at it, I’m bad at it. What I can tell you is that I try, and I care, and that’s a good start.”