Dan Hurley is considered one of the best basketball minds in the world.
He doesn’t want to work for the Lakers.
Dan Hurley was offered more than double his current salary as current Connecticut coach – $70 million – to leave Storrs for Hollywood.
He told the Lakers to keep their money.
Dan Hurley, a former high school coach, was given the opportunity to lead the premier basketball team in the most glamorous city for a head coaching job with the Lakers that would bring him generational wealth and change his career forever.
He called them off.
Read more: Dan Hurley turns down Lakers coaching offer and remains in Connecticut
This certainly speaks admirably volumes about the priorities of an East Coast man who would eschew a walk on the red carpet for a chance to stay with family and try to win a third straight NCAA title.
But this says more about the Lakers.
This says the Lakers must have one of the worst head coaching jobs in the history of organized basketball.
This says that the Lakers’ front office should be viewed as an unmitigated mess.
This says that LeBron James should be considered a coach killer who doesn’t want even the safest coach in the game to have any part of him.
This is embarrassing.
This is just as shameful as when Tyronn Lue rejected them five years ago over issues of money and control.
This is almost as embarrassing as when Mike Krzyzewski turned them down 20 years ago to spend the rest of his career in Durham, NC.
It’s humbling for Lakers fans to see a college coach who has never worked in the NBA turn down the opportunity to work for the NBA’s most celebrated franchise.
This is humiliating for a Lakers team that possesses arguably the best player in basketball history, and one of the top 10 players in the current league, and yet was still dismissed as if they were the junior varsity.
This is disillusionment for a Lakers franchise that Hurley personally examined during his recent interview here, saw the best they had to offer, and said…no.
And this is bad for Rob Pelinka. This is really bad for Rob Pelinka.
Just a year after seemingly gaining job security as executive vice president and general manager by building a supporting cast that helped the Lakers reach the Western Conference finals, Pelinka has just smelled the most important part of his job… for the third time in five years.
He’s the one who blew it with Lue in 2019 and instead settled for Frank Vogel, who won a championship in 2020 but ultimately didn’t command the kind of respect that would have given him lasting power. Lue did it. Lue would still be their coach.
Pelinka is also the one who blew it with Darvin Ham, rushing to give a first head coaching job to a nice guy who just wasn’t ready for it. When the players noticed Ham’s strategic weaknesses, they struck, and he never recovered.
So here we go again, a Pelinka coaching search for the third time in five years, and what happens? He’s wrong again.
He seemingly made a terrible choice in JJ Redick – he’s never coached anyone at any level above youth league – and then smartly realized his mistake and made a solid transition to arguably one of the best coaches anywhere, a two-time defending NCAA championship boss with tough and smart people and loads of charisma.
Hurley is a unicorn, but so are the Lakers, and it was a match made in purple-and-gold heaven.
Most thought the Lakers would land him. How could the Lakers not land him?
Wasn’t this the same Lakers organization that convinced the great Phil Jackson to retire twice? Wasn’t this the same Lakers organization that always bought the prize player, whoever they wanted, whenever they wanted, from Wilt to Kareem to Shaq to LeBron to AD?
Not anymore.
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This should have been a slam dunk, but it was a fly-by instead, and the stunning inability to land Hurley shows just how far the organization’s reputation has fallen.
There was a time when an up-and-coming coach like Hurley would have walked barefoot from Storrs to the Southland to work for the Lakers. Nowadays he barely spends a day here before rushing back home, where he thinks he has a chance to win.
Hurley was offered a six-year contract, meaning James couldn’t have fired him, and he still said no.
Hurley was paid enough money to become one of the NBA’s six highest-paid coaches before coaching his first NBA game, and he still said no.
He was given the keys to the entire Lakers kingdom. He could have rebuilt one of America’s most famous basketball cultures in his likeness. It was a gift never before given to a Lakers coach, not even Jackson.
And yet he said no.
Pelinka had to make this deal. Pelinka should never have gone after Hurley if he couldn’t make this deal.
Given Hurley’s reputation as a winner, it seems like he thinks the Lakers are losers.
For example, they can’t win if Pelinka is in charge. For example, they can’t succeed when LeBron is in control. Like, they’re not going anywhere, and Dan Hurley wasn’t there for that ride.
Who knows, maybe this looming nightmare of a Bronny James draft pick was on his mind too. Maybe he was told the Lakers were taking the unqualified kid with the 55th pick and maybe he just didn’t want to deal with all that hassle.
Read more: Plaschke: Who will draft Bronny James? The Lakers should just say no
Clearly, money was no object, that Pelinka could have raised the fair offer to a bizarre $100 million, but it still wouldn’t matter.
That’s worse. You wish it was just about money. Instead, it’s apparently about the entire Lakers organization, and owner Jeanie Buss better finally take note.
Your house falls. Your reputation decreases. Your future darkens.
Your team still has some appeal thanks to LeBron and AD and the incredible business achievements of director Tim Harris, but the foundation is crumbling.
Apparently the smart people in the basketball world don’t trust you. The talented people in the basketball world apparently don’t believe in you. Rebuilding and reforming after LeBron’s retirement will be difficult if your front office is completely assembled.
So where do they go from here? Who has any idea? Who is confident in what they do? Their coach will be at least a second choice, that’s for sure, and it will result in the most awkward introductory press conference since Vogel arrived.
This is a bad job, and it just got a lot worse.
Don’t look now, but the Lakers are no longer the Lakers.
Now look, because Dan Hurley just said it.
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This story originally appeared in the Los Angeles Times.
