Dan Hurley Makes Shocking Admission About The Lakers Last Season

Before settling on JJ Redick as their head coach, the Los Angeles Lakers were in hot pursuit of Dan Hurley to take over the head coaching role of the team after firing Darvin Ham.

Hurley won back-to-back national championships with the UConn Huskies in 2023 and 2024. He was the hottest coach in college basketball and someone who could clearly get the most out of young people.

Ultimately, Hurley decided to turn down the job and stay in Connecticut. While promoting his book, he made a surprising admission about the Lakers.

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Dan Hurley Admits to Watching a lot of The Lakers Last Season

While appearing on the Zach Lowe Show, Hurley admitted that he watched a lot of the Lakers last season, envisioning what could have been had he taken over as the head coach.

"Yeah, well, Zach, I ended up watching more Lakers games this year than I probably have watched since, you know, Kobe and Shaq and the Showtime Lakers, right?"

Hurley was clearly watching to see what kind of team he would have been coaching and how it would have felt if he did that. He did come very close to taking that job and leaving UConn.

Instead, Hurley decided to stay in college basketball and leave the NBA behind, at least for now. Hurley did seem to keep the door open to making the move, citing fatigue from the transfer portal and NIL.

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The Lakers are Happy That They hired JJ Redick to Take The Job

Adding Redick to the staff seems to have worked out. In his first season as a head coach at any level, Redick was able to lead the Lakers to the third seed in the Western Conference.

Redick should only be better this season now that he's got some coaching experience, especially handling superstars such as Luka Doncic and LeBron James.

Hurley's coaching style might not translate into the NBA game. He needs total control of his program, and in the NBA, the stars are the ones who control the franchise and how things go.

The Lakers are a team that is looking to win a championship this year. Hurley might have been over his head.

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