Rick Pitino agrees to new head coaching opportunity. Where is he landing?

Former University of Louisville and University of Kentucky men’s basketball coach Rick Pitino has agreed on a deal to become a head coach for one of the best teams in the EuroLeague.

ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski first reported Thursday that Pitino will soon become the new head coach for Panathinkakios in Greece. He is expected to coach his first game Dec. 27. Later Thursday, the New York Times received confirmation of the move from Pitino’s agent, Drew Rosenhaus.

Pitino, 66, is more than a year removed from being fired from Louisville in the wake of the college basketball corruption scandal.

In October, the Hall of Fame coach told ESPN he was hoping to become an NBA head coach again.

“I want to be a part of a team. I miss it terribly,” he told ESPN. “I’m using this time to really study the NBA. If something opens up with a young basketball team, I’d have deep interest in it.”

Throughout his college coaching career, Pitino was 647-392 with two college national championships and five Final Fours. In two stints coaching in the NBA with the Boston Celtics and New York Knicks, he accumulated a 192-220 record.

Pitino won the national championship at Kentucky in 1996 and at Louisville in 2013. Louisville was ordered to vacate its 2013 championship as the result of NCAA violations. He remains the only coach to reach the Final Four at three different programs, also having made it with Providence.

He was fired as Louisville’s head coach last year amid allegations that he was aware of illicit payments to a prospect that were revealed by federal prosecutors.

Louisville and Pitino are litigating a dispute over tens of millions of dollars that Pitino says he is owed under his contract, which ran through 2026. Louisville insists it does not owe him anything because it justifiably fired him for cause.

Panathinkakios, based in Athens, is traditionally one of the top basketball clubs in Europe, having won the EuroLeague six times. The team’s current roster includes former Florida point guard Nick Calathes, former Kansas guard Keith Langford, former Ohio State forward Deshaun Thomas and Thanasis Antetokounmpo, the older brother of Milwaukee Bucks star Giannis Antetokounmpo.

This season, though the team is undefeated in the Greek league, the more important EuroLeague has been a disappointment, with the team sitting in 10th place at 6-7, out of the eight playoff spots.

The New York Times contributed to this article.

This story was originally published December 20, 2018 at 1:19 PM.