Report: Brooklyn Nets hiring Sacramento Kings assistant Jordi Fernandez as head coach

Sacramento Kings assistant Jordi Fernandez has emerged as one of the most respected and sought-after young coaches in the NBA in recent years.

Now, he is on the verge of landing his first head coaching job.

The Brooklyn Nets are preparing to hire Fernandez as their head coach, sources told ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski on Monday night. The news broke as the Kings were preparing to play the Golden State Warriors in a play-in game Tuesday at Golden 1 Center in Sacramento.

Fernandez, 41, will lead a Nets team that went 32-50 this season under interim coach Kevin Ollie, their fifth coach since 2020. ESPN reported that Nets general manager Sean Marks met with dozens of candidates in recent weeks and Fernandez advanced to meet with owner Joe Tsai.

Fernandez was a candidate for multiple head coaching jobs last summer and had already emerged as a candidate for multiple job openings as the 2023-24 regular season was coming to an end.

Fernandez had previously been identified as a candidate to replace Charlotte Hornets head coach Steve Clifford, who is stepping down to transition into a front office role with the organization. Former Sacramento Kings assistant and current G League Stockton Kings coach Lindsey Harding has also been identified as a candidate in Charlotte.

Fernandez is in his second season as Mike Brown’s lead assistant in Sacramento. Fernandez was part of a dramatic turnaround as the Kings won 48 games to secure the No. 3 seed in the Western Conference last season, ending the longest playoff drought in NBA history after 16 consecutive losing seasons.

Fernandez came to Sacramento after spending six years as an assistant on Michael Malone’s staff with the Denver Nuggets. Brown and Malone have both touted Fernandez as a future head coach.

Fernandez, a native of Barcelona, Spain, was a finalist for head coaching jobs in Toronto and Phoenix last summer before the Raptors hired Darko Rajakovic and the Suns hired Frank Vogel. Fernandez also interviewed with the Milwaukee Bucks.

In June, Fernandez was chosen to replace Nick Nurse as Team Canada’s head coach. Fernandez led Team Canada to a win over Team USA in the bronze medal game at the 2023 FIBA World Cup in September.

In October, Fernandez was identified as the NBA’s best assistant coach in an annual survey of the league’s top executives. Fernandez earned that distinction by a wide margin with 31% of the vote, finishing ahead of the Milwaukee Bucks’ Terry Stotts (10%), Young (10%), Lee (7%) and the Boston Celtics’ Sam Cassell (7%).