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Jordi Fernandez got his first win as an NBA head coach in dominant fashion, as the Brooklyn Nets upset Giannis Antetokounmpo and the Milwaukee Bucks 115-102 Sunday night at Barclays Center.
Fernandez's team outworked the Bucks for four quarters, forcing 18 turnovers and grabbing 12 offensive rebounds while attempting 17 more field goals. Brooklyn doubled Antetokounmpo, limiting him to 22 points, while Cam Thomas (32 points on 10-of-21 shooting) and Dennis Schroder (29 points on 8-of-15 shooting) combined for 61.
The Nets mobbed their head coach in the locker room following the victory.
“It was fun, and wet,” Fernandez said of the postgame celebration. “I'm just very happy for the guys. I think we took those steps forward. It's not that we only played for a first half, but we played in the second half, so that was our goal — sustained effort… They did a great job. That's the [defensive] identity we want to have. We want to be a ball-pressure team. We want to play fast. We want high-quality shots. So I think we did a good job against a very, very good team.”
Jordi Fernandez viewing first win with Nets as beginning of long journey
Fernandez is the first Spanish-born head coach in NBA history. After spending years around basketball clubs in Spain as a teen, he moved to the United States and worked his way from the G-League to a top NBA assistant. Nets owner Joe Tsai and general manager Sean Marks took notice, hand-picking him to lead the Nets through a rebuild.
“A guy from Europe, from Spain, being a head coach in the NBA, it’s big-time,” Dennis Schroder said. “What he brings to this locker room, that grit, to play hard, to do everything together as a team, building chemistry. All those things are great for us… He brought that to the team. Congrats to him for winning it. The locker room went crazy.”
the video is pretty good too 😂 https://t.co/UAPHXzJnc1 pic.twitter.com/IBuUamWBCC
— Brooklyn Nets (@BrooklynNets) October 28, 2024
Fernandez's entire family was in attendance for the win, which took place in front of a sellout crowd of 17,926 at Barclays Center.
“On one side, it’s very special, because I have my wife, my kids, my parents, my good friends, my mother in law, her husband. So I have my loved ones here,” the coach said. “To come all the way from starting from the bottom in the NBA and working really hard and moving up. There were some good moments, some tough moments, different teams, friends, memories. You have to enjoy this moment, because there's only one time that you're the head coach when you win a [first] game.”
“On the other hand, I also say what's the next step and we got to move on to the next next thing. I want to be in this league, I want to be with this club for a long time.”
The Nets' players gave Fernandez the game ball after the win, which the coach said would serve as a reminder of the long road ahead.
“It represents a moment in my life,” Fernandez said of the ball. “You look at it, and it’s the beginning of something special. That’s how I’m going to look at that ball. I’m going to put it in my office, because my wife does a great job decorating the house, and she doesn’t want my basketballs everywhere. So she says, ‘That [goes] in your office.’
“But I can look at it, and I can believe that it's the beginning of something very special. And like I said before, coming from Joe, Sean and the rest of the team, that’s how we’re going to do it. And it’s cool, because you just see one and you want to see them keep coming, and I think it’s very special.”
