Sports Illustrated's Ian Thomsen was a guest on Comcast SportsNet New England's "Sports Tonight" and he says that he believes the Boston Celtics will hire longtime San Antonio Spurs assistant Brett Brown as the next head coach of the team.



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(At the 3:45 mark of the video above, Ian Thomsen explains why Brett Brown should be the next head coach.)



Brett Brown has spent the majority of his career coaching in Australia. Before being hired by the Spurs in 1998, he spent 14 seasons coaching in the Australian National Basketball League, accumulating 149 victories. After working in the Spurs' basketball operations department, he returned to Australia for three years before rejoining the Spurs in 2002. He spent five years as the Spurs' director of player development before being named an assistant coach before the 2006-2007 season. Brown also spent eight seasons as the Australian National team's assistant coach before being hired as the head coach in 2009.

Both the Denver Nuggets and Philadelphia 76ers have both been reported to have had interest in him but it's possible that Brown's ties to the New England area may draw him to the Celtics. Brett Brown is a native of South Portland, Maine, and spent four years playing point guard at Boston University.

Considering Brown's impressive resume as both an assistant and head coach, it's an added bonus that he spent five years as a director of player development for the Spurs. This skill could pay dividends for the Boston Celtics since they will be going through a rebuilding period sooner rather than later. Until a significant report comes out that the Celtics are interviewing Brown, take this with a grain of salt, but the fact there my be interest in a coach of his pedigree is extremely exciting.

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