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00:00After a very long 72 hours in Storrs, Connecticut, yesterday,
00:08Dan Hurley makes his ultimate determination. He's not going
00:12to Los Angeles. He is not going to be the next head coach of
00:15the Lakers. He is remaining at UConn to try to guide the
00:19Huskies to a third consecutive national championship. Dan
00:23Hurley is staying in Storrs. DRS, we got the bombshell news
00:28on Thursday morning, bright and early, that really came out
00:31of left field from ESPN's Adrian Wojnowski. Now, we have
00:34to ask why in the world was this report even surfaced in
00:38the first place. Dan Hurley, though, ultimately decides that
00:42he is staying at Connecticut. When this decision was made
00:46yesterday around 2 p.m. Eastern time, what was your first
00:49reaction? My first reaction was, you know, I tweeted out,
00:53wow, but I didn't actually read the tweet itself because when
00:57I was just thinking, and again, setting up that whole timeline
00:59of, you're not going to call on Dan Hurley from UConn unless
01:03you expect him to make a blockbuster deal and leave in the
01:05middle of the summer. This wasn't the normal change of,
01:08okay, our season is over. Let's get our head coach right away.
01:11A coach is putting out feelers across the NBA. He's ready
01:13to jump ship. This was one of those things that said, you
01:16know what, Dan Hurley, think if we go after him, talking
01:18about the Lakers, that he would accept this job, and I'm sure
01:21levels at high management go, well, that's going to cost a
01:23lot of money at this point to get here. Two-time national
01:26champion, looking to go to do something that hasn't been
01:28done in a long time since John Wooden to win three in a row.
01:31He's got a good team. He's got a good thing going to UConn,
01:33already turned down Kentucky for more money. So we're led
01:36to believe that this, you know, offer is going to be on the
01:39table that is going to reset the market. Now, I'm not saying
01:42that you needed to get ahead of, you know, Steve Kerr's
01:44$17.5 million a year, but you better pay him in that ballpark
01:48if you want him to leave. And the simple fact of the matter
01:50is, we saw that tweet come out from Wojnarowski yesterday,
01:54retweeted it, then read and go, it's a no-brainer. No-brainer
01:57that he didn't take the job at this point because the
01:59expectations was, we were calling out a deal that was
02:02going to pay him $15-plus million a year for almost close
02:05to 10 years, which that's why you're going to go in any
02:08situation to any organization because you can't pass that
02:11up. Hurley saw that and goes, you know what, I'm not going
02:13to be in the top five. It's not that great of a job overall
02:16because I'm going to have to deal with LeBron James, then
02:18I'm going to have to deal with the fallout of, why aren't
02:20you winning championships post-LeBron if I can't get it
02:22done in my first two years. It made way too much sense.
02:24So to answer your question, when I saw that tweet and
02:27actually read it, it made total sense why he didn't go to
02:29Los Angeles. So let's start there. Let's start with the
02:33money. Let's start with the contract figures because Dan
02:36Hurley can say he is the ultimate competitor. He wanted
02:39to stay at UConn to build his legacy. And I do believe that
02:43is the case. He is the face of the head coaching position
02:46in D1 men's college basketball. There is no doubt about
02:49it. There are some legends of the game that remain in
02:53college hoops, but after the old guard, Mike Krzyzewski,
02:56Roy, whoa, Roy Williams almost just forgot his name for
02:59a second. Jim Boeheim, Jay Wright, all step away. Dan
03:03Hurley is now that guy and there are still people there.
03:06Bill Self, John Calipari, now at a new spot in Arkansas.
