The Philadelphia 76ers should know by midweek whether Larry Brown will return for a seventh season as coach.

Brown is expected to inform the team of his intentions at a meeting with Ed Snider, chairman of the 76ers' ownership group, two sources close to Brown told The Associated Press on Sunday. The two spoke on condition they not be identified.

Snider told the Philadelphia Daily News last week that the team needs to "move on'' if Brown has lost his enthusiasm for coaching the 76ers. Snider also told the paper he thought Brown was leaning toward not returning.

Brown has been on vacation since his team was eliminated by Detroit in the second round of the playoffs. He did not return a telephone message left at his home.

Brown has two years left on his contract, which prohibits him from coaching another NBA team if he leaves prematurely. If Brown decides to leave, a big question during his meeting with Snider will be whether the 76ers release him from that clause, the sources said.

The Cleveland Cavaliers, Houston Rockets, New Orleans Hornets and Toronto Raptors have coaching vacancies. Other coaches, including Terry Stotts in Atlanta, Dennis Johnson of the Los Angeles Clippers and Jeff Bzdelik of Denver, might be considered expendable if Brown becomes available.

Some of those teams have expressed an interest in hiring former New York Knicks coach Jeff Van Gundy, who cannot sign elsewhere before Aug. 1 without the permission of his former employer. But Brown's availability would alter a lot of teams' options.

LeBron James, expected to go to the Cavaliers with the top pick in the NBA draft on July 26, said he would be happy if Brown ended up in Cleveland.

"I think Larry Brown is a great teacher if we can get him,'' James said during an interview at halftime of TNT's broadcast of the San Antonio-Dallas playoff game Sunday night. "I consider myself a student of the game, so Larry Brown would be great.''

Brown has been with Philadelphia for six seasons -- the longest tenure of an NBA coaching career that included stints with the Denver Nuggets (five years), Indiana Pacers (four years), San Antonio Spurs (3½ years), New Jersey Nets and ABA Carolina Cougars (each two years) and the Clippers (18 months).

Brown also spent five seasons as head coach at Kansas, winning the NCAA championship in 1988, and two seasons at UCLA.

Brown thought he was going to take over at North Carolina in 2000 before Matt Doherty was hired. Brown has said that former North Carolina coach Dean Smith offered him the job, only to be overruled by school administrators.

When Doherty resigned in April, Brown told reporters he was upset he wasn't mentioned as a candidate. Former Kansas coach and longtime Smith assistant Roy Williams got the job.

"He didn't say it to me. He wasn't asked (to take over UNC.) And he said it after they had already selected a coach. He didn't say it before,'' Snider was quoted as saying in the Daily News. ``I would have really been upset if he said it when Carolina was still looking for a coach.

"Larry talks, and he says things; he changes his mind the next day,'' Snider told the paper. "When you take Larry, you take that. I'm not going to get upset about things unless I know that they're actually going to happen.''

Brown will coach the U.S. men's national team this summer at an Olympic qualifying tournament in Puerto Rico.

Brown's team, which includes Kobe Bryant, Tracy McGrady, Tim Duncan and Philadelphia's Allen Iverson, will try to win one of three spots in the 2004 Olympics for nations from the FIBA-Americas zone.

USA Basketball spokesman Craig Miller said if Brown leaves the 76ers it would not affect his status as coach of the U.S. team.

"He has to meet certain criteria when selected, but after that he does not necessarily have to be coaching actively,'' Miller said.