It was one week ago that reports first emerged that the Los Angeles Lakers were targeting Dan Hurley as their next head coach.
Ultimately, however, the two sides were unable to reach a deal, with the two-time national champion head coach opting to remain at UConn.
On Thursday, Hurley gave his first public interview since turning down the Lakers to The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz. And in doing so, the 51-year-old revealed what he was drawn to about potentially making the move to Los Angeles.
“It’s something I wanted to explore,” Hurley said, via ESPN. “The opportunity to potentially coach the Lakers and to coach one of the greatest players of all time and to coach one of the best players in the NBA in [Anthony Davis] and to lead such a storied franchise and to walk the sidelines where some of the greatest to ever to do it — Pat Riley and Phil Jackson — [coached]. It was something in my mind that I had to explore and consider and see what it looked like.”
“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
That, however, wasn’t enough to sell him on turning down the possibility of winning a third straight national title in Storrs, nor was a reported six-year, $70 million contract offer. That led some to speculate that the entire ordeal was actually a leverage play on Hurley’s end, which the 2024 Naismith Coach of the Year adamantly denied.
“One of the worst takes I’ve ever heard is this was a leverage play by me to improve my situation at UConn,” Hurley said. “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. There’s some other parts stuff like NIL and staff salaries and some different things that I want adjusted that I’m not comfortable with.
“But the sense or the idea that this was some conspiracy to get me a sweeter deal at UConn, it’s lazy. It was truly a gut-wrenching decision for me. Sunday night going into Monday, where I had kind of a deadline in my mind, I was like torn and I didn’t know really what I was going to do until I went to bed.”
About Ben Axelrod
Ben Axelrod is a veteran of the sports media landscape, having most recently worked for NBC's Cleveland affiliate, WKYC. Prior to his time in Cleveland, he covered Ohio State football and the Big Ten for outlets including Cox Media Group, Bleacher Report, Scout and Rivals.