03:10Rick Pitino still remains in college hoops. Tom Izzo, so
03:14on and so forth. Dan Hurley is that guy to cement his
03:18legacy as the bench coach in college basketball. Again,
03:21we will talk about that in just a moment, but the contract
03:25figures really is where we start because you can say money
03:29was not the determining factor. You can say money was not
03:32the only factor or the most important factor, but the money
03:35the Los Angeles Lakers put up is shameful. If you are going
03:40to make a big splash, it would not have even made Dan Hurley
03:43one of the five highest paid head coaches in the NBA and
03:47we talked at length about if you were ever going to make
03:51a move to the NBA, Los Angeles, the Lakers franchise would
03:56be it the illustrious and prestigious Los Angeles franchise
04:01would be the place to go except as reports are starting
04:05to come out the ownership group under the bus family might
04:10actually be a little cash strapped and they have not been
04:13able to acquire that big fish because they shortchange him
04:17Monty Williams in Detroit would make more than Dan Hurley's
04:21reported contract offer that cannot happen. If you are going
04:25to lure somebody to Los Angeles to be the new head coach
04:28of the Lakers to lead LeBron James and what might be his
04:31final two years in the NBA with Anthony Davis on the roster
04:35because this is your only chance of glory in the Lakers put
04:40up what was kind of chump change in terms of that contract
04:44offer and you're right about that and it's a good point that
04:47you bring up because right across the street Steve Ballmer
04:49is building his own arena with his own cash and Tyron Lewis
04:52was sought after head coach in the NBA. You know, he didn't
04:55leave her snoop around because Balmer probably picked up the
04:58phone goes. We love you here. I got a blank check you fill it
05:00out. What do you think we can agree upon where you want to
05:02be the coach here? Long-term got the job done. If you go to
05:05those Forbes rankings been, you know, Jeannie bus and nobody's
05:08feeling bad for the Lakers upper management ownership group
05:10bottom five in the NBA with net worth here because the one
05:13advantage you're supposed to have in those big market and
05:15big cities is you typically have an ownership group like
05:18the Dodgers that goes we make so much money, but we're actually
05:20not in it for the money. We have so many other businesses
05:23here that are profitable. This is what we want to do spend
05:25money win championships and walk into that room and put as
05:28many rings on our fingers as we possibly can and we're not
05:31shaming Los Angeles. They just want a championship in 2020.
05:34But the reason you're supposed to have that advantage is when
05:37you hire a head coach or coaching staff, it's unlimited.
05:39There's no salary cap here. You can't play by while there's
05:42a luxury tax. We don't want to go over you can pay that coach
05:44anything you want. It's amazing too because just the simple
05:47fact that Hurley got on that plane and went to Los Angeles.
05:50He was probably figuring look the numbers aren't worked out
05:52yet. Let me just meet them face-to-face. I love everything
05:55about this. You guys know I want to be a pro coach. I'm in
05:57my early 50s. This is the perfect time to go over and they
06:00go. Well, here's an insulting offer and some people might
06:02look at that like insulting. He's going to get a raise from
06:05what he got at UConn. Do you know what happened? You're
06:06probably behind the scenes when you come got a hold of what
06:09that contract details where the and I joked about yesterday
06:11on the radio. You probably didn't even have to call your
06:14Board of Regents as the athletic thread to go. I'll match
06:16that. I'll match that right now. You come back here to stores.
06:18It's like, you know what? This is a perfect scenario. Let me
06:20go back. But if this was seven years $120 million, we'd be
06:24having a press conference today live across every single
06:27channel and Hurley so happy to be a Los Angeles Lakers head
06:30coach. It was his dream to get to the NBA.
06:33And as Woj was reporting probably in partnership with
06:36Dan Hurley's agent a new luck lucrative contract offer is
06:41on the way for Connecticut reported around six years
06:4550 million dollars, which would actually make Dan Hurley
06:48one of the highest paid coaches in college basketball. Only
06:52two guys right now make north of 7 million. That's Bill
06:55self who makes 9.6 at Kansas the highest paid head coach
06:59in college hoops and John Calipari at Arkansas as well
07:04more than 7 million dollars. Dan Hurley seems in line to
07:08make that amount of money. So now the ramifications after
07:12the decision. What does it mean for UConn in the hunt for
07:15a 3p? What does it mean for LeBron's next head coach? More
07:19of that conversation up next. Dan Hurley is staying at
07:23Connecticut. So what does it mean for college hoops? What
07:26does it mean now for the LA Lakers and LeBron James? Let's
07:30start with UConn. They have won two consecutive national
07:33championships. Dan Hurley DRS is one of 17 coaches in the
07:37history of men's division. One college basketball to win
07:41multiple national titles. He is one of eight head coaches
07:45to win back-to-back national championships. The first since
07:49Billy Donovan did so in 2006 and 07 at Florida. He is the
07:54only one of each of those groupings that is active right
07:58now in college hoops. They hit both of those accomplishments
08:03and still be coaching in college basketball. So many said
08:07yesterday after Dan Hurley made his decision to stay in
08:10stores. It was a monumental victory for college hoops and
08:15they are correct because the best coach in college basketball
08:18remains in college basketball and that is Dan Hurley and we
08:22saw that reflected in the odds outside of the narrative as
08:26well as UConn will hunt a third consecutive national
08:29championship in the 2024-25 men's college basketball
08:34season and now a co-favorite alongside Kansas once again
08:37at a 10-to-1 price. When there was some uncertainty on what
08:41Dan Hurley would do, would he leave for the bright lights
08:44of Hollywood? UConn move back by four bucks. Dan Hurley is
08:48a market mover and the best coach in college basketball
08:52stays in college hoops. And he does and let's talk
08:56about the ramifications that we don't have because also
08:58let's put the money into the equation again. If you're
09:01going to pay Hurley, let's just say 15 million dollars a
09:03year, he would have left there and would have been the Lakers
09:06coach and nobody would have faulted him one bit at this
09:08point because also looking at the ramifications of what
09:11happens at UConn, if that does happen, they're on the hunt
09:14for a new coach here, but I said this yesterday in the
09:16radio and I truly believe this and it's a shame we won't
09:18get to see this play out, but it's good for UConn. Can you
09:21imagine a UConn team that loses Hurley in the summer, a
09:2430-day transfer portal window opens up, those players leave,
09:28you can't just go out and get new players here. I honestly
09:31believe that they would not be a 500 team next year if
09:34Hurley left. You say, you're crazy. Look at all the talent.
