Dan Hurley should now select his future.
Possibility No. 1: Stay at Connecticut and chase the near-impossible feat of a three-peat, doing so whereas operating the most effective program and working as the most effective coach in males’s faculty basketball. Powerful as it might be to truly pull this off, if he did it, Hurley would clinch all-time iconic standing and match a run final seen by John Robert Picket. If achieved, profitable three consecutive NCAA titles would cement Hurley as a top-10 all-time faculty basketball coach.
Possibility No. 2: Go away his UConn legacy behind to educate possibly the most effective all-around participant within the historical past of basketball (within the winter of LeBron James’ profession) at possibly essentially the most glamorous group in American sports activities, the Los Angeles Lakers. Oh, and in doing so: get a elevate that may triple his present wage (simply north of $5 million yearly).
That is what profitable back-to-back nationwide championships in essentially the most unstable surroundings in faculty sports activities historical past can present you. Previously 27 months, Hurley has gone from promising coach with an irksome NCAA Event observe document to one of many faces of American basketball success. Now, with the NBA Finals set to tip, out of the blue the largest story in sports activities is radiating from the West Coast all the way in which to Storrs, Connecticut, the place the 51-year-old Hurley is on the verge of the largest choice of his profession. It doesn’t matter what he decides within the coming days, he’ll in all probability by no means have one other job supply which means extra and stands to influence the way forward for two grander basketball entities than this one, proper now, with the Huskies and Lakers.
That Lakers job has been open for somewhat greater than a month, by the way in which. Till Thursday morning, there wasn’t a whiff of Hurley’s title being hooked up to the emptiness. That was till ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski dropped an early morning bombshell report that was worded thusly: “The Los Angeles Lakers are concentrating on UConn males’s basketball coach Dan Hurley because the franchise’s subsequent coach and are getting ready an enormous, long-term contract supply to convey the back-to-back NCAA nationwide champion to the NBA.”
“Concentrating on” and “getting ready” being the important thing phrases.
Meantime, Hurley has labored the portal, had been ready on his most essential participant, Alex Karaban, to determine on an NBA choice — and he determined to return to play for Hurley. So, what took so lengthy, L.A.? The main points of that, I suppose, aren’t essential, however they’re fascinating to me. The Lakers may have put the press on Hurley weeks in the past. If something, this appears to be transferring a bit slowly, if certainly they’ve put Hurley above all different candidates for weeks.
With this as backdrop, UConn has been working with Hurley to attempt to safe a brand new contract (after a restructured one was agreed to in 2023, on the heels of Hurley’s first title).
Hurley has not been provided the Lakers job, however the Lakers wish to try this, per ESPN’s report, and they also will lastly and formally ship paperwork within the subsequent day or two. The cash shouldn’t be going to be what guides Hurley right here. Bear in mind, he would have been provided considerably more money to take the Kentucky job in April and he turned that down.
The picture of Hurley strolling the sidelines, sans necktie, barking at officers … at Crypto.com Area? Image LeBron’s huge arm draped over Hurley, Dan’s glasses slipping to the bridge of his nostril popping out of a timeout down 9 within the third quarter to the Nuggets. Now there’s a picture. Hey, possibly that is going to occur. He is earned the possibility. It could be riveting to observe, as a result of for pretty much as good as Hurley is as a university coach, no one is aware of if it can work within the professionals. The newest instance of a extremely revered and whip-smart X-and-O man leaving the faculty ranks for the NBA was John Beilein; that was a direct failure.
In fact, Billy Donovan gained back-to-back titles earlier than ultimately being satisfied to depart. He is completed properly sufficient within the NBA whereas nonetheless falling properly wanting hitting the success benchmarks he commonly achieved with the Florida Gators. (Donovan had a .709 profitable proportion in faculty. Within the NBA, he is at a .556 clip and has solely as soon as made it out of the primary spherical of the NBA playoffs in 9 seasons with Oklahoma Metropolis and Chicago.)
Relaxation assured Hurley will search Donovan’s counsel, along with many others. Jay Wright was by no means persuaded to desert Villanova regardless of a number of NBA alternatives. Identical with Tom Izzo. Coach Ok. (Extra on him under.) They’re all Corridor of Famers, simply as Hurley shall be sooner or later. He’ll ultimately be enshrined alongside his father, Bob Hurley Sr., who proved for many years that teaching basketball at an obscenely profitable stage comes down to some unbreakable philosophical tenets.
Hurley’s by no means shedding these traits. They led him to right here, now, the place he will be introduced with a choice that’s as enviable as it’s excruciating and tantalizing. Irrespective of which route he takes, Hurley is assured to depart behind an alternate course that might’ve probably — not undoubtedly, however possibly — additional enhanced his fame. If he stays at UConn, he’d bypass (at the very least for now) the NBA life and the possibility to be one of many few greats to win on the highest stage in faculty and the NBA. Few coaches, ever, have completed that.
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If he goes to the Lakers, Hurley would possible depart UConn behind for good and quit the chance (at the very least for now) to make a run at being one of many 10-or-so finest coaches within the historical past of faculty basketball. The three-peat run could be off the desk. Plus, if the Lakers job flamed out in two, three or 5 years, what assure would there be {that a} faculty job he would WANT could be ready for him? Hurley and, simply as importantly, his spouse Andrea is not going to be transferring to only anyplace if one other top-15 faculty gig opens up years from now.
Hurley is many issues, however one factor he’s not is a chameleon. The person basks in his routine, his habits, his go-tos. Sure, he’s a creature who blossoms in chaos, however can also be somebody who craves the consolation of the environment he is aware of finest to permit him to dominate in these environments. He is an East Coast lifer, a Northeast man deep into his bones. I am unable to ever think about him residing comfortably in Los Angeles, even when he cherished being coach of the Lakers. It is a man who turned down Pitt for more cash as a result of it did not carry the status nor the geographic familiarity of UConn.
