Nets' Jordi Fernandez shares special relationship with Kings' Mike Brown

Mike Brown wasn’t sure what to expect when he asked a 20-something coach from Spain to train his son Elijah in 2009. But when Jordi Fernandez started, there was something different about how he worked.

It wasn’t only Fernandez’s techniques, it was how Elijah Brown listened and developed better. His father, the then-Cavaliers coach, hadn’t seen anybody push his son to those results and immediately was impressed.

“Jordi was firm. He was demanding,” Brown told Newsday. “But his delivery, his body language, his approach to the whole thing was unique in a way that I hadn’t seen. The time he spent with my son, he got the most out of him.”

That encounter eventually paved the way for Fernandez to be hired as the Nets’ coach this season. On Sunday, Fernandez will face Brown’s Kings in Sacramento, where Fernandez spent the previous two seasons as Brown’s lead assistant.

While Fernandez has downplayed his feelings about facing Brown because he says it’s about the players, this game will be special. At his introductory news conference, Fernandez called Brown one of his basketball fathers.

It wasn’t just because he gave him his first NBA opportunity as a player development coach. He studied how Brown managed a team when Brown allowed him to sit in coaches’ meetings. It led to Fernandez eventually coaching in the G League with the Canton Charge, Cleveland’s affiliate.

Years later, he reunited with Brown as an assistant with the Nigerian men’s national team. Brown returned the favor by paying for his apartment, giving him a car and inviting him to family meals while Fernandez got acclimated to a new country.

But things began when Fernandez developed Elijah Brown into a better player.

“Coach Brown was my boss, but he treated me like family,” Fernandez told Newsday. “So for me, it was very important, how much I learned, the opportunity he gave me and building my relationship with Elijah and [his younger brother] Cam.”

Some things Fernandez learned carried over in his own coaching career, including his last two summers coaching the Canadian men’s basketball team: Speak directly with players instead of beating around the bush and build relationships that go beyond basketball.

Fernandez learned from other mentors such as legendary Spanish national team coach Sergio Scariolo and Nuggets coach Michael Malone, who gave him his first assistant job in 2016. But his relationship with Brown was one of his most helpful in learning how to be a better coach.

“He’s a very good teacher, unbelievable with film,” Fernandez said. “One of my takeaways is that he always said, ‘I’m going to try to do what’s best for the team.’ You can always make a mistake, but at least your intentions were the right ones.”

Those intentions led to Fernandez’s first NBA job. After the Cavaliers drafted North Babylon product Danny Green, Green arrived for a workout, but no coaches were around. Brown told Fernandez to work Green out. It was a risk because Fernandez still was a private coach, not an official team staff member.

Cavs general manager Danny Ferry came to Brown’s office and asked who this coach was. Brown was nervous, expecting to be berated. However, Ferry loved what Fernandez was doing and wanted to hire him as a player development coach.

Even though Fernandez still was committed to helping Brown’s son and coaching his AAU team, Brown had a hunch that he could have the same impact with NBA players.

“You don’t turn anybody loose on your players because you don’t know how they are as a person,” Brown said. “And I felt extremely comfortable very early on that everything about this man was pure. His intentions were pure and he wanted to help.”

Fernandez also had an unexpected ace up his sleeve. He still was learning English after moving to the United States, so as he picked up more words, clarity proved just as important as fluency. It helped him communicate better with friends, colleagues and his wife. It also made him more direct with teaching workouts, offering praise or tough criticism.

“The one thing that doing this job in a different language did is less words, more concise, more direct,” Fernandez said. “And whether you’re doing film, whether you talk to somebody, I think people appreciate going straight to the point, being as clear as you can be.”

Nets players have praised his directness and honesty. But they also saw that Fernandez was personable and relatable.

“You can tell he cares, you can tell he cares about winning here and you can tell he cares about just being part of this program,” Nets forward Cam Johnson said. “He’s not a high-ego guy, you know, he’s very open. If you have something to say, come talk to me about it, we are in this together. And it’s just things as players we really appreciate.”

Malone saw Fernandez’s skill at building relationships after hiring him in 2016. In six seasons, he saw Fernandez thrive — whether it was overseeing the defense or working with a young Jamal Murray. But he also saw a coach who understood people as much as breaking down film.

“He made an effort to have a relationship with our players off the court as men, as people, and I think that goes a long way with players,” Malone said.

“Because now it’s not just about that they know how much you know as a coach, but they also know how much you care, and I think that allows you to get to an even better place from a relationship standpoint.”

The final lesson came after Brown was hired by Sacramento in 2022. At the time, he was an assistant with Golden State during its run to the NBA championship, so he needed a coach to start implementing his plan.

He turned to Fernandez, who managed player workouts and taught Brown’s offensive and defensive principles. “He was basically a co-head coach,” Brown said.

It laid the groundwork for Fernandez doing the same with his assistants this offseason while he fulfilled his duties with Team Canada. In a way, it’s paying forward what Brown and other paid him by empowering others.

Sunday’s game will be another reminder of Fernandez’s path.  Elijah Brown now works in the Kings’ organization. His dad went from Fernandez’s boss to a coaching peer.

“I’ve definitely learned so much that now as a head coach you handle things that come your way, but you always remember . . . what [Brown] did, how he handled this, how he talked to this person,” Fernandez said. “So he’s been a great role model for me.”

By Evan Barnes

evan.barnes@newsday.comevan_b

Evan Barnes covers the Giants for Newsday. He previously covered the Brooklyn Nets, Memphis football and the Memphis Grizzlies and also covered prep sports in Los Angeles.