Months after Dan Hurley turned down an offer to become the head coach of the Los Angeles Lakers, he threw cold water on the idea that he’ll join the NBA’s coaching ranks at some point.
“I don’t know,” Hurley said when asked if he wants to coach in the NBA one day. “I don’t know about that, you know? If you’re not gonna take the Lakers job, then what job are you gonna take?”
Hurley declined a very lucrative offer from the Lakers in June. The storied franchise — which has employed some of the greatest players and coaches in the history of the league — offered Hurley a six-year, $70 million deal.
The Lakers targeted Hurley after the squad fired Darvin Ham, who was the head coach of Los Angeles for two seasons and coached the team to an appearance in the 2023 Western Conference Finals.
After Hurley turned down L.A.’s offer, the team inked former NBA player and ESPN analyst J.J. Redick to a four-year deal. Hurley stands out as a far more experienced coach than Redick, however, considering the former has coached at the collegiate level for a long time while the latter had zero high-level coaching experience to his name before joining the Lakers.
Hurley has been the University of Connecticut men’s basketball head coach for the past six seasons, leading the Huskies to two NCAA titles during that span. But Hurley also was an accomplished college basketball coach even before his productive stint at UConn.
His previous experience included a stint as the head coach at the University of Rhode Island that lasted six seasons before he joined the Huskies. He put together four winning seasons with URI and helped the team reach the NCAA Tournament in each of his last two seasons as the school’s head coach.
Hurley is one of the more accomplished college basketball coaches in recent memory. Hence, if he wished to become an NBA head coach down the line, he seemingly could make that hope a reality. But his recent words imply that he is content with his current job leading the Huskies, and considering the team has won two straight NCAA titles, one can see where he’s coming from.
