Lakers Officially sign Dejounte Murray

Prior to hiring J.J. Redick as their next head coach on June 24, the Los Angeles Lakers pursued UConn championship-winning coach Dan Hurley to become the next leader of the franchise.

After firing Darvin Ham in May, the Lakers’ interest in Hurley emerged in June. The Lakers met with Hurley, who was torn between joining the Lakers or staying at UConn to continue coaching college basketball and go after a three-peat.

Ultimately, Hurley opted to stay at UConn, who signed him to a six-year, $50 million contract weeks later.

Days after Hurley declined the option to join the Lakers, he rejected the notion that he turned down the Lakers as a ‘leverage’ play, and instead stated that he was not ready to leave what he had at UConn.

Hurley and his wife, Andrea, offered more insight into what led their decision to stay at UConn during a recent interview on In Depth with Graham Bensinger.

Reflecting on the decision, Andrea admits that they were “torn” between staying at UConn or heading to the Lakers. On one hand, they knew it was special for the Lakers to want Hurley as their head coach.

“To be proud is an understatement,” Andrea said of the Lakers’ pursuit of Hurley.

The option to join the Lakers proved alluring, but they chose to stay with the Huskies in large part because Hurley wanted to continue working with the young players on his team. Hurley noted that coaching college basketball players allows him to take on an important role in their lives and development as both players and people, which he could not do in the NBA

“I love being a part of this transformation for the last point in a young man’s life where you can really have a big impact on how their life is going to play out, like what the man becomes,” Hurley told Bensinger. That, to me, was what I realized that I love about being a college coach that you don’t get to do as an NBA coach because that’s not the relationship there. “