His teaching type match highschool (St. Benedict’s Prep, in Newark), then it match the NEC (Wagner), then it match the Atlantic 10 (Rhode Island) and now it is turn out to be mastered within the Massive East at UConn. Can he elevate yet one more stage? This one’s harder than all of the others mixed.
If Hurley chooses the Lakers, nobody may blame him. A job like that has such unbelievable enticement, but in addition hazards abound. The media market is intense and unrelenting. From an publicity standpoint, it is a job on the extent with the Dallas Cowboys. You are scrutinized every day throughout the season not simply domestically, however on tv to an viewers of tens of millions. This could take a look at Hurley’s psyche in methods he cannot totally know except he tries and lives it — and will come to remorse. He would not must cope with the portal, however the egos would solely be extra pronounced. He’d have to educate at the very least 82 video games as an alternative of a max of 40. There isn’t any portal, however the squeeze of the season is undoubtedly worse.
He’d get to educate LeBron James, which has its advantages and disadvantages. Nobody is aware of how lengthy James plans to proceed to play, so the job could be about teaching the Lakers within the post-LeBron period … if you can also make it that far.
Then, there may be the matter of how Hurley comports himself within the throes of a sport. His sideline temperament shouldn’t be NBA-ready. He is completed quite a lot of work over time on altering his demeanor and decreasing his outbursts, however he’s who he’s. And who he’s shouldn’t be like another NBA coach. (Hurley had a number of run-ins with opposing followers simply this previous season.) Personally, I discover Hurley’s in-game reactions to virtually all the time be entertaining and enhancing to the faculty basketball product. The game advantages from its characters within the teaching ranks and Hurley is as watchable (and generally polarizing) as anybody.
However he cannot be that within the NBA. That act is not going to fly.
In faculty, coaches carry a lot of the ability and are the faces of the game. Within the NBA, the gamers are the celebs and coaches’ futures are largely tied to the relationships they domesticate with their finest gamers. Hurley will command some respect, notably with an endorsement from LeBron. Can he preserve it into Yr 2, 3, 4?
Hurley is an intense competitor who has turned UConn into an NBA-like manufacturing facility of expertise and profitable. However he isn’t taking orders from his gamers and by no means has. To take this job could be to bear a private evolution that Hurley himself may not be satisfied he can mutate to in posthaste. The Lakers job will include quite a lot of perks, however it might’t present extra consolation or much less strain. If Hurley leaves UConn for L.A., he’ll be opting right into a a lot tougher job with considerably much less job safety. With few exceptions, you might be employed not simply to be fired within the NBA, however normally to be fired in brief order.
What’s simple is how a lot the NBA intrigues Hurley, who burns on aggressive fuels as a lot as any coach you may meet. He is informed me a number of occasions over time that “sooner or later” he’d possibly like to present the NBA a go. The Knicks job has been THE one, I believe, however the Knicks even have a superb factor going for the primary time in a very long time. Timing is the whole lot. Hurley has stored the door open on the NBA, framing that for down the highway, at the same time as lately as this week. And this is what he informed Dan Patrick lower than two weeks after profitable the title in April.
All this reads to me prefer it’s occurring too shortly for Hurley’s liking, nevertheless it’s the Lakers, so what do you do? If Hurley takes the job, he’d be the primary sitting coach of a reigning nationwide champion to take action since Larry Brown left Kansas in 1988 to educate the San Antonio Spurs. However Brown was a training nomad, usually to his profit. That is not Hurley.
There have been many references to this being the 20-year anniversary of Mike Krzyzewski famously turning down the Lakers job (and a humongous contract at the moment) to remain at Duke. Coach Ok clearly went on to cement his standing as one of many two finest coaches in males’s faculty basketball historical past — proper alongside Picket. However there’s one other legendary coach who would possible be in that dialog with Ok and Picket had he not opted to depart a blue blood faculty job for a blue blood NBA job — doing so coming off two straight Ultimate Fours, simply as Hurley is now.
Hurley’s extra like Rick Pitino. Obsessive about basketball, a relationships-focused coach who loves residing within the health club and thrives off training along with his gamers. Pitino left Kentucky for the Boston Celtics in 1997. And to at the present time, he regrets it, even understanding now that he needed to take the job again then. Here is what Pitino stated on the Pardon My Take podcast in March.
“Hindsight’s 2020, if I needed to do it over again, I might in all probability by no means depart Kentucky,” Pitino stated. “You recognize, Dick Vitale, each time I converse to him, ‘Should you would have stayed at Kentucky, you’d have extra wins than any coach,’ and also you assume again on that. However I discovered so much. To educate the Boston Celtics, even if you happen to did not do an important job, it is simply an excessive amount of. … It was definitely worth the expertise. But when I needed to do it over again, I had a option to convey again time, I in all probability would have stayed in Kentucky.”
Fascinating feedback to circle again to amid Hurley’s scenario now, which is so near Pitino’s 27 years in the past. It is type of spooky.
Dan Hurley matches faculty. A lot about him — what he represents, how he’s marketed, how he will get on with gamers — is within the faculty mould.
It could be a troublesome blow to school hoops if he left, however the sport can also be in a bizarre house amid the ever-shifting panorama of faculty athletics, which is dictated by the whims and energy struggles of faculty soccer. However it’s nonetheless an important sport with possibly the most effective sporting occasion this nation has to supply and is made higher by guys like Dan Hurley.
So, Dan, your future awaits. All that hangs within the stability is the fortune and futures of two of the largest manufacturers in American sports activities. The hardest selections generally are available in the most effective of occasions. Proper now, no one in basketball has it higher than Hurley.