One year later, JJ Redick has proven that he is an excellent NBA coach and the Los Angeles Lakers made the right decision in hiring him. However, it is no secret that the Lakers made a big effort to sign UConn Huskies head coach Dan Hurley.
Hurley, who was coming off back-to-back National Championships with the Huskies, would ultimately decide to remain in college, leading the Lakers to go with Redick. Of course, Hurley consulted with his family on the decision as both his father, Bob Hurley Sr. and his brother, Bobby Hurley, are long-time coaches as well.
In an interview with Jon Rothstein of CBS Sports, Rothstein revealed that in Hurley’s new book he mentioned that Bob Sr. advised him to take the Lakers job and the UConn coach would explain why he didn’t take his father’s advice:
“The thing with my dad is, at different points in my career, he’s advised us to make the move and take the job, and he never did. I always took my dad’s advice on career advancement with a heavy grain of salt, because he never left St. Anthony. The one thing I don’t listen to Bob Hurley Sr. about is how to advance my career, because he never left his high school when he could have coached at any level.”
It is an interesting point of view from Hurley. Bob Sr. spent 39 years as head coach at St. Anthony High School in New Jersey where he won four national championships and 26 state championships. There is no doubt that he has opportunities to move to another level in coaching but chose to remain where he was at, so Hurley doesn’t put too much into his opinions on making moves that he himself never made.
Hurley had his reasons to turn down the Lakers and remain at UConn, though some might question the decision now. Uconn struggled last season, finishing third in the Big East conference, being eliminated in the second round of the NCAA Tournament and equaling the number of losses they had in their two championship years combined. Meanwhile, Redick led the Lakers to the third seed in the West and now gets to coach Luka Doncic for the foreseeable future.
Marcus Smart believes Lakers coach JJ Redick doesn’t get enough credit for IQ
JJ Redick is focused on building off an impressive first season with the Lakers and one of the signings they hope will help take them to the next level is Marcus Smart. And the veteran guard believes Redick doesn’t get enough credit for his basketball IQ.
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