According to ESPN reporter Shams Charania, veteran NBA coach Mike Woodson has reached an agreement with the Sacramento Kings and will join Doug Christie's coaching staff as associate head coach in the new season.

This is Woodson's first return to the NBA since the 2020-21 season. At that time, he was an assistant to New York Knicks coach Tom Thibodeau. Now he will play an important role in protecting Christie in the Western Conference upstart Kings.

For the past four years, Woodson has coached at his alma mater, Indiana University, where he studied under legendary coach Bob Knight from 1976 to 1980 and was selected by the Knicks in the first round of the 1980 NBA draft.

During his tenure at Indiana University, Woodson led the team to the NCAA tournament in the first two seasons and won the second place in the Big Ten Conference in the 2022-23 season. However, the team's performance declined in the past two seasons and missed the NCAA tournament for the second consecutive year, which eventually prompted Woodson to leave after the end of the 2024-25 season.

Prior to this, Woodson already had a rich NBA coaching resume, with a career spanning 36 years: he played for 11 seasons as a player and his coaching career lasted for 25 years. He served as the head coach of the Hawks and Knicks, and also served as an assistant coach many times.

With the Kings officially signing a multi-year contract with Doug Christie last month, changing from "agent" to "official", the team's coaching staff also entered a reshaping phase.

Christie took over the temporary coaching position in December last year, replacing the fired Mike Brown. He led the team to impressive performances, winning 20 of the first 31 games, but suffered a decline in the final stage of the season, winning only 7 and 13 in the last 20 games.

After being officially appointed as the team's head coach, Christie was widely expected to clean up and reorganize the coaching staff during the offseason. Woodson became his first core assistant coach, which not only added experience and prestige, but also represented the official start of Christie's coaching philosophy.