Choosing Dan Hurley over JJ Redick is a no brainer for the Lakers, in accordance with Geno Auriemma.
Shortly after ESPN reported Thursday morning that the Lakers are getting ready an enormous supply for Hurley following weeks of buzz that Redick is the favourite for the highest job, the UConn girls’s basketball coach revealed on “The Dan Patrick Present” that he spoke with Hurley concerning the subject Wednesday evening.
“That is actually humorous as a result of I occurred to be at a factor with him final evening,” Auriemma stated Thursday. “I do not know what’s occurring, I do not know the place that is going or what’s occurring, however I stated, simply leaned over and I stated, ‘Hey, I believe you might win lots of championships with the Lakers, extra so than a man who’s by no means coached.’ He simply checked out me and nodded and we had an excellent giggle after which this morning I get up and voila. So, I don’t know what’s occurring.”
Whereas some could surprise if Auriemma had an inside tip earlier than ESPN’s bombshell report Thursday morning, he insisted he was in the identical boat as those that woke as much as the information.
“I don’t know why it got here to me … however I stated it and In the event you ask him, he’ll inform you,” Auriemma stated. “I had no thought. I awoke this morning and any person despatched it to me, and I went, ‘You bought to be kidding me.’”
That Auriemma would again Hurley will not be stunning, contemplating they share the identical basketball complicated and he’s seen up shut how Hurley operates.
And, as he famous, Hurley has two nationwide titles and is mostly considered the most effective males’s faculty basketball coach, whereas Redick has not coached at any degree.
Whereas Auriemma has stayed put at UConn, similar to former UConn teaching legend Jim Calhoun, he understands why a coach would depart an incredible faculty job for the NBA in immediately’s NIL age.
NIL has been a rumored think about why a number of distinguished coaches have left their posts.
“The state of faculty basketball is a large number,” Auriemma stated. “If anyone might handle it, although, it might be Danny as a result of he coaches this program prefer it’s a highschool program, like he coached at St. Benedict’s. Their participant improvement program is second to none. However I do suppose that being at UConn and given the state of faculty basketball and the amount of cash now that it’s going to take to have the ability to put collectively a nationwide championship workforce each single 12 months, I believe — and with out figuring out the place it’s going — it’s a charade.
“This concept of student-athlete welfare — each single factor that comes out of the NCAA’s mouth about student-athlete welfare, it’s bulls–t. That has no issue ever anymore. I by no means need to hear anyone utter these phrases related to faculty basketball. They’re skilled athletes, simply not known as that. You may as nicely go coach skilled athletes the place it’s actual.”
Hurley has beforehand talked about his want to ultimately check himself on the NBA degree whereas stating he wouldn’t depart UConn for one more collegiate job.
Teaching the Lakers can be a one-of-one alternative for Hurley.
“If Danny have been to go away and any person stated to me, ‘You understand, he simply took this NBA job,’ I received’t title any specific metropolis — I’d say, you understand, you’re arrange for failure,” Auriemma stated. “But it surely’s the Lakers and I don’t know the main points of it, however in case you’re saying, ‘Hey, I need a 10-year deal. I need the identical deal Brad Stevens bought at Boston (six years, $22 million in 2013)…’”
When Patrick replied, “It is likely to be greater than that,” Auriemma stated: “Properly, then, you understand what, his spouse Andrea won’t like me however he’s loopy it he doesn’t take it.”
Andrea reportedly factored into Hurley turning down Kentucky this offseason along with her desire to remain near their East Coast roots — however Lexington will not be Hollywood.
“Properly that half (Rodeo Drive) she won’t argue with,” Auriemma joked. “It is likely to be all the opposite elements she has an issue with. It’s an enormous household choice, no query about it.”
Auriemma, who simply signed a five-year, $18.7 million contract extension this week to turn into the highest-paid girls’s coach, is aware of it will likely be powerful for the back-to-back champs to interchange Hurley, ought to he depart.
“It’d be a nasty day for UConn, for certain, if this occurs,” Auriemma stated. “It might be an incredible, nice day for Dan Hurley and I’m certain a bittersweet day for Dan Hurley.”
The Lakers parted methods with coach Darvin Ham in Might following a first-round playoff ouster to the Nuggets.
