For the next addition to his Nets coaching staff, Jordi Fernandez turned to ex-Michigan head coach — and former Heat assistant — Juwan Howard, according to ESPN.
Howard, who joins Steve Hetzel as the first assistants hired by Fernandez, had previously coached the Wolverines for five seasons before the program ways with him in March after an 8-24 campaign.
During his stint at Michigan, Howard, who was a member of the program’s legendary Fab Five in the early 1990s, became known as a polarizing coach with numerous heated confrontations surfacing throughout his tenure.
He was ejected from a Big Ten Tournament win in 2021 after an argument with Maryland coach Mark Turgeon, where Howard eventually started moving toward the Terrapins’ bench before being pulled back.
In February 2022, Howard slapped a Wisconsin assistant Joe Krabbenhoft in the handshake line amid a verbal altercation with Badgers head coach Greg Gard and was suspended for the rest of the regular season.
And in December 2023, an incident materialized involving Howard and strength and conditioning coach Jon Sanderson — this time allegedly connecting back to a disagreement between a Wolverines trainer and Howard’s son, at the time an injured player on the team, according to The Athletic.
Despite the controversies, the Wolverines had plenty of success with Howard in charge, too.
After missing the NCAA Tournament during his first season, Michigan advanced to the Elite Eight and Sweet 16 the next two years.
But after making their regional semifinal in 2022, they went 26-40 across the next two seasons and didn’t make the tournament either year.
Fernandez, who previously was the Kings’ associate head coach, took over for Nets interim head coach Kevin Ollie following the end of a disappointing 32-50 season, and he said in his introductory press conference that he expects the Nets to “see results right away.”
“This industry is about getting results and getting better,” Fernandez told reporters this week. “So how much are you going to get better? It’s how we believe the process is important. We know that there’s proper steps to take and we’ll see improvement right away. But the most important thing to me is to believe in team success over personal success.”