The Lakers have been ‘RELENTLESS’! – Woj on motive for Dan Hurley as team’s next HC 👀 | First Take

The Lakers have been ‘RELENTLESS’! – Woj on motive for Dan Hurley as team’s next HC 👀 | First Take

I’m in a great mood going through the rundown of the show and then this whoa seriously WTF out of nowhere write this down for me the Lakers have been in pursuit of Dan Hurley since their job open this has been their number one candidate and there are Traction in these conversations uh they have had contact they’re going to talk much more in the coming days but the Lakers are preparing a massive long-term offer for Dan Hurley they want him to be a program builder in La that they want a coach who can span not just this LeBron James Anthony Davis error but beyond it and they consider him to be the best coach available in the market Dan Hurley has never made any secret of his ambition as someday coach in the NBA he is not afraid of challenges the Lakers are the Mountaintop in terms of scrutiny stature all the things that come with that job Dan Hurley is listening and he is listening closely right now back-to-back national championships he has the opportunity to do something no one’s done since John Wooden and that’s when three in a row but he has now uh a point in time where he’s got to make a really hard decision about making that jump to the NBA is this the time forame for him and the Lakers are Relentless right now in trying to close this deal I was getting ready to ask you that was my follow-up question what’s taking it so long then if he’s been their number one target all of these weeks they’ve obviously targeted him they want him they’ve made that very very clear what has taken it so long for them to reach a decision or to reach a conclusion on this matter these talks now I Dan Hurley had to get his arms around the idea of the NBA of moving across the country of a group that he is very fond of Alex caraban just decided to come back for his junior year First Team all biggies player he’s got a top five preseason team not an easy decision but the Lakers have been in Pursuit and now Dan Hurley has essentially said let’s talk further about this let’s get into this the offer is going to be significant it is going to be longterm it is going to speak to having some stain power in this job and what Rob penka what jeie bus are selling early on is we want you to put in place everything you’ve done Player Development you know some really Innovative X’s and0 stuff but really Dan Hurley’s ability to connect with players Drive players he’s a phenomenal coach he’s amazing yeah he well yeah let me ask you this question well last question before I let Wendy and obviously Andrea get in on this what if any reservations are there on Dan Hurley’s side about the Lakers I know obviously leaving this program Yukon that you built over the last six years back toback national titles the players that have committed the players that are there whatever that’s one thing but when he looks at the Lakers if any if there are any reservations that exist what do you believe they are in his mind based off of what you’re hearing your reporting tells you well I think it’s important for him to get get to know the Laker people Rob penka jeie bus he’s going to have that opportunity here in the coming days to get to know them better to see how this Vision aligns um this has to be a partnership Danny Hurley’s never had a GM before as a college coach you’re the you’re the owner you’re the GM you’re the coach they’ve got to be able to see players in a style of play and I think what Rob Pena is telling Danny Hurley is he’s going to give him a lot of latitude to bring in the players that he sees fit fit for him but the idea of his development system with the young players they already have in LA with the ones they’re going to draft including you know they have the 55th overall pick LeBron James bronny James we know how much he has wanted to play with his son part of the reason you weren’t sure about the Lakers before and Rich Paul would even talk about this they weren’t necessarily A developmental program that changes the day Danny Hurley walks in the door and so all of those factors it’s the Mountaintop and that’s what appeals to Dan Hurley he knows all that comes with this job and the NBA has always been a goal of him goal of his and the Lakers are putting in front of him an offer that is going to be very difficult to say no to let me speak to the LeBron James side of it when this process started for the Lakers when they dismissed Darvin ham they obviously spoke to LeBron about the coaching situation from what I understand what LeBron said to them was you have to hire somebody who is for Beyond just me I might be here for another year I might be here for two years you’ve got to make a decision that’s built around Anthony Davis that’s built around what the Lakers need for the next decade not just what I need certainly his feelings on the head coach are going to be taken into account but that’s the message LeBron gave them this type of hire this type of going for this type of candidate aligns with that secondly LeBron has prayed Dan Hurley and his Acumen very recently in public especially after this podcast he did with JJ reic it is incredibly ironic that he just did a podcast right after he won the Second National Title in a row with JJ talking about exos talking about where he gets some of his creativity talking about how he’s morph as a coach and I do think that is going to be received positively by LeBron um any coaching person any anybody that the Lakers were looking for in this hire is going to be some level of a risk because there wasn’t a Bonafide highly proven NBA coach sitting there the only coach that was really out there that met that criteria was Mike buholzer the Suns moved in on that very quickly and made that higher whoever the Lakers were going to hire they were going to have to step out a little bit of their comfortone so that’s one of the reasons why you saw JJ reck’s name attached to it because they were looking for somebody who had very high potential yeah so if you’re going to take a you’re going to make a highrisk hire which any coach who never been a head coach in the NBA would be what you want is a high reward Dan Hurley is a high reward type situation I love this discussion great job by the way here’s the deal y’all now let’s get to the portion the first tap portion of what this is really about the hell we’re talking about Dan hurly there’s nothing to talk about he’s a two-time national champion back to back universally recognized as the best in college basketball right now okay we know what he breaks the