The Los Angeles Lakers‘ search for their next coach has taken a dramatic turn as they are now targeting UConn’s Dan Hurley, according to a report by ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski.
Wojnarowski shook up the basketball world early Thursday morning with his report that the Lakers are looking to give Hurley a massive longterm deal and that talks are going to heat up over the next few days.
Hurley has led UConn to back-to-back NCAA titles over the past two years.
Wojnarowski broke the news in a series of tweets:
ESPN Sources: The Lakers have had preliminary contact with Hurley and sides are planning to escalate discussions in coming days. Hurley’s been at the forefront of the Lakers’ search from the beginning of the process, even while the organization has done its due diligence…
Rob Pelinka and Jeanie Buss are eager to formally discuss their vision with Hurley of marrying his dominant program — built upon both his tactical acumen and elite player development — to the storied Lakers’ brand, sources tell ESPN.
Days after Dan Hurley announced he was turning down the Los Angeles Lakers head coaching job to stay at UConn, the Huskies coach shed more light on his decision during a recent appearance on the Dan LeBatard Show.
Amid speculation that Hurley only entertained the Lakers’ reported interest in him to secure a more lucrative contract at UConn, Hurley calmly stated that he “doesn’t need” the leverage.
“One of the worst takes I’ve heard is that this was a leverage play by me to improve my situation at UConn,” Hurley said on Thursday. “I don’t need leverage here. We’ve won back to back national championships at this place. This was never a leverage situation for me.”
“I’ve had a contract in place here for a couple of weeks, and the financial part in terms of salary has been done for a while,” Hurley continued. “But the idea that this was some conspiracy to get me a sweeter deal at UConn is lazy.”
“One of the worst takes I’ve heard is that this was a leverage play…I don’t need leverage here. We’ve won back to back national championships.”
- Dan Hurley shuts down the rumors that this was all some sort of leverage play to get a better contract with UConn.
— Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz (@LeBatardShow) June 13, 2024
Hurley added that it was “truly a gut-wrenching decision” to turn down the Lakers’ six-year, $70 million contract offer. He also insinuated that he might have left UConn had the Lakers offered more money.
“To say that it's not a motivating factor—the finances—to leave a place, it's definitely a thing,” Hurley said. “The family connection with my wife and my sons… To leave all that behind, there probably is a number. I don't know what that is.”
The back-to-back NCAA champion signed a six-year, $32.1 million deal with UConn in 2023 and is expected to ink a new contract that will make him one of the highest-paid coaches in college basketball. Hurley’s new deal is “very close to the finishing line,” Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont told reporters on Tuesday.
Heading into the upcoming season, the Huskies are seeking a third consecutive national title to become the first team to clinch the three-peat since UCLA won seven straight from 1967 to ‘73.
The Los Angeles Lakers are going to eventually pick a head coach to lead them into next season and when that happens, it won't really matter who breaks the news three minutes before the rest of the world has it. But being cynical isn't as fun as keeping score in the Adrian Wojnarowski-Shams Charania parlor game, which has an interesting new chapter based on some at-odds reporting on L.A.'s search.
Less than 48 hours ago, The Athletic's Charania shoveled some more fuel into the JJ Redick hot-stove by establishing the player-turned-podcaster-slash-broadcaster as the leader in the clubhouse.
The Los Angeles Lakers are zeroing in on JJ Redick as the front-runner to be the franchise’s next head coach, league and media industry sources told The Athletic.
No final decision has been made yet, and the Lakers still have steps remaining in their head-coaching search process, league sources said. But the indications are strong that Redick is their leading choice at this stage.
The Lakers have had preliminary contact with Hurley and the sides are planning to escalate discussions in the coming days, sources told ESPN. Hurley has been at the forefront of the Lakers' search from the beginning of the process, even while the organization has done its due diligence interviewing several other candidates, sources said.
So one can see the problem. Redick and Hurley can't both coach the Lakers unless one of them wants to leave a great gig to become an assistant.
At times like these it's important to parse the language and point out that we're all in this situation because step-by-step reporting of each and every twist and turn of the process has been turned into an opportunity for news. In the not-so-distant past a consumer would only hear about a team selecting a new coach when that coach had been selected. It was less entertaining but that world didn't require a dictionary and thesaurus to divine meaning from the verbs included in every stage.
And that's not a slight. Woj and Shams are at the top of the field. But there's a real chance neither Redick nor Hurley coaches the Lakers next year, despite all the "zeroing in" and "targeting." In the court of public opinion, fair or otherwise, Shams is the Redick guy now and Woj is the Hurley guy. No one is going to do the work of parsing all the semantics and journalism to give either an out if life happens and talks don't go well or offers aren't accepted or matched.
Until there's a final decision the winner in these types of situations tends to be the person with the most recent information, which would be Wojanarowski. There's certainly something to be said about waking up in the morning to a legitimately shocking chyron on the screen and considering an event horizon that would profoundly impact both pro and college basketball.
It's nice to be reminded every so often that the Woj-Shams sideshow can be a lot of fun once a person gets out of the weeds and learns to embrace the bombs.
Hurley is coming off back-to-back national titles with the Huskies, who would hate to see their coach jump to the NBA.
What would LeBron James think about this move happening? We don't kow yet, but a few months ago James tweeted about Hurley and it seems like he loves what the coach and his staff have done at UConn.
Here is James replying to a video of JJ Redick, who has also been on the Lakers' radar, and Hurley talking about UConn's offense:
He’s so DAMN GOOD!!! Along with his staff. Super creative with their O! Love it
