The New York Knicks have, once and for all, and after an endless string of rejections, filled their long-vacant associate head coach position. ESPN’s Shams Charania first reported the news on Friday.

New York is set to hire Charlotte Hornets assistant and reigning Summer League champ (6-0) Chris Jent to serve as offensive coordinator under new head coach Mike Brown.

Charlotte Hornets assistant Chris Jent is finalizing a deal to become the associate head coach of the New York Knicks under Mike Brown, sources tell ESPN. New York and Tyler Glass of CSE Talent negotiated terms for Jent, who returns to Knicks where he spent 1996-97 as a player. — ESPN’s Shams Charania

The Knicks had been turned down by multiple targets, including Indiana Pacers assistant Mike Weinar, New Orleans Pelicans associate head coach James Borrego, Minnesota Timberwolves assistant Pablo Prigioni, and Dallas Mavericks assistant Jay Triano.

Jent, 55, arrives in New York with nearly two decades of experience on NBA sidelines. He most recently guided the Hornets to their first-ever championship—of any kind, a win’s a win!—winning the 2025 NBA Summer League title in Las Vegas last month.

His resume includes assistant coaching stops with the Cleveland Cavaliers, Orlando Magic, Philadelphia 76ers, Atlanta Hawks, Los Angeles Lakers, Sacramento Kings, and Hornets. Jent also had a brief stint as Orlando’s interim head coach in 2004–05 and has head coaching experience in the G League.

This will be a reunion for Jent and Brown, who previously worked together in Cleveland from 2006 to 2010. As an obscure nugget, Jent is a New Jersey native who played three games for the Knicks during the 1996–97 season, won an NBA championship as a player with the Houston Rockets in 1994—against the Knicks of all teams—and can call himself a career-wide 37-point scorer after appearing in an extraordinary six regular-season games, as well 11 postseason outings.

Alongside Jent, former Los Angeles Clippers assistant Brendan O’Connor will coordinate the other side of the game as the Knicks’ “defensive coordinator.”

In a final saucy-to-track development, Jent will take over from Jalen’s dad, Rick Brunson, who served as Tom Thibodeau’s associate head coach last season. Brunson, however, will remain on staff in a reduced role.