The Los Angeles Lakers' head coaching search has been anything but normal. Since firing Darvin Ham following a first-round playoff exit in his second season, the Lakers reportedly opened up its search with candidates such as Mike Budenholzer, Tyronn Lue, and even former NBA player and current broadcaster JJ Redick. But Dan Hurley entered into the conversation last week, which only seemed to turn things on their head.

Hurley, the back-to-back national championship-winning head coach of the UConn men's basketball team, rather suddenly became not only a candidate but potentially the frontrunner to become the Lakers' head coach despite not being mentioned in reports previously. Nonetheless, his candidacy was very real and became serious, only for Hurley to choose to return to UConn, with which he can win a third consecutive national title.

But Skip Bayless isn't buying it. The longtime media personality theorized on FS1's ‘Undisputed' program today that Hurley threw his proverbial hat in the ring by using the Lakers and his family's connection to ESPN reporter Adrian Wojnarowski, who wrote ‘The Miracle of St. Anthony,' a book about the high-school basketball dynasty Dan's father, Bob, created at St. Anthony in New Jersey.

“Woj is plugged in there, so all of a sudden he drops a Woj Bomb that ‘Oh! Dan Hurley to the Lakers!' I believe that Dan Hurley approached the Lakers, not vice versa, even though they tried to sell from the start that our focal point of the start of our search for a coach was Dan Hurley,” Bayless said. “Well, then why would you wait a whole month before you would even talk to — even meet him? That was the first time Jeanie [Buss] and Rob Pelinka had ever sat face-to-face with Dan Hurley. A month into your coaching search after you had interviewed James Borrego at least twice. I don't know if they ever sat down with JJ Redick or not, I can't really figure that one out.

“But Shams [Charania] reported just a week ago that the Lakers have zeroed on JJ Redick. The Athletic was strong on ‘He is the choice, this is almost about to happen.' It was on hair-trigger to go JJ Redick. So help me out, doesn't it become clear that Dan Hurley introduced himself into this and said, ‘Hey, would you be interested in me?' And he's such a high-profile coach because he's become the face of college basketball, obviously back-to-back championships at UConn, so all of a sudden, here he is and he wants what Woj termed a ‘massive offer.' He's going to get a ‘massive offer,' which as you just both so correctly and depressingly pointed out, it wasn't even close — it's kind of an insulting offer. But I believe that Jeanie and Rob were also smell-testing this, saying ‘Are you sure about this?'”

Dan Hurley goes for 3-peat at UConn

UConn basketball coach Dan Hurley

However it went down, Dan Hurley seems destined to return to UConn for another season, which could be a historic year for him and the Huskies. Only one team in NCAA men's basketball history has ever won three national titles in a row, with UCLA's dynastic run from 1967 to 1973 very likely never being touched again.

Hurley has reinvigorated a powerhouse in UConn, which after winning the 2014 national championship, fell on hard times. In the four seasons preceding Hurley's arrival, UConn missed the tournament three times and won just one tournament game in that time. Hurley began the rebuild in 2018, and by 2021, had the Huskies back in the NCAA tournament.

UConn rolled to national titles in both 2023 and 2024, with its latest title being among the most dominant runs in NCAA history. Hurley can further cement himself as one of the greatest college basketball coaches of all time with another title in 2025.