Six months ago, Mike Brown was unceremoniously dismissed as head coach of the Sacramento Kings as he made his way to the airport for the team’s flight to Los Angeles.

Now, the two-time NBA Coach of the Year is being hired to lead a team that is expected to be one of the top contenders in the Eastern Conference next season.

There were multiple reports Wednesday that the New York Knicks had offered Brown their head coaching position and the two sides were working to finalize an agreement.

Brown is being hired to replace Tom Thibodeaux, who was fired after the Knicks lost to the Indiana Pacers in the Eastern Conference finals. He was chosen from a pool of candidates that featured former Memphis Grizzlies coach Taylor Jenkins, New Orleans Pelicans association head coach James Borrego and Minnesota Timberwolves assistant Micah Nori.

Brown, 55, became the first unanimous winner of the Coach of the Year award in 2023 after overseeing a dramatic turnaround in his first season with Sacramento. The Kings won 48 games to secure the No. 3 seed in the Western Conference, ending the longest playoff drought in NBA history after 16 consecutive losing seasons.

The Kings lost in the play-in tournament after winning 46 games in 2023-24. Sacramento had high hopes this season after adding DeMar DeRozan to a group that featured De’Aaron Fox, Malik Monk, Keegan Murray and Domantas Sabonis, but the pieces never seemed to fit quite right.The Kings fired Brown on Dec. 27 after the Kings went 13-18 to start the season. The decision to fire Brown was part of the reason All-NBA point guard De’Aaron Fox lost faith in the franchise’s direction. Fox was traded less than six weeks later, triggering major changes for the Kings organization following a rare period of stability.

Brown has a 454-304 (.599) record as a head coach. He has won four NBA championships as an assistant, one with the San Antonio Spurs and three with the Golden State Warriors.

Brown previously served as head coach of the Cleveland Cavaliers and Los Angeles Lakers.

He came to Sacramento in 2022 after six seasons as Steve Kerr’s lead assistant with the Warriors.