Longtime San Antonio assistant coach Brett Brown, a Portland, Maine, native who played basketball at Boston University and grew up as a diehard Celtics fan, is “extremely” interested in becoming the Celtics’ new head coach, league sources told the Globe Friday.

However, it’s unclear how much longer Brown will be on the market. The Philadelphia 76ers are very interested in hiring Brown, who is considered one of the top candidates available, to fill their head coaching vacancy.

The New York Daily News reported Thursday night that the 76ers were set to hire Brown to replace Doug Collins. But Sam Hinkie, the 76ers general manager, denied that report.


“We had a lot of things going on. That was not part of what happened in the last several hours,” Hinkie said early Friday morning following the NBA draft.

As of Friday, the only NBA teams that haven’t hired a coach were the Celtics and 76ers.

Brown has been an assistant under Spurs coach Gregg Popovich for the past seven seasons and previously served as San Antonio’s player development coach.

According to a report in the San Antonio Express-News, Spurs general manager R.C. Buford said Brown is still in line to replace the departed Mike Budenholzer as the Spurs’ lead assistant. Budenholzer left the Spurs to become head coach of the Atlanta Hawks.