The pros and cons of Dan Hurley and the Lakers

Will he or won't he? Rarely has a story dominated the day in multiple sports the way that the Lakers’ pursuit of Hurley has. From L.A. to New England, all eyes are watching.

Courtesy of Getty Images.

This free story is brought to you by Luxee, a subscription box that helps you discover game-changing fitness + wellness brands. All members get a newly curated box of 5-8 full-size products that help improve performance, recovery, and longevity each season. Best of all, readers of The Inside Zone get $15 OFF when they subscribe to Luxee using the code: INSIDEZONE. Subscribe here today!

When Dan Hurley won his second straight national title, we declared him the new and needed face of men’s college basketball.

Two months later, he may be saying goodbye to college basketball altogether.

Rarely does a newsbreak dominate the day in multiple sports the way that the Lakers’ pursuit of Hurley has, as the story was first brought to the world’s attention by a Thursday morning bombshell report from ESPN.

This is Day 1 of the NBA Finals, after all, after a week-long break.

Is anyone talking about the Mavericks and the Celtics right now?

No, this is about the Lakers, Hurley, UConn and college basketball as a whole.

Nothing has been decided just yet. Surely, this isn’t an easy decision for Hurley. And we won’t pretend to know what’s going on his mind. Nor do we proclaim this decision, one way or the other, to be a wide-sweeping indictment on the state of college sports. Hurley is the best at what he does, the Lakers are often the best at what they do, and a match between two big names would make perfect sense in any era. (Lest we forget Mike Krzyzewski almost made this move 20 years ago.)

Here are some practical reasons why Hurley could ultimately bolt the Huskies — and why he could ultimately say no to the NBA’s glamour franchise.

Pro: The chance to coach LeBron James

You could sit here and say that the NBA will likely always be an option for a coach as talented as Hurley. In reality, the Lakers present a unique situation with one of the greatest players of all-time, a guy who will turn 40 in the middle of next season. James averaged 25.7 points, 7.3 rebounds and 8.3 assists this past season, all in line with his career averages. For someone as steeped in basketball history as Hurley, the opportunity to coach the game’s all-time leading scorer may be too hard to ignore.

Another wrinkle here: The very real possibility of James teaming up with his son Bronny James this fall. If anyone can appreciate the familial aspect of that storyline, it is Hurley, who just coached his son Andrew on back-to-back national title teams, and whose father Bob is in the Hall of Fame and is arguably the greatest high school coach of all-time.

Con: Just how much power will you have?

Superstars such as James often call the shots, a reality accepted by anyone who coaches in the NBA. Still, that could be a shock to the system for a college coach who acts as both the coach and the de facto general manager of his program. Even in this player-empowerment era of college athletics, a coach with Hurley’s gravitas still has plenty of control and is the face of his program. His comments, his temperament, his comedy, all of it plays well now. Can he continue to be himself — and be celebrated for it — in an environment where you have multiple A-list players commanding all of the oxygen? (Not to mention the A-list celebrities who regularly sit courtside at Lakers games.)

Since Del Harris was fired in 1999, the only Lakers coach to last longer than four seasons has been Phil Jackson (twice). Frank Vogel was fired two year after winning a title. Darvin Ham was fired one year after a debut season that went all the way to the conference finals.

In the NBA, much like the NFL, you get hired to get fired.

Pro: The chance to coach the Lakers

This is the glamour franchise of all glamour franchises, an organization that just had an HBO scripted series based on its Showtime run of the 1980s, plus a subsequent 10-part Apple TV documentary. Even James, for all of his basketball heroics, wasn’t fully embraced by Los Angeles in his first season, which speaks more to the allure of the Lakers themselves than it does any shortcoming on James’ part. The Lakers are tied with the Celtics with an NBA-best 17 championships. If Boston beats Dallas this year, as it is heavily favored to do, the chase to catch the Celtics and win No. 18 will be back on. Perhaps no one is better suited for that role than Hurley, who until recently has been an underdog for most of his basketball life, from living in brother Bobby’s shadow as a player to trying to live up to his father’s rep as a coach.

One other note here: The Lakers’ brand power matters to the NBA in a way that certain college programs’ only used to. Now, in the NIL and portal era, you can see John Calipari leave Kentucky for Arkansas — a move that would have been unheard of even five years ago — and then see Kentucky struggle to hire a replacement, as it is no longer as attractive of a job in a college sports landscape where good coaches can win big their own way elsewhere. This is a much flatter college basketball world — although that makes what Hurley has done in winning consecutive titles at UConn that much more impressive.

Con: Can you really walk away from history?

Only John Wooden’s UCLA program has won three-straight men’s basketball national titles, as the Bruins won seven in a row and 10 in a 12-year span from 1964-75. Hurley and UConn were among the favorites to win it all next season before Thursday’s news, and every comment and action the coach has made since winning his second title in April has indicated that he is hellbent on pursuing a three-peat and not getting complacent.

“Where’s the East Regional next year?” he told his team the day after winning it all for a second time. “All right, the first two rounds are in Providence, and then the Sweet 16 and Elite 8 are in Newark, N.J., where I lived and worked for nine years. And then the Final Four is in San Antonio.

“We’re gonna enjoy this for a couple days, but it’s gonna fade quickly and you’re gonna get back to work and you’re gonna put a roster together that can hopefully go for a dynasty.”

Pro: If you fail, you will be welcomed back in college

A list of recent college coaches who have tried to do what Hurley might do in leaving for the pros includes Calipari, Rick Pitino, John Beilein, Fred Hoiberg, Brad Stevens and Billy Donovan. Only Stevens and Donovan have had any success in the pros, and their names are brought up any time there’s a blueblood opening. The other four failed spectacularly — and three were still immediately welcomed back with open arms to big college jobs, re-establishing their success at that level. (The now-71-year-old Beilein has not coached since his catastrophic 54-game stint with the Cavaliers, although it’s not as if his name doesn’t still get thrown around for open jobs on occasion.)

Basically, no matter how good or bad Hurley does with the Lakers, his name will almost assuredly be at the top of the list of any major college opening. Perhaps that personal cushion gives him a little more freedom to be himself at the next level, a la Chip Kelly in the NFL.

Con: Can you re-wire yourself for all the losing to come?

Analytically speaking, this year’s Celtics are one of the best NBA teams ever. They have lost just 20 games in the regular season and postseason combined and are four wins away from a title.

Hurley lost 21 games, total, in his last three seasons at UConn. And you can bet that in the moment, each loss felt like it would take a year off his life.

“There’s a certain level of shame that comes with losing,” Hurley said in 2022, per The (New London, Conn.) Day. “It’s devastating for me when we’re losing. I find it hard to breathe.”

The pro lifestyle, and the ebbs and flows of an 82-game season, would be a massive adjustment. Yes, Hurley has had four losing campaigns in 14 seasons across three stops as a college coach, but each came in Year 1 or Year 2 of a rebuild.

There is no rebuilding in the NBA, at least with a franchise as star-driven as the Lakers.

---

Thanks to all who subscribe to The Inside Zone. Please consider a paid subscription or gift a subscription to a friend or family member here: