NEW YORK -- The New York Knicks have offered their coaching job to Mike Brown and are working to finalize a deal with the two-time NBA Coach of the Year, a person with knowledge of the details said Wednesday.
Brown would replace Tom Thibodeau, who was fired last month despite leading the Knicks to the Eastern Conference finals for the first time in 25 years.
Brown had his second interview with the Knicks on Tuesday before the job was offered, the person told The Associated Press.
The person spoke on condition of anonymity because details of the search were to remain private.
The plan to hire Brown was first reported by ESPN.
Brown earned his second award as the NBA's top coach after leading Sacramento to the playoffs in 2022-23 -- ending what was the league's longest postseason drought with its first appearance since 2006 -- but the Kings fired him nearly halfway through this past season after a 13-18 start.
He would take over a Knicks team that believes it can contend for the NBA title and made it clear that was the only goal when it made the surprising decision to fire Thibodeau, who like Brown is a two-time winner of the NBA's Coach of the Year award.
"Our organization is singularly focused on winning a championship for our fans," Knicks President Leon Rose said in a statement after Thibodeau was fired. "This pursuit led us to the decision to inform Tom Thibodeau that we've decided to move in another direction. ... Ultimately, we made the decision we feel is best for our organization moving forward."
The Knicks quickly identified Brown as a candidate they wanted to speak with, while also discussing the job with former Memphis coach Taylor Jenkins and current assistants James Borrego of New Orleans and Micah Nori of Minnesota before offering the position to Brown.
Brown was honored with his first coaching award when he coached the Cleveland Cavaliers, the team he led to the NBA Finals in 2007 during his first stint with the organization. He also coached the Los Angeles Lakers and is 454-304 in his career.
Brown also won four championships as an assistant coach, three with the Golden State Warriors and one with the San Antonio Spurs.
His coaching staff will be discussed in the coming days, the person told AP.
Thibodeau led the Knicks to their only sustained success of the 2000s, with four playoff appearances in his five seasons. They reached at least the East semifinals each of the past three seasons and reached 50 wins in both of the last two.
Also Wednesday, ESPN reported Frank Vogel will join the Dallas Mavericks' staff as a lead assistant to Coach Jason Kidd. Vogel, who most recently coached the Phoenix Suns in the 2023-24 season, was hired by Dallas as a coaching consultant in October 2024.
Kidd was an assistant to Vogel in 2019-20, winning an NBA championship with the Lakers in the covid-19 "bubble." Kidd stayed on Vogel's staff until he was hired in 2021 to coach Dallas, where he won a title as a player in 2011.
The Mavericks finished 39-43 this past season and failed to advance out of the play-in tournament after trading Luka Doncic to the Lakers for Anthony Davis. They won the NBA Draft lottery despite having 1.8% odds and took Duke standout Cooper Flagg with the No. 1 pick, but will likely be without Kyrie Irving until at least early 2026 after tearing his ACL in late March.
POP'S RECORD ADJUSTED
The NBA has adjusted all-time wins leader Gregg Popovich's career record as coach of San Antonio, removing the 77 games that he missed last season and crediting those wins and losses to new Spurs Coach Mitch Johnson.
Popovich's final record has been reset to 1,390-824, which is where it was entering a game on Nov. 2. That was the day that Popovich had a stroke at the team's arena in San Antonio and Johnson, one of his assistant coaches, took over as acting coach.
Popovich missed the remainder of the season and Johnson coached the final 77 games, going 32-45. The NBA and the Spurs agreed that it made sense to remove those games from Popovich's record and credit them to Johnson, who was named head coach when Popovich announced his retirement earlier this year.
"While my love and passion for the game remain, I've decided it's time to step away as head coach," Popovich said when revealing that decision. He remains in place as Spurs president and is still around the franchise when he's able.
It is not unprecedented for the NBA to adjust win-loss totals. The NBA made a similar decision regarding the Los Angeles Lakers in the 1979-80 season; Jack McKinney was head coach and was seriously injured in a bicycle accident in November, which led to Paul Westhead taking over on an interim basis. Westhead was eventually hired as head coach; the NBA credits McKinney with a 10-4 record that year and Westhead with going 50-18.
The revised numbers do little to affect the NBA record books. Popovich remains the winningest coach in league history, 53 wins ahead of Don Nelson's 1,335 victories. Popovich's winning percentage goes up slightly from .621 to .628, which -- among coaches with 400 games -- is seventh in NBA history behind Phil Jackson, Billy Cunningham, K.C. Jones, Red Auerbach, Steve Kerr and Pat Riley.