Jordi Fernandez navigating transition from Spain to cutthroat NBA helped shape his Nets vision
New coach Jordi Fernandez takes a timeout for some Q&A with Post columnist Steve Serby.Q: Have you gotten an early read on what a rivalry with the Knicks could become?A: I think rivalries are amazing, and the one thing is as long as it’s with respect.You always have to be able to shake hands to be kind and polite to each other, but if you can beat them by 40, better than by 20.
And they should feel the same way about us.Q: Could you envision one day when the Nets and Knicks have the kind of heated rivalry that excites basketball fans?A: Yeah.… Obviously we’re in a process right now, and our goal is not to look at the Knicks.
You should not care about the Knicks.We should care about ourselves, about taking the proper steps of what we’re trying to build, about what we represent, and how we want to do those things, right? We have a vision now, the vision comes from ownership through management and the coaching staff, and the vision of being the team that we want to be and a certain style of play and how we want to compete … having success and sustaining success so at one time, if it happens that both teams are very, very, very good, that would be extremely cool, right? Fun.
Two teams in the same city to fight for big things, that would be awesome.Q: What do you see in the future?A: I see success for this group, but success doesn’t mean just to win one, success is like sustaining it.A lot of times the one thing that we all have to understand is it’s OK that if you win, win, win, lose, win, win, lose … there has to be adversity, and whatever the adversity means.
Sometimes it can be a loss.… Adversity can come in different ways, and you have to be ready to face adversity, whether it is in one point of a season or in a season, and I think that we all have to understand that knowing that the adversity can always show up, you have to be ready.
You have to be ready to fight, you have to be ready to help, you have to be ready to support your players,...