Hurley: Rejecting Lakers was not ‘utilize play’

• Myron Medcalf, ESPN

  • Personnel WriterJun 13, 2024, 12:18 PM ET Close Covers college basketball
  • Joined ESPN.com in 2011
  • Graduate of Minnesota State University, Mankato

Dan Hurley states his decision to turn down a six-year, $70 million offer to coach the Los Angeles Lakers was not a “take advantage of play” because he had currently accepted the regards to a new contract with UConn.On “The Dan Le Batard Program with Stugotz”on Thursday, Hurley called the choice between coaching the Lakers for an eight-figure amount or returning to go after a 3rd successive national title at UConn a difficult decision. However the leverage was unnecessary, he stated, because he and UConn had currently worked out a new agreement in recent weeks.” One of the worst takes I’ve heard is that this is a take advantage of play by me to enhance my circumstance at UConn,” Hurley stated on the program.” I don’t need take advantage of here. We have actually won back-to-back championship games at this location. This was never ever an utilize situation for me.”I have actually had a contract in place

here for a number of weeks. And the last part, in regards to wage, has been provided for a while. There are some other parts, like NIL and staff income and some various things, that I desire changed and I’m not comfortable with. However the sense of the idea that this was some conspiracy to get me a sweeter deal at UConn is simply, it slouches.” UConn has actually made 4 straight NCAA tournament looks under Dan Hurley, who was hired by the Huskies in 2018. Hurley met with the Lakers last week before refusing their offer. Justin K. Aller/Getty Images Hurley confessed the Lakers most likely could have made him a deal that he could not have actually refused. But the deal he has in place at UConn– which the school has actually not revealed– will make him the highest-paid college coach in America, he said. He presently has a six-year,$ 32.1 million deal with UConn. Kansas coach Costs Self is currently the highest-paid coach at$9.6 million per year.ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski reported last week that the Lakers had actually chosen to focus their search on Hurley over their other prospects. Hurley flew to Los Angeles over the weekend to meet general supervisor Rob Pelinka and owner Jeanie Buss. He stated Thursday, nevertheless, that he did not speak straight with the group’s most significant star, LeBron James, before he made his option.”I did not [speak with James],”Hurley said. “We had some interaction. … It would have been an adventure

to coach him. “Hurley stated he had a painful weekend as he battled with his choices. “It was a gut-wrenching choice for me,”

he said.” Sunday night, entering into Monday, where I sort of had a deadline

in my mind, I was torn and I did not understand really what I was going to do until I went to bed.”Editor’s Picks 2 Associated The Lakers, Hurley stated, would have had to provide him a substantial sum to leave the UConn program behind.

“To leave, there most likely is [a number], “he stated.”To leave a location anytime in your life, to state that it’s not a motivating aspect … the finances to leave a place is definitely a thing. To remain at a place, I don’t think it is ever going to be a thing. To remain somewhere like UConn, it would never ever have been a financial thing.”This wasn’t like some pressure strategy to make me the highest-paid college coach. That was already done.

But to leave a place that you feel the way we do and the household connection with my better half, my children, my mother-in-law, my father … I know just how much it suggests to my papa to go to the Big East competition and concern 10 UConn games a year in your home, sitting courtside, when I’m coaching against Rick Pitino. To leave all of that behind, there probably is a number.”Hurley will go back to a UConn group that has an opportunity to win its third successive nationwide title, an accomplishment that has not been achieved given that John Wooden led UCLA to seven straight championships in the 1960s and 1970s. But, Hurley said, the Lakers’deal was tempting since of the history and eminence attached to the gig. “It’s something I wished to check out,”Hurley stated.”The chance to possibly coach the Lakers and to coach among the greatest players of all time and to coach one of the best players in the NBA in [Anthony Davis] and to lead such a storied franchise and to walk the sidelines where a few of the best to ever to do it– Pat Riley and Phil Jackson– [coached] It was something in my mind that I needed to check out and consider and see what it looked like. “