Brooklyn Nets head coach Jordi Fernández spoke about the Oklahoma City Thunder’s successful rebuild following his team’s Sunday night loss to the latter, and what he is looking for from the Nets as they begin their own process.

“From the outside looking in, you can see that they’re a group that they believe in what they do, and they trust what they do,” Fernández said. “And this is because, along a period of time, even [if] the things go one way or the other, and there is adversity, there’s no second-guessing and there’s just the willingness to work and get better and compete.”

The Nets wrapped up their west coast road trip, a six-game stretch, with a defeat to the Thunder. The contest got off to a rough start when Oklahoma City outscored Brooklyn 39-19 in the first quarter. Fernández’s squad competed, but the game always looked too far gone.

“That’s what I want to see from our growth: resiliency and fight, and doing things the right way. Having right intentions on both ends,” the Nets head coach said post-game. “We have to build that mentality, character and obviously, the Xs and Os, and understanding how we do certain things.” 

Cam Johnson and Tyrese Martin led the team in scoring with 15 points each. Nic Claxton added 11. For Oklahoma City, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander had a 27-point, 10-assist double-double. Isaiah Joe finished with 24 points on eight made three-pointers. Aaron Wiggins, Ousmane Dieng and Jaylin Williams also scored in the double figures.

Fernández reflected on the away stretch: “You learn from every situation, right? Played Denver and we played against a very special player (Nikola Jokic). Then we go into Utah and there’s late game situations on offense and defense and we made mistakes and we learned from it. Then we respond in Portland. Then we have a really tough one against the Clippers, which it’s where you don’t want to point fingers. You want to stay together and support each other. And we go to the Lakers, played against the all-time… one of the best players in the world… and, you know, we responded again. And now we come here. We fight.” 

The Nets are now 14-29, and have only won two of their last ten games. Brooklyn’s only west coast win was against the Portland Trail Blazers on Jan. 14. The Thunder, on the other hand, are first in the Western Conference but it wasn’t long ago that they were in the Nets’ current shoes.

“They do a great job and we have to focus on our own process — and that’s a good thing,” Fernández said. “Sustaining success takes the understanding [of] how things go, and when there’s adversity, is when it’s most important. And that’s right there when our guys have been very good, working hard to just [be] successful along the process … and we just started at this point, and we know we will be very good soon enough.” 

Next, the Nets host the New York Knicks at Barclays Center on Tuesday at 7:30 PM ET. The team begins a four-game home stretch facing the Knicks, Phoenix Suns, Miami Heat and Sacramento Kings.

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Leading into the 2025 softball season, Sooners on SI is profiling Patty Gasso’s nine talented freshmen who are set to help OU in the program’s first trek through the Southeastern Conference. 

NORMAN — Plenty of youth softball players across the Sooner State grow up dreaming of playing at Oklahoma. 

In under a month, Kadey Lee McKay will turn those dreams into reality. 

The Caddo, OK, product is one of Patty Gasso’s nine talented freshmen who will take the field for the Sooners this fall, something that’s been al lifetime in the making. 

“It’s been a dream of mine since I was tiny to come here and play softball,” McKay said last November. “It’s just dreams turning into reality for me and I just couldn’t be more blessed then getting this opportunity to even come out here to play.”

McKay was a central figure for the last four years for Caddo’s powerhouse, but with coaching running in her family, she knew pretty early on that she was going to have a shot to play big time college softball. 

“I was probably 13-14 years old when me and my dad and my mom kind of realized — I felt a little more experienced, played a little bit more experienced than everyone I was playing with,” McKay said. “Then that was when we realized, ‘Hey, she might be something.’ I didn’t even play 16U travel ball. I straight up went from 14 to 18, so I was 14 playing with 18-19 year olds. That was probably one of the best things I could’ve done because that made me even more experienced and I learned so many more things playing with such older girls from my age.”

McKay quickly developed a great eye at the plate as a lefty. She flashed great bat control during Oklahoma’s scrimmages this fall, guiding the ball into gaps to get runners moving. 