it’s ain’t no damn subject about him it’s the fact of the matter is I don’t care what job you’re talking about you mention the name Dan Hurley everybody has to stand down and go like this how can we argue with that there’s nothing to question this what are you going to say about him he’s that dude and if you know anything about his daddy one of the alltime greats I mean please I mean the Man Comes the pedigree is there this is about the Lakers now I would remind everybody that since winning the championship all right in 20110 let’s go down the list you had Mike Brown as a coach we’ve had Bernie Bickerstaff as a coach we’ve had uh uh Mike D Tony as a coach we’ve had Byron Scott as a coach we’ve had Luke walson as a coach we’ve had Frank vogle as a coach we’ve had Darin ham as a coach okay that’s seven different coaches over the last 13 14 years these are the Lakers that we’re talking about here and there’s a championship in the middle of all of that or there the tail end of all of that because Frank Bogle helped deliver that with Anthony Davis and LeBron James and those boys in the bubble but it’s been May and so now what we’re talking about is a situation where even at GM I like Rob pinka I respect Rob pinka I think Rob pinka has had moments where you question certain things but for the most part I think he’s done a decent job in Los Angeles it’s not here to cast any aspersions on him but he’s a former agent who now became the GM so when I think about Dan Hurley going to the Los Angeles Lakers and I think about Rob palinka jeie bus to me is just border of Governor the sweetest people on the planet everybody roots for you you know anything about Genie bus you can’t root against her she’s just a wonderful person okay but the folks under her who I also like you have to look at them and the structure that you see existing with other NBA franchises hasn’t necessarily existed with the Lakers so now I look at Dan Hurley and what I’m saying is clearly you’re trying to move in that direction but you’re trying to move in that direction with people in a in an executive position within the franchise that that aren’t known for associating themselves with that kind of culture that kind of continuity that kind of I don’t know the other word I’m I’m just losing it right now but I’m looking at it from that standpoint and I’m saying H how does that work if you gonna hand the Reigns to Danny Hurley you can’t come to him after a season or two and say we we we we want to move in a different direction oh no no no no no you stuck with this brother this brother is going to be essentially the man in town the boss how receptive is the are the lak is going to be to that how much that’s going to work to me the only answer that I have for that is winning winning cures all of that but the second is trepidation the second is trouble in Paradise per se W how do you think Danny Hurley would handle that based on what you know about him it everything about going to the NBA from college basketball is a major adjustment it’s almost like a different sport and it’s funny in talking ahe coaches this spring who’ve been you know spending time studying yukon’s players for the draft they’re watching yukon’s offensive actions I’ve had more than one of them say to me while Danny Hurley’s doing stuff in college I don’t see anybody else doing and I asked one coach it was even really before this Laker situation do you think it would translate to the NBA the answer was absolutely it would so there’s all those things certainly you have to evolve in how you talk to officials how you talk to players Danny Hurley said to me once it was pre this Laker situation we were talking about the NBA and he said listen I know that I talked to my son differently at 21 than I did when he was 10 years old meaning I understand you’re going to talk to NBA players differently than your college players those are all the things you have to wrap your arms around if you’re Dan Hurley but none bigger than you have to work with a GM who you have to reach sometimes it’s reaching a consensus together on player Personnel Trad draft picks or sometimes it’s accepting a player that the organization wants and you may not be as enthusiastic about those are all the conversations that they’re they’re having now they’re starting to have they’re going to get deeper into do we align and see each other but what Rob penka and Jeannie bus are saying with this hire is we are handing a lot of this over to Dan Hurley this is going to be his program we want him to put it in place to go beyond LeBron James we had Pat Riley we had Phil Jackson with the Lakers think is Dan Hurley is the next great long-term Legacy coach in La that’s what they’re bank and let’s not forget they were willing to do this for Mike shashy but he turned it down 20 years ago 20 years ago 20 years ago it’s totally different but 20 years ago I guess what I’m asking is God forbid what if Dan Hurley turns it down well Wendy I’m curious why you think Dan Hurley was the guy rather than other candidates and how this could potentially affect the Lakers draft this is a bit of a perfect storm because you’re not as as W just said and Stephen A said you’re not getting the best coach in college basketball 20 years ago they just to remind you they offered Mike Shashi a fiveyear $40 million contract in 2004 you know who reported that story this guy right here Stephen A8 million year was that a Steve bomb back in the day8 million a year $8 million a year in 20 2004 as a huge offer and and he has talked over the years about how close he came to taking that job but ultimately he didn’t and five years ago I think if you were you know the Cavs tried to hire Bill self when they hired David blat they tried to hire Bill self Bill self could have been coaching LeBron James yeah Bill self didn’t want to leave Kansas okay this is a a moment where you can you know we talked this earlier this morning Jim Harbaugh leaves the University of Michigan yeah where he’s got his alma mater winning the national championship he doesn’t want to do this college stuff anymore so have an opportunity where you can get top talent out of college and there’s not a great opportunity for to hire another coach and with MBA experience [Music]

On First Take, Stephen A. Smith, Adrian Wojnarowski, Brian Windhorst and Andraya Carter join Molly Qerim to discuss the breaking news that the Los Angeles Lakers are targeting UConn Huskies’ Dan Hurley as their next head coach.

0:00 Woj details the news
4:30 Lakers as a developmental program
6:30 Stephen A. sounds off!
9:45 College basketball to NBA adjustment

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