Raul Martin knows about Jordi Fernandez’s passion. The two grew up together in Badalona, near Barcelona. They were teammates in the city’s youth teams going back to when they were 10 years old, neighbors too.
When asked to talk about what it was like to play with the Brooklyn Nets new head coach back then, Martin told Raptors Republic, a Toronto blog, about an incident when the two were 17 and facing a big game. Fernandez had burned his hand during a “fire run” in a local Catalan festival and needed to wear a bandage while playing point guard.