She’s also a reliable glove in the infield, another quality which drew Gasso to McKay. 

“She’s a gamer and she’s a power hitter,” Gasso said when McKay signed with the Sooners. “I’ve seen her thrive in the clutch moments; she’s not afraid of the big spotlights. You can feel her presence as a team leader, but she’s also the daughter of a coach and you can see those coaching qualities in the way she plays and thinks the game. 

“I’m really excited about her future here. She may have flown under the radar on the recruiting stage, but I think she is a future All-American.”

Though McKay knew she could play at a high level early, it didn’t take any of the surprise off the first time she got a call from Gasso to potently play in Norman. 

“(It was) kind of mind blowing for me, really,” McKay said. “I was like, ‘Is this really happening?’ It was kind of insane. I just knew from the start this is where I really wanted to play. I just continued to work towards that stuff and then realizing she was actually looking at me made me kind of work harder because this is everything I really wanted. It happened, so I’m here.”

Signing with the Sooners will just be the start for McKay, however. 

Fresh off winning a fourth-straight national title, the program is in a year of massive transition. 

Gasso saw 10 players who were more titan than senior graduate last year, which is part of the reason she has such a large freshman class. 

She’s added more newcomers in the form of five transfers to pair with holdovers like Ella Parker, Kasidi Pickering, Cydney Sanders and Kierston Deal among others. 

There will be plenty of opportunities to get into the lineup for all of Oklahoma’s new faces, and as they learn each other they’ll learn a new league as Gasso takes the program through the SEC for the first time. 

McKay, like everyone else, worked on the entirety of her game this fall, but the biggest challenge may have been getting up to speed with associate head coach and hitting coach JT Gasso. 

While McKay said she loved working with Oklahoma’s hitting guru, she admitted it was much different than the work she was doing at Caddo that yielded fantastic results. 

“The information that he gathers for us is insane,” she said. “I never would’ve thought of some of the stuff that he shows us and everything like that… A lot of technology that he uses. It’s very different for me because like she said, I never had a hitting coach or anything like that. Very different, but it’s really interesting to see how everything works.”

“… He’s a fun guy. I love him. He really expects a lot out of you. I think it just pushes us more and more every day in the cages and stuff. I’m really thankful having him by our side, especially on the hitting part of stuff.”

Oklahoma’s entire team will have to deal with the pressure of being a completely new group that carries the pressure of the four championship-winning teams that came before them. 

And while Gasso has told the team to just be themselves, McKay will bring an extra chip on her shoulder to work at Love’s Field every day. 

Representing Caddo and her home state means a great deal to McKay, and it’s something she hopes she can do with pride and passion over the next four years. 

“It’s crazy,” McKay said. “I’ll tell you, every time we had a fall ball game, I couldn’t tell you how many people came and watched. It’s funny, before we even started coach Gasso told me, ‘Your whole town is gonna be here watching you every chance they get.’ I said, ‘They sure are.’ 

“Just trying to make them proud, for sure.”

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Oklahoma City Thunder head coach Mark Daigneault will coach one of the four teams in the 2025 NBA All-Star Game, which will take place on Sunday, Feb. 16 at Chase Center in San Francisco and air at 8 p.m. ET on TNT.

By virtue of Oklahoma City’s 127-101 victory over the Brooklyn Nets tonight, the Thunder (35-7, .833) clinched the best record in the Western Conference through games played on Sunday, Feb. 2.  As a result, Daigneault has earned a spot as a head coach in the NBA All-Star Game for the first time.  In addition, an assistant coach from Daigneault’s staff will serve as a head coach for another of the NBA All-Star teams.

The two remaining head coaching spots in the NBA All-Star Game will be filled by the head coach and an assistant coach from the team with the best record in the Eastern Conference through games played on Feb. 2.

The 2025 NBA All-Star Game features a new mini-tournament with four teams and three games.  Three teams will be made up of NBA All-Star selections, and the fourth team will be the champion of the Castrol Rising Stars competition on Friday, Feb. 14.