09:37That talent went there not because they love Storrs,
09:39Connecticut and UConn, the one who wear that uniform. It's
09:41because Dan Hurley's the head coach. They would all be gone
09:44and imagine this too, the legitimate amount of players
09:46that you would have, the NIL money that would pour over
09:50those free agents as a standalone group of what, five
09:53to six guys? They would all leave because they would get
09:56so much money from other teams and other very good teams
09:59in different conferences to leave there. That would have
10:01been a case study on what probably would have closed a
10:04loophole in college basketball if that happened. The two-time
10:07national champions, the actual favorites to win the
10:09championship next year can barely field a team because
10:13their coach left in the middle of the summer and people had
10:15some animosity there to Hurley. But again, if that money was
10:17so big, nobody would have faulted them. So you avoided
10:20absolute disaster at UConn because why? The Lakers came
10:24up cheap.
10:25And UConn will come back into 2024-25, not only with Dan
10:31Hurley now returning at the helm, but a loaded roster. Alex
10:35Caravan is back, one of the key pieces of the two consecutive
10:38national championship winning teams. Aidan Mahaney, a big
10:42transfer from the West Coast Conference, now makes his way
10:45to UConn and one of the 10 best freshman classes in the
10:48country as well, led by Liam McNeely. All of those guys
10:52might have hit the open market had Dan Hurley decided to go
10:56to the NBA and be with the LA Lakers. Yes, they would have
10:59a 30-day transfer portal window would have opened up. That
11:02is no longer the case. They are back on the attack for three
11:05straight national titles. And I don't know how you bet against
11:09it at this moment to at least consider UConn as the favorite
11:13to win a third straight national title. So Dan Hurley, who
11:17in the last two months has said no to the LA Lakers and no
11:21to Kentucky to remain in stores. Connecticut is LA, one
11:26of the top three head coaching jobs in the NBA. Now, what is
11:31next for the Los Angeles Lakers? I'll tell you who's happiest
11:34right now, Sham Sharadia to look at Woj and say, hey, I was
11:39right. They really are zeroing in on JJ Redick as their next
11:43head coach. I now wonder what the Lakers do to determine that
11:47next head coaching spot.
11:49It's going to be great to watch it play out because every agent
11:52knows look at that starting point you had for Hurley. You're
11:55not going to admit that you lost him. And now you want to
11:57come back to us. That's the starting point for our new
12:00contract. And also you might be saying we could have got JJ
12:02Redick so much cheaper first time head coach and see if it
12:04works out is with LeBron. He's already made a lot of money
12:06already in his career on the court. Now, you can't do that.
12:09And also what's the look for the Lakers organization themselves
12:12and the players and the fans heading at the next year. If
12:14you now are getting your B guy James Borrego and you don't
12:17make the playoffs next year. What happens at that point?
12:19This is disastrous for the Lakers. You're not supposed to
12:22lose the big fish, man. You're just not. LeBron is also going
12:26to be a free agent. He has turned down his player option
12:30for this upcoming season expected to resign but a ton of
12:34questions in the next few weeks. Who's the next head coach
12:38and will the Lakers draft Roddy?