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Celtics coach Doc Rivers said that assistant Tom Thibodeau withdrew himself from consideration from the head coaching job with the Sacramento Kings.
Thibodeau, who also interviewed for the Philadelphia 76ers job, is expected to rejoin the Celtics bench next season.
According to two sources with knowledge of the situation, the Kings will hire former Phoenix and Seattle head coach Paul Westphal for their vacant head coaching position.
Westphal is believed to have agreed to a deal for two guaranteed seasons at $1.5 million per with the third season a team option worth $1.7 million. There are likely incentives in the deal that could reward Westphal if the Kings improved significantly from their franchise-worst 17-win campaign in 2008-09.
The decision brings an end to a Kings coaching search that lasted 47 days and came with similar twists and turns as the ones that had come before. It began with Kings basketball president Geoff Petrie calling for experience over experiments, setting parameters that the Kings' fifth coach since 2006 would have to be have had "some level of success" as an NBA head coach. Eddie Jordan and Westphal were the first candidates, both of them easily meeting the qualifications and kickstarting the process with interviews on May 12 and May 13, respectively.
