Dan Hurley surprisingly and rather suddenly became a candidate for the Los Angeles Lakers' head coaching vacancy last week, only for the UConn basketball coach to return to Storrs in hopes of winning a third consecutive national title. But like others in the sports media industry, Bill Simmons isn't buying everything the Lakers are selling.
Simmons, a lifelong Boston Celtics fan, is no stranger to skepticism when it comes to the Lakers. And this time, he has expressed his outright disbelief of the reporting since Hurley announced he was going back to UConn that the Lakers are a ‘family business' that simply could not afford to offer any more than the reported $70 million Hurley turned down.
On the latest episode of the ‘Bill Simmons Podcast,' Simmons called into question the notion that the Lakers could not afford Hurley if they truly wanted him to become their next head coach.
“Something weird happened after; there was some discourse about, ‘Well the Lakers are a family business. They don’t really splurge like that.' ‘Family business' was used a bunch of times. ‘That was a big offer for them, they're a family business.' I just got to cry bulls—t on this one,” Simmons said. “First of all, they’ve paid the luxury tax more than any other team in the league, so we’ll just start there.
“Second of all, the Buss family owns 66% of the team, and then the other third, somebody owns a minority stake in that, and then there’s some other partners. So if they were really hurting for money, with the way the franchise values of these teams are now… the Lakers are the most important franchise in the league from a value standpoint, so they’re a $7 billion team, let's say. I think that’s reasonable. And you can’t run the day-to-day because you’re a ‘family business.' You could probably sell 5% of your business at a $6 billion valuation and make so much money that you can kind of nudge that towards the team would be my guess.”
Simmons continued by insinuating the Lakers intentionally low-balled Hurley to make it seem like they wanted to hire him but simply couldn't.
“I don’t believe the family business thing. I don’t think they ever really wanted to hire Dan Hurley. I just don’t believe the story. I think it was a strategic play to try to drop the price on somebody they liked, would be my guess. But please don't call the Lakers a family business.”
Lakers reportedly could ‘reset' coaching search
While Bill Simmons may not believe the Los Angeles Lakers ever wanted to hire Dan Hurley, the reported contract offer of six years for $70 million would have made him the fifth-highest-paid coach in the NBA, according to Front Office Sports. Steve Kerr's latest contract extension with the Golden State Warriors made him the highest-paid coach at around $17.5 million per year, while the San Antonio Spurs' Gregg Popovich, Miami Heat's Erik Spoelstra, and Detroit Pistons' Monty Williams all are reportedly being paid at least $13 million annually.
Now that Hurley is out of the picture, the Lakers still need a head coach. At one time, it seemed as if former NBA player and current broadcaster JJ Redick was the frontrunner for the job, although, after the Hurley pursuit, Yahoo Sports' Vincent Goodwill reported that some people around the league believe Redick “won’t want to be involved with this circus” or the Lakers' second choice.
Additionally, The Athletic's Jovan Buha said there are conflicting messages coming out of the Lakers, including that Redick is still a main target, that he is not being considered for the job anymore, and that there “might be a little bit of a reset” in regards to the candidate pool.
Two of the potential Lakers head coaching candidates, Kenny Atkinson and James Borrego, are also being considered for the Cleveland Cavaliers' job. Both are set to interview in person for the Cavs this week, which may accelerate the Lakers' timeline if they choose to not go for Redick.
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