Jordi Fernández, the first Spanish coach to lead an NBA game

New milestone in the NBA.

Jordi Fernández has become the first Spanish coach to direct a game in the American League.

The 39-year-old coach from Badalona made his debut in a timely manner in front of a bench in the mecca of basketball by directing the Sacramento Kings for a few minutes, the team in which he is the first assistant, after the head coach, Mike Brown , was expelled.

The Kings visited the Toronto Raptors and in the third quarter the referees signaled a double technical to Brown, which left the team in the hands of Fernández for a result in which Sacramento ended up winning by one point (123-124) at Air Canada Center.

“It has been an incredible victory”, expressed an emotional Jordi Fernández, “the players and the other assistants have helped me a lot”.

The Catalan coach thus takes another step in a career that began from the lowest rung in the United States towards his great dream, to one day become head coach of the NBA, the first Spaniard to reach such a top.

Currently, the man from Badalona already occupies the highest position in the American League ever reached by a coach born in Spain, that of first assistant within a technical body made up of 14 people.

"My job is to structure that group and do a lot of work for the first coach so that he can focus on leading the group, competitively and emotionally," the Catalan explained to EL PAÍS before starting this season.

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Jordi Fernández, an 'adapted' in the NBA

The case of Jordi Fernández symbolizes the growth of a coach trained in the United States and who has gone through each previous step, stage by stage, until being considered in the NBA as one of their own.

"I played basketball until I couldn't take it anymore and at the age of 15 I was already training," recalls Jordi Fernández.

The young man directed in the training categories in Badalona, ​​Hospitalet and Lleida.

He graduated in Physical Activity and Sport Sciences, studied in Amsterdam and started a PhD in Sports Psychology.

When he was about to finish it, he was already part of the Hospitalet coaching staff: head coach of a youth team and physical trainer for the first team at LEB Plata.

And so he headed for the United States on a trip that would change his life.

"I went to America with one hand in front and the other behind to a summer campus and ended up in a company [Impact Basketball Academy] that was dedicated to training professional players on vacation."

It was 2006, Jordi was 23 years old and that flight would only be one way.

Three seasons later, he would open the big door for himself, a position in the player development department at the Cleveland Cavaliers.

LeBron James was on the roster.

The barriers were falling.

Fernández coached the Cleveland-affiliated Development League team, became the first Spanish coach to participate in an All Star, was part of the ring-winning Cavaliers with LeBron in 2016 and that following summer he reached the Denver Nuggets, where he continued climbing the ladder to second assistant and where he coached the NBA MVP the last two seasons, the Serbian Nikola Jokic.

He was also an assistant to Sergio Scariolo in the Spanish team at the 2017 Eurobasket (bronze).

And from this course, another stretch, first assistant in Sacramento Kings.

Brown's expulsion put him under the spotlight.

"It has made me very excited and I am very proud, the players responded," said the Spaniard.

Domantas Sabonis, a figure of the team, commented on the man from Badalona: “He is doing a very hard job,

it's very heavy.

In defense he is always telling us where to be.

He is the first coach in defense and that's how we're going to win games”.

Jordi Fernández, in his time with the Denver Nuggets.USA TODAY Sports (Isaiah J. Downing-USA TODAY Spor / Cordon Press)

And the big question: can Jordi Fernández become the head coach in the NBA?

“I feel prepared.

For me now is a good time, although it does not only depend on me.

Having covered all those steps is very important, but I don't like to skip steps and think about what is not my job right now.

Here I have a lot of responsibility.

When they signed Mike Brown [May 9], he was with Golden State in the Finals [as Steve Kerr's assistant] and I did a lot of things he'd never done.

That has been very good for me.

Those experiences are worth a lot.

You have to value it, ”says the man from Badalona.

His profile as a coach forged in American culture plays in his favor.

“On the professional side, I grew up and trained in the United States.

I have done every job you can imagine in a coaching staff.

And the years give you respect.

It is learning about your work and about the culture of the country, not just the language.

It is a very competitive process.

Every time you go higher there is less chance of going higher.

Of my position there are only 30 jobs in the world.

There is a lot of pressure”, says the Spaniard, who came to America alone and now, about to turn 40 (December 27), lives with his wife and two children born in the US.“ I don't consider myself an American, but adapted.

You cannot go to a different culture and not want to adapt.

It's like going to Spain and wanting to have dinner at six.

I am European, I have my identity, I come from a different basketball, but I have learned how things work here.

If you are able to understand that, you can do very well.

If not, you will not succeed, ”he adds.

Every time you go higher there is less chance of going higher.

Of my position there are only 30 jobs in the world.

There is a lot of pressure”, says the Spaniard, who came to America alone and now, about to turn 40 (December 27), lives with his wife and two children born in the US. “I do not consider myself an American, but adapted.

You cannot go to a different culture and not want to adapt.

It's like going to Spain and wanting to have dinner at six.

I am European, I have my identity, I come from a different basketball, but I have learned how things work here.

If you are able to understand that, you can do very well.

If not, you will not succeed, ”he adds.

Every time you go higher there is less chance of going higher.

Of my position there are only 30 jobs in the world.

There is a lot of pressure”, says the Spaniard, who came to America alone and now, about to turn 40 (December 27), lives with his wife and two children born in the US. “I do not consider myself an American, but adapted.

You cannot go to a different culture and not want to adapt.

It's like going to Spain and wanting to have dinner at six.

I am European, I have my identity, I come from a different basketball, but I have learned how things work here.

If you are able to understand that, you can do very well.

If not, you will not succeed, ”he adds.

He lives with his wife and two children born in the US “I don't consider myself an American, but an adapted one.

You cannot go to a different culture and not want to adapt.

It's like going to Spain and wanting to have dinner at six.

I am European, I have my identity, I come from a different basketball, but I have learned how things work here.

If you are able to understand that, you can do very well.

If not, you will not succeed, ”he adds.

He lives with his wife and two children born in the US “I don't consider myself an American, but an adapted one.

You cannot go to a different culture and not want to adapt.

It's like going to Spain and wanting to have dinner at six.

I am European, I have my identity, I come from a different basketball, but I have learned how things work here.

If you are able to understand that, you can do very well.

If not, you will not succeed, ”he adds.

The challenge is colossal.

In 2018, Serbian Igor Kokoskov signed with the Phoenix Suns and became the first European coach in NBA history.

With 19 wins and 63 losses, he only lasted one course.

Today he is an assistant in Dallas.

Other technicians stayed in the waiting room.

Ettore Messina was an assistant to Mike Brown in the Lakers and to Gregg Popovich in San Antonio (now he leads Armani Milan) and Sergio Scariolo was also an assistant to the Raptors (in his first season he won the ring).

“Here I am one of them, that is my point”, says Jordi Fernández.

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