The Lakers offered Connecticut coach Dan Hurley a large sum — $70 million over six years — to become their head coach. He turned them down to return to UConn and attempt to coach the Huskies to a third consecutive NCAA championship . Is there a dollar amount the Lakers could have offered Hurley that would have changed his mind? “There probably is,” Hurley said Thursday on “ The Dan Le Batard Show With Stugotz ,” although he said he wasn’t sure what that amount would be.
Making his first public comments since turning down the Lakers’ offer Monday, Hurley said the number would have had to have been pretty extraordinary for him to leave behind his situation in Storrs, Conn. “To leave a place that you feel the way we do and the family connection with my wife, my sons, my mother-in-law, my father — I know how much it means to my dad to go to the Big East tournament and to come to 10 UConn games a year at home and sit courtside when I’m coaching against Rick Pitino , you know?” Hurley said. “To leave all that behind, there probably is a number.
I don’t know what that is.” Hurley, the son of legendary high school coach Bob Hurley Sr., is 141-58 in six seasons at Connecticut, including 68-11 in the last two seasons, both of which ended with NCAA tournament championships.
In a whirlwind of events last week, Hurley became the Lakers’ top candidate to replace fired coach Darvin Ham and flew out to meet with controlling owner Jeanie Buss and executive vice.