For starters, on some level, I do understand why the Los Angeles Lakers head coaching job would prove to be so alluring to UConn head coach Dan Hurley. I mean, it's The Lakers. It's Los Angeles. It's LeBron James and Anthony Davis. It's the quest for an 18th championship banner. And yes, it's likely going to be an audacious sum of money, more than UConn could fork over.
For those reasons, and likely many more that will eventually come to light — expect Hurley to note the rigors of the transfer portal and NIL fundraising if/when he leaves — the Lakers are in serious play for the two-time National Championship winning head coach, a stunning development that had somehow remained a secret until this morning, even though Dan Hurley has reportedly been LA's primary target throughout their entire coaching search. The two sides plan to meet in the coming days, with a decision likely to come very soon after that. FOX Sports' John Fanta reported that Hurley was currently “50-50” on what to do.
The Lakers haven't exactly been a pillar of stability for the last two decades, employing ten different head coaches over the last twenty years. Even with Dan Hurley's impressive CV, what assurances does he have that he'd get a longer rope than any of the other coaches who have taken the Lakers job? Sure, it likely helps that Hurley has an admirer in LeBron James, but so far that's been from afar. Questions still remain as to how LeBron James would respond to a demonstrative coach like Hurley, but LeBron has suggested on numerous occasions that he likes being coached hard, which could explain why he holds Erik Spoelstra and Ty Lue in such high regard, while pushover coaches like David Blatt and Darvin Ham never stood a chance coaching him.
And while we're on the topic of LeBron James, it's worth noting that the King — for as great as he still is — will be turning 40 years old in December this year. Anthony Davis is already on the wrong side of 30. And outside of those two, what is there to love about the Lakers roster, in either the short-term or the long-term? Not much, right?
Now I could continue to sit here and nitpick the Lakers as an organization, but ultimately, why I believe jumping to the NBA would be a poor decision has everything to do with what Dan Hurley has managed to build at UConn.
In just six seasons as the head coach of the UConn Huskies, Dan Hurley has already achieved legend status in Storrs, and let's just be clear: it has to do with more than just the championships. It's the bravado. The intensity. The swagger. It's the promise, way back in 2020, that a reckoning was coming for every team that had been beating up on UConn for the last half decade. The promise of a return to the top of the college basketball world, a spot that UConn had comfortably occupied, winning four National Championships between 1999 and 2014.
Yes, he kept that promise, fulfilling it in ways that Huskies fans couldn't have possibly imagined when he said it. The 2022-23 UConn Huskies dominated the NCAA Tournament, steamrolling past every opponent standing in their way en route to the program's fifth title. 60 percent of that team's starting lineup was lost, and Hurley and the Huskies responded by reaching a new level of dominance the following year. With an even more impressive tournament showing than the season prior, the 2023-24 Huskies etched their names onto the shortlist of the greatest college basketball teams of the century, and as Hurley himself noted last month, the 2024-25 Huskies might be the most talented group he's had in Storrs yet.
While the Los Angeles Lakers may offer a lot that UConn can't, this UConn team offers something that the Lakers can't… a shot at basketball immortality. Sure, winning an 18th championship with the Lakers would be a legacy-defining outcome for Hurley, and doing so alongside LeBron James is a unique feather in his cap, but is there any scenario where his Lakers coaching resume ever stacks up to what Pat Riley or Phil Jackson did in LA? Of course there isn't. And maybe that's not what is important to Dan Hurley. Maybe coaching in the NBA is the pinnacle, no matter what the result may be.
But imagine for a moment if Hurley were to turn down the Lakers offer, and UConn were to win a third consecutive National Championship next April — not far-fetched at all, by the way, as they are the current betting favorites. That would mean that the only two coaches in men's college basketball history who have won three consecutive titles would be John Wooden and Dan Hurley. No Coach K. No Dean Smith. No John Calipari. No Rick Pitino. No Adolph Rupp. No Bob Knight. No Roy Williams.
John Wooden. Dan Hurley.
That's it. That's the list.
We know that this is real. We know the Lakers are a formidable threat to lure Dan Hurley away from Storrs. But damn, three straight National Titles is a fight that I have a hard time imagining Dan Hurley passing up.
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