SACRAMENTO, Calif. — When Nets coach Jordi Fernandez returned to Sacramento to face the Kings and Mike Brown, he wasn't just facing his coach, he was facing his family.
Brown didn't let his protégé down on Sunday, and Fernandez certainly wouldn't have wanted him to. He scored 16,750 points at the Golden 1 Center before scoring a come-from-behind 108-103 victory over his former boss.
“I just want to kick his ass. And then give him a hug. And I'm sure he feels the same way, and I'm sure he feels the same way about me.” Brown laughed before the game.
“That's great. I accept the hug, but not the first part,” Fernandez said. “We definitely try to do the same thing.”
It was difficult and painful. However, although the Nets built a 19-point lead, they fell behind in the fourth quarter and used a 15-4 run to take the lead for good.
Cam Thomas scored a game-high 34 points and Brooklyn made 19-of-39 shots from deep to improve to 7-10. And Fernandez scored a victory over his former boss.
Their bond is deep. Fernandez met Brown in 2009, when Fernandez was a youth development coach from Spain working at Impact Basketball in Las Vegas. Brown, then the Cavaliers coach, had his junior high school son Elijah practice with Fernandez during summer league, and the Spaniard impressed him.
This was the start of a coaching career, with Fernandez serving multiple stints as Brown's assistant, his last in Sacramento from 2022-24.
“Yes, he's a mentor, but he's more than that. He's like family to me. I wouldn't be in this position without him. He brought me here. It was him, and we got back together a few years later,” Fernandez said. “I’m in this position because of Coach Brown and the organization that got me to this position, so it’s a really cool story.”
And Brown believed Fernandez was in the best position to succeed as he was entrusted with the Nets' rebuilding position.
Everything Fernandes showed on Sunday underlined that.
“He's exactly the right person for this job,” Brown said. “They're clearly thinking of rebuilding, at least that's what it sounds like from the outside. So they need someone with a plan and energy and the right focus in terms of relationships and things like that. Because going through that process, if that's what they're doing, it can be a lot of ups and downs.”
“So you need a guy who's consistent, who has a good relationship with everybody, who brings energy. He makes them play really, really, really hard. They're great on the ball. Good things on both sides. I can only imagine what kind of success he will have, especially considering it will take a while to figure out which direction they don't want to go. you can't.”
The Nets, who committed 19 turnovers in Friday's game against Philadelphia, had only one in a clean first quarter to take a 37-28 lead.
De'Aaron Fox (31 points) hit a stepback jumper with 1:46 left in the first to take a 29-25 lead, and the Nets went on a 19-7 run through the quarters.
Ben Simmons picked up the pace after a chase down block, and Noah Clowney hit a corner 3-pointer for a 54-35 cushion with 7:19 left in the first half.
The Nets cut their cushion to eight at the break.
The Nets were still up 82-75, but Keegan Murray's free throws with 23.4 seconds left in the third led to a 13-3 run that gave them a three-point lead.
Murray inflicted pain on the Nets again in the fourth. Clowney injured his left ankle when he landed on Murray's foot and was forced to leave the game.
Clowney had to be helped by scoring 18 points on 5-of-8 shooting from deep with 6:05 left.
But it happened during a 15-4 run in which the Nets turned the game around.
Trailing 94-90 with 9:14 left, Brooklyn sat back and executed, with Shake Milton hitting a 3-pointer to Jalen Wilson for a 105-98 lead.
“That's respect. You always want to beat your opponent and you hope that's what he wants to do. Of course we do the same thing, but of course there's a lot of respect. Take it,” Fernandez said. “I wish I could give him a big hug after the game one day. But we're here to compete and we're here to compete for every possession for 48 minutes, no matter who's out.”
It was a victory hug from Fernandez.
