Phoenix Suns assistant Kevin Young has gone from candidate for the Nets head coaching position to hired at Brigham Young University.
Brooklyn ended up picking Sacramento assistant Jordi Fernandez on Monday, voted the best assistant coach in the league in this year’s NBA GM survey.
A league source told The Post that the 41-year-old Kings assistant was the only person ever offered the Nets job by team owner Joe Tsai and GM Sean Marks.
But Young — second in that NBA GM survey, and the highest-paid assistant in the league — had also been a finalist for the Nets job that went to Fernandez.
On Tuesday, instead of a reunion with former Suns players Mikal Bridges and Cam Johnson in Brooklyn, he gets to go home to Utah.
The move — first reported by ESPN — makes sense on a number of levels.
Young was born in Salt Lake City, and got married in the Salt Lake Temple of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
BYU was famously founded by religious leader Brigham Young and is sponsored by the LDS Church, otherwise known as the Mormons.
Young also got a windfall from BYU, according to CBS Sports, a seven-year, $30 million deal that more than doubled his $2 million annual salary with the Suns.
Fernandez tips off the postseason Tuesday night with the Kings, taking on the Golden State Warriors in the play-in game. He can officially be unveiled in Brooklyn once Sacramento’s season ends.
News Summary:
- BYU’s Kevin Young was a Nets finalist before Jordi Fernandez hire
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