Last week, ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski upended the reporting on the Los Angeles Lakers’ coaching search with a report that their real target was UConn coach Dan Hurley (who hadn’t really been mentioned before) and they were set to make him a massive offer. Wojnarowski also added that the interviews the Lakers had done to that point, including with ESPN NBA analyst JJ Redick (who others had reported as the “front-runner” for the job), were “due diligence.” But on Monday, Wojnarowski relayed that Hurley has declined the Lakers’ giant offer:
BREAKING: Connecticut’s Dan Hurley has turned down the Los Angeles Lakers’ six-year, $70 million offer and will return to chase a third straight national title, sources tell ESPN. LA would’ve made him one of NBA’s six highest paid coaches. pic.twitter.com/hEXo3o00SR
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) June 10, 2024
Hurley was making $32.1 million over six years in college under a deal he signed last year. But, as per Jeff Goodman of The Field of 68, he looks set for a new college deal that will significantly boost that number (albeit not to the levels of what the Lakers were offering):
The Lakers offer was for 6 years and around $70 million, per sources.
Hurley has elected to remain at UConn and has a 6-year deal worth approximately $50 million on the table, source told @TheFieldOf68. https://t.co/D93l8YCRmT
— Jeff Goodman (@GoodmanHoops) June 10, 2024
More notably on a media side, Hurley’s decision raises questions about if the Lakers will again consider Redick (who is currently on ESPN’s lead NBA announcing team alongside Mike Breen and Doris Burke, and is calling the NBA Finals on ABC with them). And it also raises the question of if Redick will be eager to jump to the Lakers after previous reporting, particularly from his ESPN colleague Wojnarowski, had him listed as just a “due diligence” interview:
“Throughout this process [Dan Hurley] is the coach they’ve been after. Everybody else has been essentially due process interviews, due diligence.”
Did Woj just call JJ Redick a due diligence interview? pic.twitter.com/1mbTnTrTlV
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) June 6, 2024
Of course, other reports before the Hurley discussion had Redick featured much more prominently. Last Tuesday, Shams Charania had the Lakers “zeroing in” on “front-runner” Redick (although New Orleans Pelicans’ associate head coach James Borrego was also mentioned as a strong candidate in that piece). And on Wednesday, Charania had the Lakers “really infatuated” with Redick. There had also been previous reports from ESPN’s Dave McMenamin that had Redick as “a real candidate” and from The Los Angeles Times‘ Dan Woike that had him “viewed as the favorite,” and even Wojnarowski said he was “certainly somebody that they’re intrigued with” on May 11. That may have been “due diligence,” but with their top target off the board, they certainly could go back to looking hard at Redick.
The big question is if Redick will be eager to take that job if it’s offered, especially after the Lakers’ move for Hurley became so public. Being a second choice isn’t easy. And Redick has lots of other irons in the fire, including that top NBA broadcasting job and his Mind The Game podcast with LeBron James. He’s said he won’t address his future (and specifically, Charania’s reporting on it) until after the Finals, so we may have to wait and see what happens with this. But the Redick to the Lakers conversation certainly could reignite now Hurley has withdrawn from the running.
[Adrian Wojnarowski on X/Twitter]
