Mike Brown and Jordi Fernández: the Olympic duo behind the most talked about team in the NBA
Coach of the Year Mike Brown and associate head coach Jordi Fernández are at the helm of the Sacramento Kings, the surprise team of this NBA season. Currently, they are playing the Golden State Warriors in the first round of the playoffs, having previously coached the Nigeria men's basketball team in Tokyo 2020.
Basketball
Every time the Sacramento Kings win a game, a roar erupts throughout the arena. "Light the beam!" their fans chant. Then the star of the game presses a fake, oversized button, and a purple laser shoots into the sky. It’s their Bat-Signal, the most recognisable trait – along with the cowbells – of the surprise team of this NBA season.
The victory celebration began this season and has taken on a life of its own. It’s a source of pure joy for a long-suffering fanbase. The Kings are now one of the most fun teams in the league and have made the playoffs for the first time in 17 years. The reward? Playing the reigning champions, Stephen Curry’s Golden State Warriors, in the first round.
Leading the Kings is a partnership honed on Olympic experience. NBA Coach of the Year Mike Brown and associate head coach Jordi Fernández led the Nigeria men's basketball team in Tokyo 2020. It was the first time they shared the bench as head coach and right-hand man, although their relationship began much earlier.
Mike Brown and Jordi Fernández met around 15 years ago, when Fernández was working at Impact Basketball, a basketball academy renowned among NBA stars. One summer, Brown took his son Elijah there, and he was so impressed by the Spaniard that he that made him an offer to be his personal assistant.
Back then, Brown was coaching LeBron James' Cleveland Cavaliers, who he had led to the NBA Finals in 2007. The deal, he told The Athletic, came with a nice perk: he would have total access to "sneak in" when the Cavs worked out.
Brown also said that one day an executive saw Fernández put one of the players through drills, and that he liked what he saw enough to offer him a position with the team.
Nigeria: African basketball’s giant-in-waiting
That first experience together was short-lived: Mike Brown left the team the following year and Jordi Fernández remained in Cleveland, first as a player development coach and then coaching the Cavs’ minor-league affiliate. Then, in 2016, both of their careers took a leap forward.
That summer, Brown signed as an assistant coach with the Golden State Warriors, where he would win three championship rings in six seasons. For his part, Fernández went to the Denver Nuggets with another coach he met in Cleveland, Michael Malone, and was part of the team's rise to the elite of the Western Conference. Then Nigeria came calling.
Nigeria are a giant-in-waiting when it comes to African basketball. In the 2020 NBA draft class alone, there were seven players with ties to the country, between those born there and those with at least one parent from the West African nation.
Looking ahead to the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, Nigeria bet big by hiring Brown. Fernández, who for years had worked during the summers with the Spanish Federation, was available, and agreed to be his assistant again.
On their way to the Japanese capital, Nigeria surprised rivals such as the United States and Argentina in exhibition matches, but ultimately a young, inexperienced team failed to translate those victories into Olympic success.
In the history of men’s basketball at the Olympic Games, no African side has ever made it past the group stage of the competition.
Kings vs Warriors: A first NBA Playoffs in 17 years
A few months after the Games, when the Sacramento Kings signed Mike Brown, the Ohio native once again called on Jordi Fernández to be his right-hand man. Now he not only holds the position of associate head coach, he has also gained well-earned trust: this season, when Brown was ejected from a game, the Spaniard took over to lead a comeback win.
With the duo leading the bench, the Sacramento Kings came third in the West Conference and made the NBA playoffs for the first time in 17 years. The league recognised Brown by naming him Coach of the Year, but another ‘reward’ was waiting for him: playing his former team, reigning champions Golden State Warriors, in the first round.
The series is tied 2-2 before it heads back to Sacramento for Game 5. Back to their home arena, where they are hoping for to light the beam again.