'Leader of Our Family': Nets Big Man Dishes on What Makes Jordi Fernandez Special

The Nets are hoping to shock the NBA world next season, and their head coach will be front and center in those efforts.

Sep 28, 2026; Brooklyn, NY, USA; Brooklyn Nets head coach Jordi Fernandez poses for a portrait during media day at Brooklyn Nets HSS Training Center. Mandatory Credit: Vincent Carchietta-Imagn Images | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

The Brooklyn Nets are set for another season, and their leader on the sidelines will be a big piece of their success.

Going into his third season in Brooklyn, Jordi Fernandez has already established himself as an up-and-coming head coach in the league. While he’s been stuck coaching through a couple of losing seasons, he’ll have a chance to prove what he can accomplish when the Nets take the floor and try to compete for a playoff spot in 2026-27.

After some moves in the offseason, Fernandez will be tasked with putting some pieces together and getting his squad to gel as they look to become the NBA’s surprise team. One of the most notable changes for this season will be the insertion of Day’Ron Sharpe into the starting lineup after the departure of Nic Claxton. 

Going into his sixth season in Brooklyn, Sharpe is coming off a career year, averaging 8.7 points and 6.7 rebounds across 62 contests last season. While there will be an adjustment period for the Nets and Sharpe when the season starts, Brooklyn’s new starting center knows that the foundation Fernandez has built will go a long way.

“It’s almost like a family with him,” Sharpe said. “He’s our coach, but he’s also like the leader of our family. He wanna have fun, but it’s also a time when to be serious, so he’s got a good mixture of both, and I feel like that’s great when being a head coach.”

Having played 112 games under Fernandez across the past two seasons, Sharpe has had a chance to get to know his head coach well, it appears. While the roster has had some significant overhauls over that span, Sharpe will enter the year as the longest-tenured Net, giving his head coach some much-needed continuity.

As the Nets officially shift from rebuild mode into playing competitive basketball for the first time under Fernandez, his coaching ability should be on full display. With Sharpe entering the starting five alongside Julius Randle in the frontcourt, it will be up to the young coach to figure things out on the fly.

While it won’t be an easy task for Fernandez to get things right early, his coaching style should still put the team in a great position. As Sharpe noted, there may be one specific piece of Fernandez’s coaching that makes him so special as the Nets get ready for tipoff.

“We don’t feel like, ‘Oh, he’s always on us,’ or a tough critic,” Sharpe said. “ He’s just an honest man, and I respect him for that. He’s always honest.”