Lakers’ $70-million offer not enough for Dan Hurley? ‘There probably is a number’ to leave UConn

Connecticut coach Dan Hurley talked Thursday about the difficulty he had in choosing between staying with the Huskies or becoming the Lakers’ head coach. Making his first public comments since turning down the Lakers’ offer Monday, Hurley said the number would have had to have been pretty extraordinary for him to leave behind his situation in Storrs, Conn. “To leave a place that you feel the way we do and the family connection with my wife, my sons, my mother-in-law, my father — I know how much it means to my dad to go to the Big East tournament and to come to 10 UConn games a year at home and sit courtside when I’m coaching against Rick Pitino, you know?” Hurley said. “After thinking about it earlier in the week, it was something I wanted to explore, you know, the opportunity to potentially coach the Lakers and to coach one of the greatest players of all time and to coach another one of the best players in the NBA in and to lead such a storied franchise and to walk the sidelines where some of the greatest to ever do it, Pat Riley and Phil Jackson,” Hurley said. “From when we landed and started spending time with Rob and Jeanie and spent time around the facility, and then knowing what you’d be leaving at UConn and trying to imagine what it would be like walking into the locker room and telling your team, ‘I’m not with you guys anymore.’ Lakers Plaschke: Dan Hurley rejection is another humiliation for Lakers brand Hiring a new coach should have been a slam dunk, but it was instead an airball, and the failure shows the depths to which the Lakers’ reputation has fallen. your desire to continue to be a part of that and not knowing that that necessarily is something that you could be a part of in the professional ranks.” If he hadn’t given himself a deadline, Hurley said, “I would have tortured myself over the decision for a longer period of time because, you know, the chance to coach the Lakers, LeBron and AD and to work for Jeanie Buss and to work with Rob Pelinka, it was a hard thing to pass up.”