Dan Hurley Rejects Lakers for $50M UConn Extension
Category
🥇
SportsTranscript
00:00Dan Hurley is in stores to stay. An official contract extension as was reported and rumored
00:10after he decided to say no to the L.A. Lakers and remain at Connecticut was made official
00:17yesterday. Six-year deal worth five or fifty million dollars, more than eight million dollars
00:23per year. It makes Dan Hurley the second highest paid coach in all of men's college basketball,
00:29only behind Kansas' Bill Self. There are three coaches, DRS, only three in all of men's college
00:36hoops that are paid more than seven million dollars per year. Kansas, Bill Self, Connecticut
00:42now, Dan Hurley, and Arkansas' John Calipari, who actually took a slight discount to go to Arkansas
00:49and leave Lexington, Kentucky. A huge deal for Dan Hurley that will keep him under contract with
00:56this six-year extension through the 2028-29 college basketball campaign. Yeah, we'll see how this
01:03contract does last, and the reason I bring that up is he's very happy, apparently so, in UConn.
01:08They paid him well, his family likes it there, wife loves it there, which as we know is very
01:12important, but if you're taking a look long term, we know that he said he wanted to go to the NBA,
01:17flirting with the Los Angeles Lakers, and I think everybody's in agreement. If the Lakers were like,
01:21okay, 10 years, 100 million dollars, he would have been going to the Los Angeles Lakers saying,
01:26you know what, did all I can in college basketball, won two national championships,
01:30let me apply my trade here in the highest position I could possibly get, which is an
01:33NBA coach in my profession, but now he doesn't go there. He's still relatively young, but could we
01:38see a scenario play out sort of here, Ben, that we've seen so many times in college basketball?
01:42Like Roy Williams was a fantastic coach in college, probably would have translated very well
01:47to the NBA game, goes to Kansas, but then gets his dream job at UNC, goes, you know what, I don't
01:52have anything left to do here, let me see if I can win a national championship, if I do, fantastic, but
01:56those aspirations of going to the NBA really aren't there anymore. Remember when Coach K was
02:00flirting with the NBA way back in the day to go with the Los Angeles Lakers, same team that Hurley
02:04was looking at, and as soon as you said, you know what, I'm going to pass on this, I'm going to stay
02:08at Duke, I'm going to win a couple more national championships, they're going to pay me a lot of
02:11money, and why should I leave? I got a great thing going here, they're never going to push me out,
02:15and I'll make my own decisions, can probably can pick my own successor. That's the interesting part
02:19now, as you look at that nice deal that Hurley got, let's just say over the next three years,
02:23he picks up another national championship that makes three. Why would he say to himself, then,
02:27you know what, now I'm a little bit older, I finally want to get to the NBA, or let me just
02:31stay at Storrs, because I'm probably making even more money than I just signed that six-year,
02:35$50 million contract, and my family is happy here, we got a dynasty rolling, let me see how many
02:39national championships I can run up the flagpole to be considered maybe one of the best college
02:44coaches in the history of this sport. I think that also makes an idea of, does he want to go to
02:49the NBA if he tacks on another one? We'll find out, but the longer you wait to go to the NBA,
02:54the more likely you are just to stay in college basketball and say, this is where I belong.
02:59As the Laker job became speculated that Dan Hurley was going to be in the running for it,
03:04and I think many thought he was going to take it in Los Angeles, one of the reasons why was
03:10his expressed desire to coach at the highest level in basketball, the insane, psychotic,
03:16almost competitor that Dan Hurley is, trying to win at every level he has ever been a head coach,
03:23thus the desire to be in the association, but it's not always greener pastures. You would think,
03:30Donny, throughout the Lakers coaching search, right, some things kind of came out, they're
03:34actually a cash poor franchise, despite the history and the luster of Los Angeles, that maybe
03:40it's not as desirable as a job that would pay you $10 million per year. The Lakers don't really have
03:47that kind of cash. I mean, it was more than 10 mil, $15 million per year to be one of the highest
03:52paid coaches in the NBA. So who knows exactly if there will be a better opportunity for Dan Hurley,
03:58one that comes with the notoriety that is in Los Angeles, that remains to be seen,
04:04but it does seem pretty set now that Dan Hurley is comfortable in Connecticut,
04:08his wife Andrea, very happy to be in stores as well. He is a family man through and through.
04:16I think Dan Hurley is in college to stay, to build the pantheon at Connecticut that we associate
04:22with guys like John Wooden in Westwood at UCLA, and Bob Knight in Bloomington in Indiana,
04:29and in Durham at Duke with Mike Krzyzewski. Dan Hurley has that opportunity. He is one of 17
04:35coaches all time in the history of D1 men's college basketball to win multiple national
04:41championships. He is one of eight to ever do it back to back in the first since Billy Donovan
04:47way back in 06 and 07. That is Dan Hurley's legacy already. He can only add on as Connecticut
04:54looks for three in a row. They're a co-favorite at a 10 to 1 price alongside KU entering this
05:00next season. I'll tell you, it would have been interesting too if he took that Lakers job and
05:04that transfer pool opened up. We certainly wouldn't be seeing UConn at the top of the
05:08heap standings right now on the FanDuel Sportsbook to win another national championship. So here we
05:12go. UConn winner number three in a row. We'll find out. A lot of talent remains in stores despite
05:18those that have left for the NBA. Hour two is up next. You're on TEL.