University of Connecticut men’s basketball coach Dan Hurley turned down a lucrative six-year contract offer from the Los Angeles Lakers.
Earlier this week, he provided more details about his decision, but made it clear he wasn’t turning down the Lakers’ offer to take advantage of the school’s ties with the school. The two-time national championship coach said he had already agreed to terms on a new contract with the school before turning down the Lakers’ offer.
“One of the worst notions I’ve heard is that this is a ploy to improve my standing at the University of Connecticut,” the Huskies coach said recently.Dan Le Batard Show with the Stuggotts“
Hurley also said his wife, Andrea, initially had a less-than-great reaction to rumors that the Lakers were interested in hiring him as the team’s next head coach.
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Andrea Hurley listens to a press conference after Dan Hurley was hired as head coach at the University of Connecticut in March 2018. (Mark Mirko/Hartford Courant/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)
“She cried at first. I think for the first few days she didn’t hit me, she got very angry and emotional. She didn’t say, ‘Get away from me. I don’t want this to happen. You’re a horrible person for hurting me with this amazing opportunity,'” Hurley said, laughing.
However, Andrea recently broke her silence about the situation, describing the past few days as “the worst week of my life”.
Connecticut’s Dan Hurley explains why he turned down Lakers coaching job: ‘I already had influence’
“Yeah, it was. It just didn’t feel real because of the emotions,” Andrea told WFSB, recalling how she processed the situation.
“It was emotional. Honestly, I almost cried. I’m not going to cry. It was pretty emotional. You know what? I said it was probably the worst week of my life. But looking back, it was probably the best week of my life. It was the best week ever.”
Connecticut Huskies head coach Dan Hurley speaks after the team’s 2024 national championship win over the Purdue Boilermakers at State Farm Stadium on April 8, 2024 in Glendale, Arizona. (Photo by Alisa Rubin/NCAA via Getty Images)
Andrea added that she initially struggled with why she might pack up and leave Storrs, Connecticut, less than two months after watching her husband coach the Huskies to a second consecutive national title.
“In my mind, I was saying to myself, ‘I’m gone.’ We had just done something amazing that’s almost impossible to do, especially in the world of college basketball. So we’re just going to do this and be gone. We’re really good at this. Why? Why? Why?”
Dan Hurley of the Connecticut Huskies signals to his players during the national championship game against the Purdue Boilermakers at State Farm Stadium on April 8, 2024 in Glendale, Arizona. (Mitchell Leighton/Getty Images)
She also shared details about her relationship with the Lakers, saying she believes the NBA team’s interest in her husband is “very sincere.”
“They sent a plane. They paid attention to every detail. They really made us feel welcome. They wanted us to be part of their family, and they wanted us to be part of their family. It was really sincere. And the way they spoke to us. I sat there and, of course, I just cried.”
Dunn acknowledged that the Lakers would have had to make him an offer he couldn’t refuse in order to leave the University of Connecticut.
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“To leave, perhaps [a number]”I would say that leaving somewhere is not a motivating factor at any point in your life, but there are definitely financial issues to leave somewhere. I don’t think staying somewhere would ever be an issue. Staying at a place like the University of Connecticut would never have been a financial issue.”
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