Fox college basketball announcer John Fanta has been in the front row for the UConn men’s basketball dynasty and could probably write the definitive story on head coach Dan Hurley.
So when Fanta talks Hurley, you know it’s coming from a genuine place.
Amid an 18-9 season for the Huskies and a generational trade sending Luka Dončić to the Los Angeles Lakers, Fanta joined the Pardon My Take podcast and was asked to revisit a huge what-if between Hurley and the Lakers from this past summer. The Lakers famously tried to lure Hurley to L.A. after his second straight NCAA championship, only for the coach to reject the offer.
Asked whether the Dončić trade and UConn’s step back this season would make Hurley regret that decision, Fanta said no.
“I don’t think that he would regret it. I don’t think he lives with regret that he didn’t take that job. I don’t,” Fanta said. “Because I think that Dan is so happy with his wife and his situation of being the king. And this goes back to why I feel he didn’t take it. If you got to the NBA, you become secondary if not tertiary … you could get in the headlines, but not for the right reasons.”
Just this season, Dan Hurley has made national news for his tantrums toward officials and for calling himself “the best coach in the f***ing sport.” Fanta not only appreciates the pro wrestling character act from the champion head coach but also thinks Hurley clearly enjoys being in the spotlight.
“We’re not breaking down NBA head coaches during this time of year. Hurley’s in the headlines every day,” added Fanta, who covers Big East basketball for Fox and the conference’s digital network. “He loves it, and that’s a good thing. We need more of that energy in college basketball.”
Not only is Hurley’s act perfect for a sport that gave us Bob Knight, Rick Pitino, and Bob Huggins, but it also goes against how the NBA works.
“If he’s doing that in the NBA, the NBA people are looking at it like, ‘this is not going to last,'” Fanta explained. “He would have had to change everything about his act, I feel, to be in the NBA, where coaches to me are not the priority. The NBA is the furthest thing from a coach’s league. If you even so much as make one mistake, you could be eaten up and thrown out immediately. He is best in college, and I don’t think he regrets it.”
To add some context, Hurley also leveraged the Lakers’ offer into a raise at UConn. The sequence of events made many question whether Hurley’s interest in L.A. was legitimate, but it worked out for him. And even in a down year in Storrs, the Huskies are still projected to be an 8-seed in the NCAA men’s basketball tournament.
Dan Hurley gets to rule college hoops and makes a ton of money doing it. Even compared with coaching Dončić, that is, in fact, a pretty good gig.
