UConn males’s basketball head coach Dan Hurley turned down a profitable six-year contract supply from the Los Angeles Lakers.
Hurley broke his silence Thursday and made it clear he didn’t reject the Lakers’ supply to achieve leverage together with his present employer.
The 2-time nationwide championship-winning coach mentioned he had already agreed to the phrases of a brand new cope with UConn earlier than he declined the Lakers’ supply.
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Connecticut Huskies head coach Dan Hurley shouts to his staff throughout the males’s NCAA nationwide championship sport in opposition to the Purdue Boilermakers at State Farm Stadium in Glendale April 8, 2024. (Joe Rondone/The Republic/USA At the moment Community)
“One of many worst takes I’ve heard is that this can be a leverage play by me to enhance my scenario at UConn,” the Huskies coach mentioned throughout a latest look on “The Dan Le Batard Present with Stugotz.”
“I do not want leverage right here. We have gained back-to-back nationwide championships at this place. This was by no means a leverage scenario for me.
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“I’ve had a contract in place right here for a few weeks. And the ultimate half, by way of wage, has been achieved for some time. There are another components, like NIL and workers wage and a few various things, that I would like adjusted and I am not comfy with. However the sense of the concept that this was some conspiracy to get me a sweeter deal at UConn is simply, it is lazy.”
Dan Hurley of the Connecticut Huskies indicators to his gamers throughout the nationwide championship sport in opposition to the Purdue Boilermakers at State Farm Stadium April 8, 2024, in Glendale, Ariz. (Mitchell Layton/Getty Photographs)
UConn has but to announce a brand new deal for Hurley. He coached final season on a six-year, $32.1 million deal. Kansas males’s basketball coach Invoice Self is the highest-paid faculty coach.
Hurley did journey to Los Angeles to satisfy with Lakers basic supervisor Rob Pelinka and staff proprietor Jeanie Buss. Whereas Hurley didn’t meet with LeBron James, he did interact in a textual content trade with the four-time NBA champion.
“We had some textual content messages … an unbelievable message from [James] over the course of the weekend. Simply speaking about basketball and a few various things and letting me know that if he was there in LA that I’d have his help,” Hurley informed Fox Sports activities’ Colin Cowherd throughout Thursday’s version of “The Herd.”
Hurley mentioned it was not simple deciding between teaching in Los Angeles and staying put in Connecticut to pursue a 3rd straight nationwide championship.
“It was a gut-wrenching determination for me,” he mentioned. “Sunday night time, going into Monday, the place I form of had a deadline in my thoughts, I used to be torn, and I didn’t know actually what I used to be going to do till I went to mattress.”
Dan Hurley of the Connecticut Huskies reacts within the first half in opposition to the Purdue Boilermakers throughout the NCAA nationwide championship sport at State Farm Stadium April 8, 2024, in Glendale, Ariz. (Christian Petersen/Getty Photographs)
Hurley did admit the Lakers would have needed to make him a suggestion he couldn’t have refused for him to depart UConn.
“To depart, there in all probability is [a number],” he mentioned. “To depart a spot at any second in your life, to say that it is not a motivating issue … the funds to depart a spot is unquestionably a factor. To remain at a spot, I do not suppose it’s ever going to be a factor. To remain someplace like UConn, it will by no means have been a monetary factor.”
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Hurley reiterated that he was not entertaining the Lakers as some form of “strain tactic” and that he was already resulting from turn into the highest-paid faculty basketball coach.
“This wasn’t like some strain tactic to make me the highest-paid faculty coach. That was already achieved. However to depart a spot that you simply really feel the best way we do and the household reference to my spouse, my sons, my mother-in-law, my father. … I understand how a lot it means to my dad to go to the Huge East event and are available to 10 UConn video games a 12 months at house, sitting courtside once I’m teaching in opposition to Rick Pitino. To depart all of that behind, there in all probability is a quantity.”
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