Dan Hurley on the decision to turn down Lakers: 'This was never a leverage situation for me'

Dan Hurley denied that he took the Los Angeles Lakers interview for any sort of leverage with UConn.

The basketball coach ended up staying with the Huskies after back to back national championships. But the Lakers “swung for the fences,” so to speak.

Hurley already had a contract in place at UConn but didn’t want to deny himself the opportunity to talk to LA. it just wasn’t used to sweeten the UConn situation.

“Well, that to me is one of the dumbest takes I’ve heard,” Hurley said on the Dan Le Batard Show. “One of the worst takes I’ve ever heard is like, this was a leverage play by me to improve my situation at UConn. I don’t need leverage here. We won back to back national championships, you know, at this place, and this was never a leverage situation for me. I got a contract in place here for a couple of weeks and the financial part terms of salary has been done for a while. 

“There are some other parts like NIL and staff salaries and some different things that I needed, that I want adjusted, that I’m not comfortable with. “But the sense or the idea that this was some conspiracy to get me a sweeter deal at UConn is just lazy.”

Hurley dind;t know what he was going to do until he got back. Ultimately, after sleeping on it, Hurley wanted to stay in a familiar place.

“It was truly like a gut wrenching decision for me because I was really, Sunday night going into Monday where I had to cut a deadline in my mind,” Hurley said. “I was torn and I didn’t know what I was going to do until I went to bed.”

Hurley first got to UConn in 2018. During that time, he oversaw the Huskies’ transition from the AAC back into the Big East. 

He also, in the process, rebuilt the program and led them to the NCAA Tournament in four straight seasons. That included runs to win the national championship in both 2023 and 2024. 

Now, he’s set to return for the 2024-25 season with the goal of winning a third straight national title.Prior to his time at UConn, Hurley was the head coach at Rhode Island and Wagner. He also played his own college basketball at Seton Hall and comes from a basketball family, with his father and brother both coaching the sport as well.