The Knicks held a second interview with Mike Brown Tuesday, moving a step closer toward the coaching search that has gone on for a month now.

While a league source confirmed the second interview, the source also said that Micah Nori and James Borrego could be returning for second interviews, too — with Madison Square Garden chairman James Dolan now joining the interview process. A second interview remains possible for Taylor Jenkins.

Brown has been considered the front-runner as long as the currently employed coaches, particularly Dallas head coach Jason Kidd, remain out of reach. The Knicks, having fired Tom Thibodeau just days after the conclusion of a 51-win regular season that finally ended with the first trip to the Eastern Conference finals in 25 years, are headed into the 2025-26 season as one of the favorites to win the conference. And with those massive expectations the team has been leaning toward a coach with experience.

Nori, lead assistant for the Minnesota Timberwolves, does not have that qualification. Borrego has been a head coach, spending 30 games as an interim coach for Orlando in 2014-15 before landing the Charlotte Hornets job in 2018-19. He spent four seasons there, compiling a 138-163 record, never making it past a play-in game. But Borrego remains under contract with New Orleans where he served last season as associate head coach, which would require permission to leave and likely compensation if it’s not for a promotion, making it unlikely he would join the staff if Brown got the job.

The Knicks goal all along was to go through the process and secure a new coach ahead of the Las Vegas Summer League, which begins July 10 (with the Knicks first game the following day). If others are interviewing this week that would leave them until Wednesday to get a coach introduced.

The Knicks are expected to retain at least four assistant coaches from the previous staff, which could have been an issue with Jenkins, who was forced to fire much of his assistant coaching staff last summer and then was fired by Memphis himself with just nine games remaining this season.

Brown was fired by the Sacramento Kings after 31 games in the just-completed season with a 13-18 record after winning 48 and 46 games in his first two seasons in Sacramento. He has spent nine full seasons as a head coach with the Cavs, Lakers and then the Cavs again and two partial seasons (this season and a five-game start with the Lakers in 2012-13) before spending six seasons as an assistant with Golden State and then taking over in Sacramento in 2022-23. He guided the Kings to the No. 1 scoring team in the NBA in his first season there.

He is a two-time coach of the year and reached the NBA Finals in his second season as a head coach in Cleveland, a team led by a young LeBron James.