Philadelphia ? Larry Brown of the Philadelphia 76ers will be the head coach of the 2004 U.S. Olympic men’s basketball team, The Associated Press learned Monday.

Brown, who won a gold medal as a player at the 1964 Olympics and was an assistant coach on two prior Olympic teams, will officially land the post today, two sources with knowledge of the selection said on condition of anonymity.

Brown, 62, will guide the team at next summer’s Olympic qualifying tournament and the 2004 Olympics in Athens.

“If they asked me to be the coach, it’d be the greatest honor going. If they said they had someone else in mind, I’d respect that as well,” Brown said last week after the New York Post reported that he was the leading candidate among four nominees.

The others nominated by the 10-man selection committee were Phil Jackson of the Lakers, Jerry Sloan of the Utah Jazz and Pat Riley of the Miami Heat.

Brown had the most USA Basketball experience of any of the candidates. Brown was an assistant on Rudy Tomjanovich’s staff at the 2000 Olympics in Sydney when the U.S. team survived a scare from Lithuania in the semifinals and went on to win the gold by defeating France.

The United States is 109-2 in Olympic history, but the Americans finished a disappointing sixth at last summer’s World Championships.