The Los Angeles Lakers head coaching search took a major turn on Thursday as ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski reported that the Lakers are prepared to offer UConn basketball head coach Dan Hurley a huge contract offer. Hurley has won back-to-back national championships with the Huskies and he made it very clear when the offseason started that he wanted to stay at UConn. Now, it's looking like there is a chance that he goes in a different direction.
“The Los Angeles Lakers are targeting UConn men's basketball coach Dan Hurley as the franchise's next coach and are preparing a massive, long-term contract offer to bring the back-to-back NCAA national champion to the NBA, sources told ESPN,” The report from Adrian Wojnarowski said. “The Lakers have had preliminary contact with Hurley and the sides are planning to escalate discussions in the coming days, sources told ESPN. Hurley has been at the forefront of the Lakers' search from the beginning of the process, even while the organization has done its due diligence interviewing several other candidates, sources said.”
This is a major twist in the head coaching search because on Wednesday, The Athletic's Shams Charania reported that the Lakers are ‘zeroing in on' JJ Redick to become the next head coach in Los Angeles. Redick's name is the one that has been talked about the most during this search, but now that is starting to change.
“The Los Angeles Lakers are zeroing in on JJ Redick as the front-runner to be the franchise’s next head coach, league and media industry sources told The Athletic,” The report from Shams Charania said.
This move by Dan Hurley would look familiar
Dan Hurley has won the last two national championships with UConn basketball, and now he might be leaving the school to go to the NBA. Sounds familiar, right? That's because former Michigan football head coach Jim Harbaugh just left the Wolverines right after the winning the national championship, and he is now coaching a professional team in Los Angeles. Harbaugh is the head coach of the Los Angeles Chargers, and Hurley could be the coach of the Lakers soon.
A lot of people are making this comparison, and a lot of people think that it says a lot about the current state of college sports.
“Jim Harbaugh and Danny Hurley — fresh off national titles — jetting to the pros within months of each other is a sad commentary on the state of college athletics,” Paul Hembekides said in a tweet.
College sports has already lost two great coaches this offseason, and Hurley could be the third.
“Losing Saban, Harbaugh and Hurley from college sports so far in 2024 is a real bummer,” Brandon Zimmerman said in a tweet. “I was very interested to watch Hurley go for the first 3-peat since John Wooden next season.”
Other people don't think that this comparison isn't fair as Jim Harbaugh had flirted with the NFL a ton before this season and clearly wanted to go back to try to get a Super Bowl. Also, this is a pretty attractive offer for Hurley.
“Harbaugh, an NFL guy at his core, did what he set out to do at Michigan and it's not like Hurley is jumping for the Charlotte Hornets job or something,” Derek Schulz said in a tweet. “Don't think either decision is an indictment on college sports whatsoever.”
No matter what happens, this is a twist that not a lot of people saw coming. It seemed like Dan Hurley was firmly set on staying with the UConn basketball team for a long time, but now it's looking like he could be heading to Los Angeles. We'll see if he really makes the move.
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