Since Jeff Van Gundy‘s last stint in the NBA as the head coach with the Houston Rockets a decade ago, rumors have persisted about him possibly getting back in the fold one day.

It appears that he's finally got the itch back in some capacity, as Adrian Wojnarowski of The Vertical reports that Van Gundy will coach the USA Basketball team in World Cup qualifying games in 2019.

Jeff Van Gundy will coach USA Basketball’s roster of non-NBA professionals who will try to qualify for the Americans for the World Cup in 2019, league sources told The Vertical.

Van Gundy, an 11-year NBA head coach and currently a TV analyst for ESPN, will coach a roster compromised largely of NBA Development League and overseas American players in tournaments over the next several months.

It will be Van Gundy’s first formal coaching assignment since resigning as the Houston Rockets coach in 2007. Van Gundy has talked with several NBA teams about returning as a head coach in recent years, remaining immersed throughout his TV career in continuing to polish his coaching craft.

This will mark the first time that Van Gundy has coached internationally. He will head the United States team in the FIBA Americas World Cup Qualifying Tournament, where they will play in the preliminary Group C that includes other countries such as Cuba, Mexico, and Puerto Rico.

Although that is still a few years away, it at least puts Van Gundy back on the sidelines and could open the door for him to jump back into the mix in the NBA. There have been numerous teams over the last several years that have contacted him about their open head coach vacancies, and this latest development could lead to more.

Van Gundy is well-respected among his peers given what he accomplished with both the Rockets and New York Knicks, reaching the conference finals four times along with an NBA Finals appearance in 1999.