WEDNESDAY, 2:34pm: The Sixers introduced Brown at a press conference this afternoon, and have officially sent out a press release announcing that the former Spurs assistant is Philadelphia's new head coach. Keith Pompey of the Philadelphia Inquirer has a few details and quotes from today's presser.
MONDAY, 9:21am: The NBA's longest head coaching search of the year has finally come to an end, nearly four months after the team parted ways with Doug Collins. The Sixers have reached an agreement with Spurs assistant Brett Brown that will make him Philadelphia's new head coach, reports Ian Thomsen of SI.com. According to Thomsen (via Twitter), the two sides agreed on a four-year deal that will be fully guaranteed.
Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports first reported last week that the 76ers had offered their head coaching job to Brown, but it wasn't immediately clear whether or not he'd accept. According to ESPN.com's Marc Stein, people close to Brown were advising him to pass on the position, since the Sixers are in full-fledged rebuilding mode and don't figure to contend for the next couple seasons. With a guaranteed four-year deal in hand though, Brown has some long-term security, and shouldn't be in danger of being replaced before he sees the rebuilding process through.
Brown was one of about 10 different candidates linked to the Sixers' coaching opening since Collins left in April. As Alex Lee of Hoops Rumors wrote last week in his primer on the team's coaching search, Brown has long been considered one of the frontrunners for the position, with a report back on draft night indicating that he was Philadelphia's choice.
The Spurs have now lost two assistant coaches to the head coaching ranks this summer. After Mike Budenholzer was hired by the Hawks, Brown was positioned to be Gregg Popovich's lead assistant if he had returned to San Antonio.