Dan Hurley is viewed as one of the best basketball minds in the country.
That is a given. After all, this guy has led the UCONN Huskies to consecutive national titles. Hurley caught the Los Angeles Lakers’ eyes after the team, and LeBron James according to reports, chose to fire head coach Darvin Ham.
Hurley was offered more than double his current salary as the current Connecticut coach, $70 million, to leave Storrs for Hollywood. Historically, coaches would not hesitate to be the Lakers’ coach.
Not anymore apparently. Hurley told the Lakers to keep their money.
Hurley was given a chance to lead what was once basketball’s highest-profile team in its most glamorous city. Generational wealth. He blew them off.
What does this say about the Lakers?
Dan Hurley
This says the Lakers must have one of the worst head coaching jobs in the NBA. This says the Lakers’ front office has to be viewed as a mess. This says LeBron must be considered such a coach killer that even the most secure coach in the game wants no part of him.
Talk about embarrassing.
This is humiliating for Lakers fans to watch a college coach who has never worked a moment in the NBA refuse a chance to work for what was once the most celebrated of NBA franchises.
Though they won’t admit it, this is demeaning for a Lakers team that possesses arguably the greatest player in basketball history, and one of the top 10 players in the current league, and yet were still snubbed as if they were a JV squad.
This is bad for Rob Pelinka, the team’s GM who can’t seem to find a coach LeBron likes. So here we go again, a Pelinka coaching search for the third time in five years.
At first it looked like he seemingly settled on JJ Redick, a guy who has never coached anybody at any level above youth league. Apparently he realized his mistake and took a big swing for one of the best coaches anywhere, a two-time defending NCAA champion mentor with smarts and charisma.
It seemed like a match made in heaven. Most thought the Lakers would land him. This is the same Lakers organization that talked Phil Jackson into coming out of retirement twice. This is the same Lakers organization that always acquired the player they wanted from Wilt to Kareem to Shaq to LeBron to A.D.?
Not anymore. This shows the depths to which the organization’s reputation has fallen.
Hurley was offered a six-year contract, meaning James couldn’t have fired him, and he still said no.
Hurley was given enough money to become one of the NBA’s six highest paid coaches before having coached his first NBA game, and he still said no.
In the end, Hurley did not want the Lakers. It was like he did not think he could turn around a franchise with LeBron and Pelinka in the building.
Who knows what the tipping point was? Maybe the looming nightmare of a Bronny James draft pick played on his mind. Maybe he was told the Lakers were taking the unqualified kid with the 55th pick and maybe he just didn’t want the hassle.
Whatever the reason was, this job and this franchise is not what it used to be.
