NEW YORK – Jordi Fernandez kept the game ball from his first NBA victory as a head coach, which he said will be a reminder of where he came from and where he hopes his career will lead.

“I’m going to put it in my office,” Fernandez said, “because my wife does a great job of decorating the house and she doesn’t want my basketball stuff there.”

The rookie head coach earned the victory in his third game on Sunday as the Brooklyn Nets defeated the Milwaukee Bucks 115-102. Fernandez, a native of Badalona, ​​Spain, said his wife and children were at the match, along with his parents, friends and extended family.

The celebration was the culmination of a 15-year journey that began when Fernandez left Spain at the age of 26. He started coaching in his teens and, after coming to the U.S., worked his way up from head coach of the Canton Charge in the NBA G. League to an assistant on playoff teams in Denver and Sacramento before landing his first got a chance to manage his own NBA team.

“So it’s really special to start all the way from the bottom in the NBA and work really hard and go up, and go up, and some good moments, some tough moments, different teams, friends, memories,” Fernandez said. . “And it’s really cool now that you look and you have to enjoy this moment because there’s only one time when you’re a head coach and you win a (first) game.

“On the other hand, I also feel: what is the next step? And we have to move on to the next thing and I want to play in this league, I want to stay at this club for a long time.”

Fernandez deferred credit to his players, who treated him to a post-match party that Fernandez said was fun and wet.

“I mean, a guy from Europe, from Spain, being a head coach in the NBA, that’s great,” said Nets guard Dennis Schroder, a German.

Fernandez coached the Canadian Olympic team this summer after leading the Canadians to their first men’s basketball medal, bronze at the World Cup, in 2023. During the previous Olympic Games he was an assistant for the Nigerian Olympic team.

Now he has his own club in Brooklyn and, after Sunday, a new basketball.

“It represents a moment in my life,” Fernandez said, “and when you look at it, it’s the beginning of something special.”

The Associated Press contributed to this story.