Appearing on the Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz (YouTube link), Dan Hurley said he didn’t use talks with the Lakers as leverage to secure a larger financial commitment from UConn, as Adam Zagoria of NJ.com relays. Hurley reportedly turned down a six-year, $70MM deal from L.A. and will receive about $20MM less in his new contract with the Huskies, which will be announced “soon,” a source told Zagoria.
“This was never a leverage situation for me,” Hurley said Thursday. “I’ve had a contract situation in place for a couple of weeks, and the financial part in terms of salary has been done for a while. There’s some other parts like NIL and staff salaries and some different things that I want adjusted that I’m not comfortable with.
“But the sense or the idea that this was just a conspiracy to get me a sweeter deal at UConn is just lazy and not [true]. It was truly a gut-wrenching decision for me because I was really — Sunday night going into Monday where I had kind of a deadline in my mind — I was like torn and I didn’t know really what I was going to do until I went to bed.”
However, Hurley did suggest the Lakers could have compelled him to leave UConn with a more lucrative offer.
“To leave all that behind, there probably is a number,” Hurley said. “I don’t know what that is.”
J.J. Redick, who was previously viewed as the frontrunner in the Lakers’ head coaching search before Hurley’s surprising emergence, will formally interview for the position this weekend, per ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski.
Here’s more from the Pacific:
- The Kings have hosted several pre-draft workouts this week, according to a couple of local reporters. League sources tell Sean Cunningham of Fox 40 (Twitter link) that Memphis guard David Jones, French forward Lucas Dufeal, and Western Illinois center Drew Cisse were among the prospects who took part. According to Jason Anderson of The Sacramento Bee, the Kings have also worked out Kentucky wing Justin Edwards, UC Santa Barbara guard Joshua Pierre-Louis, Alabama guard Aaron Estrada, and Florida State guard Darin Green in recent days. Sacramento controls one first-round pick (No. 13) and one second-rounder (No. 45).
- Gerald Bourguet of PHNX Sports goes through the “fruitless exercise” of coming up with Bradley Beal trade ideas for the Suns while acknowledging that the odds of a deal involving Beal occurring this summer are basically zero.
- In a separate article for PHNX Sports, Bourguet examines five wing prospects the Suns could consider with the No. 22 overall pick, including Colorado’s Tristan Da Silva, Cal’s Jaylon Tyson, and Creighton’s Baylor Scheierman.
The Sun has set on the Suns winning a championship. Teams win with core players rising together. Trading picks was not wise for the Suns. Durant will be hurt by next years playoffs.
Durant and Beal will be hurt by next year’s playoffs…. I think Durant is crazier than Kyrie, Durant physically a mess, very breakable, never happy…. This guy is bad news… Maybe the only team he belongs on is Golden State, Durant & Draymond will kill each other, combustible teammates given time….
Nothing stands out, when the Kings will pick, at #13. So I say package the Pick, w/ Mitchell and Huerter and bring in an established player that could help them out now.
Pacific notes….Lakers could easily be dead last in the Pacific, man Lakers stink. The whole Pacific is a slow motion pile up atm. Didn’t Hurley take the Laker job, LOL. I’ll be cheering on Fox and Sabonis in the Pacific. The game has or is leaving the old guard for dust. Guys like Bron, KD, Hawhi, playoff P all have stats that still look good, it’s just not equating to wins or deep playoff runs.
Same goes for Steph.
Of course he used the Lakers for leverage. He knows the team is not very good!