Sean Sweeney’s wait to become a head coach is about to be over. The Orlando Magic are set to give him the shot he has wanted for years.
Sweeney is in the final stages of completing a deal that will make him the next coach of the Magic, according to a person with knowledge of the move who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity Friday because the hiring has not been revealed publicly.
The Magic declined to comment. ESPN first reported that an agreement between Sweeney and the Magic was being finalized.
Sweeney — currently the associate head coach for the San Antonio Spurs — is getting the job over, among other candidates, longtime coaches Billy Donovan and Jeff Van Gundy. The 41-year-old Sweeney will replace Jamahl Mosley, whom the Magic let go after five seasons and three consecutive first-round playoff exits. Mosley since has been hired as coach of the New Orleans Pelicans.
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Sweeney is expected to remain with the Spurs through the end of their season. They play the Oklahoma City Thunder in Game 7 of the Western Conference finals Saturday night, and if they win they would meet the New York Knicks next week in the NBA Finals.
Sweeney is a defensive guru, widely considered one of the brightest young coaches in the league on that side of the ball. In his lone season with the Spurs, he turned what was a porous defense a year ago into one of the league’s most airtight. His scheme centered around Victor Wembanyama, the unanimous winner of the Defensive Player of the Year award this season.
Wembanyama has spoken highly of Sweeney all season. So has Spurs coach Mitch Johnson — who thought so much of Sweeney that he made him the associate head coach on his first staff in San Antonio.
“I just took a liking to his ability to articulate his basketball philosophy and what he thought about the game and NBA coaching in general, in terms of competitiveness and how hard you should coach and holding guys accountable,” Johnson said earlier during this postseason in comments published by the San Antonio Express-News. “But also the modern, creative part and thinking outside the box.”
Sweeney is technically set to become a first-time head coach, just as Mosley was when Orlando hired him in 2021. Sweeney is 41 and in his 13th season as an assistant; Mosley was 42 and had spent 15 years as an assistant when the Magic hired him.
Sweeney does have some head coaching experience. He had two brief stints filling in for then-Dallas Mavericks coach Jason Kidd because of illness and the health and safety protocols put into place during the COVID-19 pandemic. And he has said in the past that he may have coached more summer league games than anyone in NBA history.
But this fall, when the Magic start their season, Sweeney will be coaching for real.
He started in the NBA as a video coordinator for the then-New Jersey Nets and has had assistant stints with the Nets, Milwaukee Bucks, Detroit Pistons, Mavericks and Spurs. Sweeney was among a handful of assistants who seemed to be perpetually interviewed for top jobs in recent years but never got the offer — until now.
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Sweeney also spent time with Luka Dončić as part of Slovenia’s coaching staff for the Paris Olympics in 2024. He’s a Minnesota native whose coaching career began with stops at Northern Iowa, Evansville, Anoka-Ramsey Community College and the Academy of Art University.
Sweeney will become the 15th coach in Magic history — 16th if counting Donovan, who briefly accepted an offer to leave the University of Florida in 2007 and take over in Orlando, then changed his mind about a week later.
Donovan parted ways with the Chicago Bulls earlier this spring. Van Gundy also interviewed for the Orlando job; he’s the brother of former Magic coach Stan Van Gundy.
The Magic let Mosley go one day after the Pistons eliminated them in the first round of the Eastern Conference playoffs — in which Orlando blew a 3-1 series lead. When the Magic lost Game 6 of that series, fans booed them off the floor after they wasted a 24-point second-half lead by missing 23 consecutive shots.
There is no shortage of talent, led by forwards Paolo Banchero and Franz Wagner. Orlando won 22 games in Mosley’s first season, improved to 34-48 in Year 2 and has been .500 or better in all three seasons since: 47-35 in 2023-24, 41-41 last season and 45-37 this season.