-
Brian Windhorst
MIKE BROWN AND Jordi Fernandez have a charming meet-basketball-cute story and a real-life basketball-as-a-job story.
Both tales played a significant role in getting them to this remarkable point, Brown as the head coach of the New York Knicks and Fernandez as the head coach of the crosstown Brooklyn Nets.
“To be able to see him sitting in that seat in Brooklyn while I’m in New York,” Brown said about his longtime friend and mentee, “it’s surreal.”
On Wednesday, they face off at Madison Square Garden, living in different realities. Knicks owner James Dolan recently said in an interview with WFAN that “getting to the Finals, we absolutely have to do. Winning the Finals, we should do.”
Then, there’s Nets general manager Sean Marks, who made a trade two years ago to reacquire previously dealt Nets first-round picks in 2025 and 2026 with the unstated intention of prioritizing draft position.
Recently, when the Nets won six of nine games, largely due to the team’s improved defense, league scouts said jokingly that Fernandez was doing too good a job.
The two longtime friends, whose relationship goes back nearly 20 years, are coaching in the same city again — but, of course, not in the same reality.
“The New York media treats the Knicks a little differently than the Nets,” Fernandez said. “Mike’s got a different level of pressure. But one thing about him, he’s always up for the challenge.”
IN 2009, WHEN Brown had his first NBA head coaching job with the Cleveland Cavaliers, he met Fernandez while he was coaching at an academy in Las Vegas, Impact Basketball.
Brown left Vegas extremely impressed with Fernandez, a native of Spain who had been schooled in the European methods of training, and the way he connected with players during skills training.
Brown arranged for Fernandez to move to Ohio for an internship with the Cavs and also paid him on the side to train his teenage son, Elijah.
Over the next year, Fernandez practically became an extended member of Brown’s family.
“Mike let me use a car, a gas card, paid for the room where I lived, and I ate pretty much every meal at the practice facility,” Fernandez said.
“Sometimes, Uncle Mike [Winger, then a Cavs assistant GM and now the president of the Washington Wizards] would take me to this sushi place I loved but couldn’t afford. It was a once-in-a-lifetime experience.”
Brown hired a string of up-and-coming assistants during his time in Cleveland, many of whom went on to become NBA head coaches: John Kuester (Pistons), Michael Malone (Kings and Nuggets), Lloyd Pierce (Hawks) and Jamahl Mosley (Magic).
Fernandez also moved up the ranks.
In his second year, he earned a full-time job as a player development assistant.
“I was making $35,000, but I had less money because I had to pay for my own car and apartment,” Fernandez said.
But he quickly started to show the skills that would lead to a big-time coaching career. And Fernandez’s pupil, Elijah Brown, eventually committed to play for then-coach Brad Stevens at Butler.
“Did I give him an opportunity? Yes.” Brown said. “But he’s the one who took advantage of the opportunity.”
BROWN WAS FIRED by the Cavs in 2010 after five seasons. But the organization, aware of Fernandez’s ability to build relationships and develop players, wanted the young coach to stay. Fernandez remained on the staff for the next three years, working for then-Cavs coach Byron Scott.
In 2013, the Cavs rehired Brown, who had won 272 games in five seasons in Cleveland.
Fernandez, whose stature in the league had grown along with his salary (he could buy his own sushi by then), was excited that his mentor was returning. Fernandez was in his 30s with several years of NBA experience and successfully worked with players such as Kyrie Irving and Tristan Thompson, and he hoped that he could become an assistant coach on Brown’s bench.
But in an organizational decision, Brown didn’t hire Fernandez for his staff.
Instead, the Cavs wanted to send Fernandez to the G-League. The head coaching job of the Canton Charge was open, and Fernandez had been a candidate for head coaching jobs in the G-League. But that wasn’t the job the Cavs wanted for him, either.
Fernandez was offered an assistant coaching job with the Charge, a role he felt was a demotion.
He was being asked to move more than an hour away, including from his new girlfriend, Kelsey, who lived in Cleveland.
“We’d just started dating in the summer, and she thought I was a coach for the Cavs,” Fernandez said, speaking of his now wife and mother of his two children. “Then, I had to explain when the season was starting that I was actually going to be in Canton.”
The situation damaged their relationship, at least for a while. But it was also a seminal moment in Fernandez’s career.
His increased responsibility with the Charge proved to be transformational, and he also bonded with Steve Hetzel, who got the head coaching job ahead of Fernandez. Hetzel is now an assistant coach on Fernandez’s staff in Brooklyn.
“I ended up having one of the best years of my life and created a lifelong friend,” Fernandez said. “I had no distractions, and we were running the team in an NBA-style system. It was real coaching, and that was when I started to believe I could eventually be a head coach in the NBA.”
A YEAR LATER, Hetzel departed for an assistant coaching job with the Charlotte Hornets, and Fernandez took over the Charge. His career has been on the ascent ever since.
After six seasons as an assistant coach with the Denver Nuggets, he rejoined Brown in 2022 as the associate head coach of the Sacramento Kings. After a surprising 48-win season, Brown won Coach of the Year, and Fernandez’s reputation continued to grow.
“I still remember the uncomfortable face-to-face meeting about the whole thing, and it’s something we laugh about now,” Fernandez said. “We’ve both changed and grown a lot since then.”
Indeed, they have. Brown got his first big-time jobs as a defensive-minded coach, and in Sacramento and now New York, is known for his team’s offensive power.
Brown was the head coach of the Nigerian national team. In a huge moment for basketball in the country, he helped the team qualify for the 2021 Olympics in Tokyo and guided it to a stunning upset of Team USA in an exhibition game that year.
Fernandez, who was on Brown’s Team Nigeria staff, later became the head coach of the Canadian National Team and led it to a bronze medal at the 2023 World Cup, the country’s first medal in the event.
When Brown was interviewing for the Knicks’ job last summer, Fernandez was a counselor and sounding board.
“When I want to share something or need something that’s personal, Mike is the person I always call,” Fernandez said. “We’re trying to find a night where we can go on a double date, and I’m going to make him come to Brooklyn.”
It just won’t be Wednesday.
“To see him grow … is unbelievable,” Brown said. “He’s done a great job. Obviously, it’s a difficult situation [with the rebuild]. But he’s done a fantastic job getting them to play as hard as they can while getting them to grow and build for the future.”
ESPN’s Anthony Slater contributed to this story.