Did Dan Hurley use $70M Lakers’ offer as leverage for UConn contract extension? Analyst runs rife with speculation
The UConn Huskies men's basketball program is staying the same, as coach Dan Hurley has declined a contract offer from the LA Lakers. The reported offer saw Hurley get six years for $70 million by the Lakers, but he declined the deal and will stay on with the Huskies.
There are a few reasons why he may have come to this decision, but there are thoughts that things could have been used as a negotiation tactic instead. Let's take a deeper dive into this possibility and see how realistic it is.
Did Dan Hurley use the $70 million Lakers' offer as leverage for the UConn contract extension?
The LA Lakers would have seen Dan Hurley enter the NBA and become the fifth-highest-paid coach in the league. The idea that Hurley used the Lakers' contract offer as a bit of a negotiating ploy is not too crazy a thought process.
Joe Pompliano of The Joe Pomp Show said it pretty well. Adrian Wojnarowski broke the news of Dan Hurley staying at UConn instead of joining the Lakers. Woj has a connection to Hurley's father, Bob, as he wrote a book on Bob Hurley. Pompliano tweeted:
"It's almost like Dan Hurley leaked all of this through a trusted media source (who literally wrote a book on his dad) to secure himself an even bigger contract at UConn. Woj gets a big scoop, the Lakers get to say we tried, and Hurley gets a huge raise. Win. Win. Win."
Hurley used the connection to secure a contract offer with the LA Lakers that may not have been 100 percent legitimate. As a result, the Lakers could pretend to say that they attempted to lure him in while Dan Hurley could claim that he wants to stay in Storrs and get a larger contract extension than his current six-year, $32.1 million deal.
It's definitely plausible, and a coach is never going to complain about making more money. It seems logical to a degree, as Hurley has never coached outside the northeastern United States.
He has coached for Wagner, Rhode Island and UConn and grew up in Jersey City, New Jersey. The idea of going to the LA Lakers felt like more of a ploy than anything realistic.
With the UConn Huskies now being forced to dish out more money for the back-to-back national champion coach, this is a win-win situation for Hurley, as he's viewed as the guy who didn't want to leave.