A stunning twist in the Los Angeles Lakers' head coaching search went down on Thursday. The Lakers fired Darvin Ham after their season ended, and all signs pointed to JJ Redick becoming the next head coach in Los Angeles. A report from The Athletic's Shams Charania on Wednesday even said that the Lakers were ‘zeroing in on' Redick to become the next head. Then, ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski reported on Thursday that the Lakers are preparing a huge offer to UConn basketball head coach Dan Hurley.
“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 news was surprising for the whole basketball world to see, especially because Dan Hurley made it clear that he wanted to stay with UConn basketball. Hurley and the Huskies have won the last two national championships, and there have been other teams trying to sway Hurley away this offseason.
Kentucky basketball had an opening earlier in the offseason, and Hurley was mentioned as a potential target for the job. He made it very clear that he wanted to stay at UConn, and he was confident that his team next year was going to be very good. Now, after the Lakers news, that quote is picking up a lot of traction.
“We're going to be one of the best teams again,” Dan Hurley said, according to a tweet from Gavin Keefe. “We're very, very confident.”
The Lakers offer is an attractive one
If there was one job in basketball that could sway Dan Hurley away from the UConn basketball team, it's probably this one. He would get a ton of money, and he would have a long-term contract. Hurley would be set up nicely, so it would make sense if this was the job that lured him away from college hoops.
Hurley is confident that UConn will have one of the best teams in college basketball next season, but if he leaves, that obviously changes. Not only will the Huskies have to find a replacement for arguably the best coach in college basketball, but the transfer portal would also open up for UConn players. When a head coach leaves, players have one month to enter their name into the portal if that is what they want.
If Dan Hurley goes to the Lakers, this UConn team could end up looking completely different next season, from a player and coach standpoint. Right now, we just know that the Lakers are reportedly prepared to give Hurley a big offer, but that doesn't mean that he is for sure going to leave UConn. We'll know who the next coach in Los Angeles will be soon enough.
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