The Lakers missed out on their guy.
Dan Hurley decided Monday to remain at UConn and not take Los Angeles’ offer to become the next head coach of the team despite a six-year, $70 million ($AUD105 million) contract offer, according to ESPN.
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Hurley, 51, told ESPN on Sunday that the Lakers made a “compelling case” and that he was “extremely impressed” with owner Jeanie Buss and GM Rob Pelinka.
The reigning two-time national champion met with the Lakers in Los Angeles on Friday, and Saturday night he attended the Billy Joel concert at MSG with wife Andrea and UConn assistant Luke Murray.
The decision comes after the Lakers fired Darvin Ham following just two seasons at the helm, the latter of which saw the team get eliminated in the first round of the NBA playoffs.
Ham was the Lakers’ seventh head coach since Phil Jackson retired after the 2010-11 season.
None have lasted more than three seasons.
Initial reports indicated the Lakers were targeting ESPN NBA analyst JJ Redick, who has no professional coaching experience, to give the team more stability on the bench.
The Athletic’s Shams Charania reported the Lakers were “zeroing in” on the ex-NBA guard as the frontrunner for the job.
Redick, coincidentally enough, co-hosts a podcast with Lakers star LeBron James.
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But ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski reported that Hurley — the two-time NCAA Tournament-winning coach — has been the Lakers’ target since the beginning of the job search.
The NBA insider reported Pelinka and Buss have shared a high level of excitement for the UConn coach, as they believe Hurley has impressive player development tools in his arsenal.
James also has been impressed with Hurley.
“He’s so DAMN GOOD!!! Along with his staff. Super creative with their O! Love it,” the four-time NBA champion wrote on X in April.
Hurley, after his first national title win, inked a $32.1 million contract extension with UConn that runs through 2029.
In an interview in 2023 shortly after that victory, Hurley said that he had to focus on himself and his coaching before thinking about moving to the game’s highest level.
“That is something I aspire to down the road,” he said on Barstool’s “Pardon My Take” podcast last April.
Following his national title victory over Purdue this past season, Hurley shot down any rumours he would take Kentucky’s open job after John Calipari left for Arkansas.
Hurley getting courted by the Lakers mirrors the experience Rick Pitino had in 1997 when he left Kentucky for the Celtics after reaching consecutive championship games with the Wildcats, winning once.
“If I had to do it all over again, I’d probably never leave Kentucky,” Pitino said in March. “Dick Vitale, every time I speak to him, says, ‘If you would have stayed at Kentucky, you’d have more wins than any coach.’ And you think back on that. … It was worth the experience. But if I had to do it all over again, [if] I had a choice, I probably would have stayed in Kentucky.”
Pitino told The Post on Friday in Saratoga that he did not think Hurley would go to the NBA.
The Huskies are now trying to become just the second team in Division I men’s basketball history to win three straight championships.
The Lakers, on the other hand, are looking to hold the Larry O’Brien Trophy for the first time since the 2020 bubble.
This story originally appeared on the New York Post and has been reposted with permission