Seth Greenberg outlines how Lakers job could be better for Dan Hurley than UConn

UConn head coach Dan Hurley is sitting about as pretty as any coach in college sports in recent memory. His Huskies have won back-to-back national championships and could be poised to compete for a third straight.

Which makes it perhaps all that more surprising that Hurley is apparently seriously considering — and in consideration for — the vacant role coaching the Los Angeles Lakers. And while the move might be shocking on the surface, jumping to one of the NBA’s most iconic brands and likely coaching LeBron James is an opportunity few, if any, coaches would pass on.

ESPN college hoops analyst Seth Greenberg explained why Hurley might want to make the jump on First Take on Thursday morning.

“Here’s the deal; the Lakers is a better job if — and here’s my if — if he controls his infrastructure, if he has a say in personnel,” Greenberg said. “I say this all the time; in college, you’ve got to be connected to your athletic director and your assistant coach needs to know who can play for the head coach. In the NBA, you got to be connected to the president and your general manager, personnel people need to understand who can play for the head coach. If that is in place, then he takes the Laker job.

“Coaching, there’s going to be a transition. The Lakers need a culture, they need an identity, they need accountability. They need core beliefs and nonnegotiables, similar to what [Udonis Haslem] went through when he was with the Heat, when when Pat Riley was the coach of the Lakers. They’ve lost a little of that, giving him the authority to have those type of infrastructure, then the Lakers [are] a better job, especially due to the fact that the state of college athletics today.”

Greenberg continued, explaining what he meant by the state of college athletics being less attractive than the stability of the NBA.

“The state of college athletics today, there’s a have and a have not,” Greenberg said. “The Power Five conferences, you have 20% which is going to be your collective bargaining agreement. Twenty percent of the money that they’re they’re generating compared to the Big East, alright. Dan Hurley’s spending a good amount of his time raising money, you don’t have to worry about that in the NBA. He’s not at a place where there’s going to be a donor that’s gonna give him 5 million for his NIL and his collective. So in terms of pure coaching, Danny Hurley — there’ll be a transition period. There’ll be — he’ll need to show agility. He’s not going to be able to coach exactly the same way he did, but he will still hold the team and the players to accountability, the preparation will be the same, the identity will be the same, the culture will be the same.”