Monday afternoon was a disappointing one for the Los Angeles Lakers organization as UConn’s head coach Dan Hurley decided to stay in Connecticut for a chance to 3-peat over taking a leap to the NBA despite being Jeanie Buss and Rob Pelinka’s top target.
After reportedly aggressively pursuing Hurley on Thursday, L.A. tried to put all on their chips on the table to land one of the hottest coaches in college basketball. It would have made for an intriguing storyline to see Hurley lead L.A. now and into the future while securing long-term security at the head coach position.
Rob Pelinka and Buss met with Hurley on Friday, presenting an appealing offer to Hurley. Ultimately, the 51-year-old turned down the job and he’s rumored to have flipped his choice a couple of times, but it never came down to money for him, via Jeff Goodman of The Field of 68:
“According to my sources, he flipped (his decision). He may have flipped a few times here… He has wrestled with this decision really since Wednesday and then he obviously went out to L.A. on Friday and then came back and went to Billy Joel. But this was not an easy decision and this was not a money decision because obviously the Lakers were paying him probably a little bit more than $70 million for six years, so you’re talking in the neighborhood of $12 million a year where UConn is gonna pay him a little over $8 million a year. So if it was a money decision, if it was an ego decision, I think Dan Hurley would’ve went to the Los Angeles Lakers and challenged himself at the highest possible level. But comfort meant something to him, also the fact obviously of doing something that hasn’t been done since the early ‘70s by John Wooden’s UCLA teams, three-peating.”
Now, Pelinka and Buss have to pivot and find another head coach by the NBA Draft on June 26 and 27. For as public as this Hurley story was and how aggressive the Lakers pursued him, it is obviously a disappointing result.
Dan Hurley was offered six year, $70 million contract
Since entering this coaching search, it was rumored that Dan Hurley was set to receive a massive long-term contract from the Lakers. However, when Hurley’s decision was revealed, the reported offer to the UConn coach was six years, $70 million. That’s a different figure than was rumored at around $100 million, and this offer seemed to be not enough to lure him away from Connecticut.
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