How Dan Hurley currently feels about taking Lakers job

On Thursday morning, it was reported by NBA insider Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN that the Los Angeles Lakers were in advanced talks with UConn basketball head coach Dan Hurley to become their next head coach following the firing of Darvin Ham. Hurley just finished leading the Huskies to back to back national championships and has received the praise of Lakers star LeBron James at time on social media for his inventive offensive sets and inarguable on court success.

“The Los Angeles Lakers are targeting Connecticut’s Dan Hurley to become the franchise’s next coach and are preparing a massive, long-term contract offer to bring the back-to-back national champion to the NBA,” reported Wojnarowski on X, the social media platform formerly referred to as Twitter.

Now, more light is being shed on how Hurley himself feels about the situation and the large amounts of money that are likely being thrown in his direction at the current moment.

First, it was reported that Hurley had indeed met with his UConn players to discuss the news.

“Dan Hurley met with his players at UConn this morning and informed them he’s been in talks with the Lakers, a source tells Fox Sports,” reported John Fanta of FOX Sports on X. “Hurley didn’t want to hide the fact that this is real. Huskies have a noon practice and Hurley told his players it’s business as usual for now.”

Fanta then reported that “Hurley is ‘truly at a 50-50′ in weighing his decision whether to make the leap up for LeBron James and the Lakers or stay in the college game and try to achieve something unthinkable in the modern era.”

A source told Fanta that Hurley “deals with things mentally where he’s constantly seeking to prove what he can do.”

A wild 48 hours

Just two days ago, it was reported by Shams Charania of Stadium and The Athletic that the Lakers were closing in on former NBA sharpshooter and current ESPN employee JJ Redick to be their next head coach. Redick of course currently has his “Mind The Game” podcast with James where the two break down plays, strategies, and other intricacies of the game that go beyond the narrative spewing typically seen in sports media spaces.

Hurley, meanwhile, just finished leading the Huskies to their second straight national championship, amazingly never really having to play a close game in either one of their NCAA tournament runs.

While the Lakers undoubtedly have more money, resources, attention, and star power than what UConn would offer, the chance to accomplish a three-peat in today’s college basketball era would be a lot to turn down, especially for someone as competitive as Hurley seems to be.

As previously mentioned, the Lakers are only in position because they recently fired Darvin Ham–and his entire staff, for that matter–following their second straight playoff loss to the Denver Nuggets.

The reality is that no matter who is coach, Rob Pelinka has some work to do to shore up this flawed roster for the Lakers to truly compete in the vaunted Western Conference.