On the heels of leading UConn to back-to-back NCAA national championships, Dan Hurley has emerged as the Los Angeles Lakers’ priority target in their coaching search, according to ESPN. CBS Sports’ Bill Reiter has also confirmed the Lakers’ “interest and pursuit” of Hurley.
Los Angeles is preparing a “massive, long-term contract offer” to Hurley, per ESPN, and has already had preliminary contact about the position. Hurley’s camp and the Lakers are “planning to escalate discussions” in the near future.
The Lakers fired Darvin Ham in May after just two seasons and JJ Redick — co-host of a podcast with Lakers star LeBron James, a broadcaster with ESPN and a long-time player first at Duke and then in the NBA for nearly two decades — was believed to be the frontrunner for the position. However, Adrian Wojnarowski reports that Hurley has been the target throughout the process. From 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.
Lakers vice president of basketball operations and general manager Rob Pelinka and governor Jeanie Buss are eager to formally discuss with Hurley their vision of marrying his dominant program — built upon both his tactical acumen and elite player development — with the storied Lakers brand, sources said.
Hurley, earlier this offseason, turned down overtures from the University of Kentucky, one of the best jobs in college basketball because of its history and resources, after the school and John Calipari went in separate directions. He later said he had no desire to coach college basketball anywhere else before adding that trying his hand at the NBA later in his career interests him. In an interview last year, he said that he still had some “developing to do on the sideline” before thinking of making the jump to the NBA, a reference to his sideline antics and emotive coaching tactics.
“There’s no one coaching like me in the NBA,”he said then. “They’re not ready … and…
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