The Los Angeles Lakers’ pursuit of UConn head coach Dan Hurley appears to be heating up. He is en route to meet with franchise leaders on Friday, ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski reported.
Hurley is “on his way” to meet with Lakers general manager Rob Pelinka and owner Jeanie Buss to discuss a deal to become the next head coach, Wojnarowski said on “NBA Countdown” Thursday night. News of the team’s interest in the back-to-back national champion coach broke early Thursday morning, and it sounds like talks will intensify soon.
As Wojnarowski noted, there’s still plenty to figure out.
“Dan Hurley, I’m told, is on his way to meet with the Lakers tomorrow,” Wojnarowski told Malika Andrews ahead of the NBA Finals. “He’ll meet with Rob Pelinka – their vice president and GM – and owner Jeanie Buss, and they’ll start to dig into what a Hurley-Laker partnership would look like. Hurley knows Rob Pelinka. They have spent some time together in the past, talked basketball. But this will be his first time meeting with Jeanie Buss.
“Certainly, the Lakers would want to get a deal with Dan Hurley wrapped up this weekend. I expect these talks will move quickly. There’s a lot of traction here between Hurley and the Lakers, but they certainly have more talking to do about whether there’s a fit here. Dan Hurley, back at Connecticut, has a chance obviously to win a third straight NCAA championship.”
Hurley has been at UConn since 2018 and helped take the Huskies all the way back to the mountaintop after a rough end to the Kevin Ollie era. All told, Hurley has a 140-58 overall record at UConn, including a 71-41 mark in conference play across the American and Big East. He also stacked up the honors this year by winning the Big East and Naismith National Coach of the Year awards.
The Lakers’ search has taken multiple turns since parting ways with Darvin Ham. ESPN analyst J.J. Redick has also been reported as a frontrunner, but the attention turned to Hurley Thursday morning. According to Wojnarowski, the Lakers think highly of him – and he has a big decision coming up.
“The Lakers see Dan Hurley as the best available coach in the marketplace – NBA or college,” Wojnarowski later said. “He has been the focus of their search from the very beginning. … Hurley will be there with his agent, Bret Just. The Lakers are gonna discuss with him the framework of what will be a long and lucrative contract if he chooses to leave Connecticut and not pursue a three-peat next season.
“But Dan Hurley is very serious about this opportunity. He’s certainly weighing a lot right now. But the Lakers want Hurley. They want to get this deal done this weekend.”
The post Report: UConn’s Dan Hurley to meet with Los Angeles Lakers on Friday appeared first on On3.