Jordi Fernández continues to break down barriers. The Badalona coach was named Canada’s new coach on Wednesday for the Basketball World Cup, which runs from August 25 to September 10 in the Philippines, Japan and Indonesia. It’s another giant step in the career of Fernández, who is currently the first assistant of the Sacramento Kings, the highest position ever achieved by a Spaniard in the NBA. Last December, he also served as first coach for a few minutes in the Kings’ game against the Toronto Raptors after head coach Mike Brown was ejected.

Fernández replaces Nick Nurse on the Canadian bench after making a name for himself in the NBA with a lot of patience and painstaking work. The Catalan coach played basketball until he started his experience on the bench at the age of 15. He directed in the training categories in Badalona, ​​​​Hospitalet and Lleida, and while he graduated in Physical Activity and Sports Sciences, he studied in Amsterdam and began a doctorate in Psychology of the sport. When he was about to finish it, he was already part of the technical staff of l’Hospitalet: head coach of a youth team and physical trainer of the LEB Plata first team. Then came a call from the United States that would change his life. “I went to America with one hand in front and the other in back to a summer school and ended up in a company that was dedicated to training pro players on vacation.” It was in 2006, Jordi was 23 years old and this flight would only be a one-way trip. Three seasons later, the big door would open, a position in the Cleveland Cavaliers’ player development department. LeBron James was on the list.

From there he worked at the Denver Nuggets as an assistant between 2016 and 2022, a period during which he worked with another star, Nikola Jokic, until last summer he took the next step. when he was signed as a first assistant by the Kings. Last year, Sacramento posted a record 48 wins and 34 losses, their best stat since the 2004-05 season, and played in the title final series for the first time since 2006 (they lost 4-3 in the first round against the Golden State Warriors).

In recent weeks, the Spaniard has been in the pools to be the head coach of the Toronto Raptors, along with Sergio Scariolo, a position which will be occupied by the Serbian Darko Rajakovic. Fernández went through all stages on an American League bench and is highly regarded for his training in the American competitive system. “I don’t consider myself American, but adapted. You can’t go to a different culture and not want to adapt. It’s like going to Spain and wanting dinner at six. I’m European, I have my identity, I come from a different basketball, but I learned how things work here. If you are able to understand this, you can do very well. Otherwise, you will not succeed,” he explained to EL PAÍS last October.

During this career in the NBA, the Catalan was an assistant in the Spanish team between 2017 and 2019, and in the Nigerian team at the last Tokyo Games. “Having the opportunity to lead Canada this summer at the World Cup is an extremely exciting opportunity and for which I am extremely grateful,” said Fernández. “Few international programs have the cap of this team, and it’s a testament to the hard work and development that Canada Basketball, along with Nick Nurse and his team, have put in over the past few years,” he added.

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