The Los Angeles Lakers are still in the process of finding their next head coach after an unsuccessful attempt at getting Dan Hurley to leave his job as head coach of UConn. Hurley is in the midst of back-to-back national championships and a $70 million contract offer was not enough to sway him to make the jump to the NBA.
Even though the Lakers are the premier franchise in the NBA, the head coach job does have its drawbacks, especially for an extremely successful college coach. The top coaches in the NCAA have a level of power and authority within their programs that just isn’t available in the NBA and that is a major reason why Hurley chose to stay.
Hurley recently spoke with John Fanta of Fox Sports and said that while he believes he and Lakers general manager Rob Pelinka would’ve worked great together, he did not want to give up the control he has at UConn:
“The opportunity here to, and it would’ve been a collaborative with Rob [Pelinka] and, getting to know him I think we would’ve worked great together. But here, you get to evaluate the talent and make all the decisions in every way possible relative to your program. The best thing about being a college coach is the impact that you can have on the success that you have, I think is critical. And the staff you can hire when you have one like mine here, you’ve positioned yourself well to be very successful and I didn’t want to lose that type of control.”
There is a level of risk and uncertainty that comes with being an NBA head coach. Oftentimes, they have short lifespans as the level of pressure and expectations for immediate success is immense. That is exponentially greater with a franchise like the Lakers and has shown itself over the past few years with the team now looking for its third coach in five years.
There are only a couple of coaches that get to the level of a Gregg Popovich or Erik Spoelstra. But Hurley has already established himself at the highest of levels at UConn and with that comes a level of security that is difficult to relinquish. The likes of Mike Krzyzewski, Dean Smith, John Wooden, Jim Boeheim and many others never leave the collegiate game and prefer the impact they can have at that level.
As it currently stands, Hurley prefers what he has and it would have taken an unreal offer from the Lakers to get him away.
Dan Hurley admits there was a number that would’ve convinced him to leave UConn for Lakers
Dan Hurley did get a big offer from the Lakers, a six-year, $70 million contract that would have made him one of the five highest paid coaches in the NBA, but it wasn’t enough to get him away from UConn.
But he did admit that there was a number that would have gotten him to the Lakers, though he is not sure what that number is. Hurley said that the situation he has at UConn for himself and his family is excellent and extremely hard to give up, but feels that there is a number that exists that would have done it.
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