Brooklyn Nets HC Jordi Fernández, Ja Morant Explain Nets-Grizzlies Flare-up

Morant’s self-admitted “trolling” of the Nets coach made the headlines on Friday night.

Dec 13, 2024; Memphis, Tennessee, USA; Memphis Grizzlies guard Ja Morant (12) reacts toward Brooklyn Nets head coach Jordi Fernandez, after a buzzer beating basket at the end of the second quarter at FedExForum. Mandatory Credit: Petre Thomas-Imagn Images / Petre Thomas-Imagn Images

With about seven seconds to go in the first half, Ja Morant brings the ball up. He sharply changes to his right hand to try to beat Jalen Wilson, then decelerates with a behind-the-back to his left. Having also solved Dorian Finney-Smith's attempt at a dig-down with that move, and with Wilson now way off-balance, the Memphis Grizzlies’ all-star guard sets his right foot and rises into the jumper. 

His little stepback is money, and the buzzer sounds. The Grizzlies go into the half with a 69-56 lead over the Brooklyn Nets, but before Morant slips back to the locker room, he walks past Nets head coach Jordi Fernández. 

“Yeah, yeah, yeah!” he says, admiring the difficulty of his own move but also making sure to let the Brooklyn coach, bench and staff know. Fernández shoots back with a dagger. 

"I was trolling,” Morant said after the game. “Just to get them riled up, and they did ... "If ‘yeah’ is disrespectful and it makes you feel some type of way, hey, so be it.”

Fernández broke down his perspective in a lengthy answer after Friday’s game: “The officials are the ones who have to see certain things. Again, my job is not to get into any of this. I will never speak to the other coach unless I know him. Like Taylor Jenkins, he’s a great coach, and I know him, and I just wanted to say good luck. Same thing with the other players. I’ll talk to Santi [Aldama] because I know him.

"Other than that, I will never speak to other players, and I don’t want other players to speak to me. If they want to be nice, obviously, it’s part of the game. If not, I don’t want any interaction. I think it’s disrespectful. It’s not part of the game. And that’s what we are projecting to everybody else, especially the little ones, is play with respect [and] respect for the game, whether you are a superstar or whoever you are.” 

End of game:

- Ja Morant talking to Nets bench again
- Taylor Jenkins pulls him away, tells Jordi, "we're good, we're good."
- Dennis Schröder approaches Jenkins with some words
- Jenkins says "you're gonna let him fucking talk to me like that...what the fuck?" pic.twitter.com/GBWfMJ0wFm

— Lucas Kaplan (@LucasKaplan_) December 14, 2024

The second half progresses, and it’s the end of the game now. Morant jaws with the Nets bench again, but is seemingly discouraged by his head coach Taylor Jenkins. That’s when Brooklyn guard Dennis Schröder intervenes, sharing some choice words with Jenkins, who evidently isn’t very pleased with what he’s hearing. 

Fernández said he addressed the confrontation with Schröder: “I told him that I never want any of my players to go talk to the other coach. That’s how I want my team to behave … I want to compete on the court, to fight on the court. If I have to say words, I’ll say them to the officials or my players, and that’s it.” 

Morant also shared his thoughts on how the night ended. Him, Jenkins and Schröder were all assessed technical fouls after that end-of-game mix-up. 

“I even told the coach that I was trolling, so he was good,” Morant said. “I don't know what was said on [their] end to have Coach [Fernández] like that, but at the end, I just wanted to make sure coach was good."

Jenkins’ response to the flare-up was simpler: “We won.” 

The Nets, following the Friday road loss to the Grizzlies, are 10-15. The team takes on the Cleveland Cavaliers at Barclays Center on Monday night.

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