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Dan Hurley made waves this offseason by spurning the Los Angeles Lakers in order to remain the head basketball coach at the University of Connecticut. Despite receiving a significantly higher offer from LA, he opted to stay put in hopes if guiding the Huskies to a third straight national title.
The denial immediately sparked conspiracy theories about Hurley’s intentions behind the “interest” in the Lakers job. Was it all just a part of his plan?
Hurley had been in line for a new UCONN deal after winning back-to-back NCAA Tournament championships. Reports of a raise had circulated, but nothing appeared set in stone come June.
With talks at a standstill, his name suddenly became connected to the opening in Los Angeles as the Lakers looked to find their replacement for the fired Darvin Ham.
Differing newsbreaks were leaked on how much the franchise coveted the coach, with Adrian Wojnarowski claiming that Hurley had been a top target throughout the process. Meanwhile, rival NBA insider Shams Charania believed JJ Redick to be the leader in the clubhouse.
Dan Hurley flew to LA to meet with the organization, received a six-year/$70M offer, and swiftly rejected it to stay put in Storrs – for $20M less!
A theory soon developed surrounding an ulterior motive.
Some believed that Dan Hurley leveraged the Lakers gig to speed up his negotiations with UCONN.
There were also potential recruiting advantages, which almost immediately showed themselves upon his return to the East Coast.
On Thursday, the head coach shut that narrative down. He blasted the “lazy” take during an interview with Dan Le Batard.
“To me, that’s one of the dumbest takes I’ve heard,” he said. “One of the worst takes I’ve heard is that this was a leverage play by me to improve my situation at UCONN. I don’t need leverage here. We’ve won back-to-back national championships.
“This was never a leverage situation for me. I’ve had a contract in place here [at UCONN] for a couple of weeks, and financial terms as far as salary, have been done for a while… The idea that this was some conspiracy to get me a sweeter deal at UCONN is lazy.”
Hurley said he was truly torn on the situation, letting slip that he didn’t have his mind made up until returning home from LA.
Family was a major player in that decision, as was money.
“Yeah, to leave, there probably is [an amount of money that could’ve swayed me].” he replied when asked about that Los Angeles deal. “To leave a place in life, to say that it’s not a motivating factor, the finances, to leave a place is definitely a thing. To stay at a place, I don’t think it’s ever going to be a thing.”
It answers questions on why he was willing to accept less money to stick around at the college level. He dove in further when speaking on the importance and comfort of coaching in Storrs.
“The family connection, with my wife and my sons, my mother in-law, my brother, my father… to leave all that, there probably is a number, but I don’t know what that is…
“[My wife] got emotional [when I brought up the Lakers interest]. She was like, ‘Our life is so great, it’s perfect. Our lives couldn’t be better and now you’re bringing this s—,’… but she warmed up to it when we got out there and she met Rob, and she met Jeanie, and she felt the weather…
“But when we got back to Connecticut, before having made a decision, when we got back home, we both flipped back.”
The Huskies will celebrate that decision as they now turn the attention back to the basketball floor. The Lakers, meanwhile, will keep searching.
Dan Hurley believes he made the right choice for his family and his future – and it had nothing to do with those conspiracy theories drummed up by the sports world.