UConn’s Dan Hurley reveals why he turned down Los Angeles Lakers job | Dan Patrick Show | NBC Sports

UConn’s Dan Hurley reveals why he turned down Los Angeles Lakers job | Dan Patrick Show | NBC Sports

he is uh Dan Hurley Yukon head basketball coach backto back national championships turned down the Lakers joining us on the program here first of all congratulations second of all did you splurge on anything new contract what did you buy that might uh surprise us I mean I’m I’m and thanks uh Dan and thanks for having me man um nothing actually the only thing I thought about was uh you know they got um you I got the Raptor pickup truck um you know which was like a a big driver for us winning it so I I I looked at maybe like uh like a vintage Bronco like one of those like cool vintage Broncos but uh I I just I didn’t get anything I got nothing how important is your truck to you that is uh it’s like my armor I love that truck I love it I love it I got hooked on pickup trucks watching watching Yellowstone um you know I kind of think I’m kind of like uh rip you know like the rip of college coaching but are you a different person when you get behind the wheel of your Raptor oh yeah um it’s like Alter Ego you know like um you do you you you’re in a different mode I only drive it during the season I drive it during the winter I drive it um when October uh as The Season’s getting closer and then I’ll drive it all the way to the end and then I get it uh you know I I I take care of the engine and and I get it you know really cleaned well and then I put it away for the summer and I Tre I treat her I I’ll I’ll go in the garage and and I I’ll uh you know I’ll I’ll talk to it and and it and I’ll let it know I care about it but didn’t you have your car stolen the first date you had with your now wife yeah that um that happens and I think she knows that like I’m not like the super romantic type that wasn’t a setup like to kind of keep her at my house you couldn’t take her home because you you uh you had your car stolen yes and the next day her parents were um her parents were coming to campus to take her to breakfast and they that was going to be my first time meeting them so it was like a pretty awkward meeting I wasn’t able to get her daughter back to campus I think they had to pick her up at my apartment so if the Lakers would have thrown in a vintage Bronco twoo um you know the company is in California so uh there wouldn’t have been any shipping could they have done anything looking back on it was there there anything else they could have done that might have swayed you it it was all about really um like how I want to coach and where I want to coach like college I think is the perfect place for me to coach Yukon is the is the perfect place for me to coach in college uh that like meeting Rob and and jeie bus and um they were awesome and it had like uh they almost made me want to do it um but it’s just you know where do I belong um you know where do I get to coach the way I really want to be a coach um you know the great thing about being a college coach Dan is I get to pick the players um I I I get to to to set the tone every day here I decide when when planes leave I decide when we eat I decide when they go to sleep uh I I could I could take their phones away at meals and uh you know like you just have even though you don’t have as much control as you used to as a college coach you you still are an environment as a coach where you have I think the greatest impact on whether your your team can be successful let me let me know if you followed this same kind of feeling I was up for a job I was going to leave ESPN went to another city whined and DED told me all the great things money was great and I was ready to take the job come back home sit down reality sets in and my wife says what is it that you don’t have here and then I just I I said you’re right you come back from LA with your wife it you’re ready to take the job you can’t turn this down it’s LeBron it’s the money it’s La it’s the Lakers and then you come back home reality sets in similar yeah I I I think so even you know going to the I went to a concert at MSG and uh you know just being you know watching Billy Joel at MSG like being in New York uh you know just being a a guy from Jersey and be just knowing how comfortable you are how happy you are just your life couldn’t be better why would you mess with that at this at this point uh but it was it was it was tough it was tough but also now tell me if this is true that you and your wife are texting each other like one two three like are we staying or going one two three are we staying and did you do that multiple times and what happened if your wife says let’s go as opposed to we’re staying I mean I think I had um obviously for making career decisions um I’ve got veto power and that she’s got are you sure about that uh I think well in in like who we’re going to recruit and how we’re going to play maybe not exactly where we’re going to live but you know I was surprised that a lot of people were surprised that that we make decisions as a family that way but what if you wanted to go I I would have I would have uh you know I I I would have I would have convinced my family to do it I would have convinced her to do it I don’t think she was excited to go from Wagner to Rhode Island I I dragged her you know from Staten Island to to the to to to the beautiful state of Rhode Island like Kicking and Screaming to a degree so um but I was surprised that people were surprised that we make decisions like as as a family there uh as a family that way my wife knows me better than anybody in the world and uh there’s no greater strength that I have in making any decisions than my faith and my family uh my faith and my family have been the fuel behind everything that’s good in my life talking to Dan Hurley the Connecticut head basketball coach but you start to look at what you did as a player or what you didn’t do like the underdog like you’re not an underdog anymore but how do you convince yourself to still be an underdog or have that mentality no in my mind I still am an underdog my path and coaching makes me an underdog um you know having been an assistant High School coach coach having been an assistant college coach having Paid Dues for 9 years as a high school head coach and then a low division one coach and then a mid- major uh you know when I look around my profession there there’s not you know a lot of coaches at at Elite schools that have had to pay those dues alone away and have had to prove themselves at uh in such a I don’t want to say a humbling manner but in a much more traditional manner the way coaches used to have to earn opportunities like the one that I have now at Yukon so as you’re looking for different things to give you an edge uh even you know when you achieve like what we’ve achieved and when you’re at the top of the sport I still find plenty of things to uh you know to create friction or or or uh to create an edge relative to the people I’m competing against when I see them on the road recruiting or or wherever how will recruiting change if any changes now that like you guys are the favorites you’re not an underdog now you can go out and go after those top 10 recruits I don’t know if you’ve you’ve always gone after them feels like you’re picking the right people for the system that you have not the biggest name for the system you have well I I think um it it’s uh it’s a challenge not to get away from the type of people that that have gotten us to where we are now that we have access to more five stars um and and and obviously you know we’re the you know we’re the like the the the shiny it program right now like we just can’t get away from our identity in getting the type of people uh that are attracted to stores Connecticut like serious people that yeah they they have uh they got the NBA aspirations but that they understand that when they come here like we’re looking for win-win situations we’re looking for like you got to deliver US championships while we help you get to the NBA can’t just be you know we got you to the NBA because that is not enough when you you put the Yukon uniform on all right the NBA question how will you answer that whenever you get that phone call that will inevitably happen yeah I I think down the line I think as we look you know years down the line um obviously uh the contract and the commitment that Yukon made to me I I never thought i’ i’ you know I’d be doing this for a living like this so um you know I think that’s something that’s going to be like years down the line for me um at the absolute appropriate time uh but that’s not something that I’ll even be on my radar Dan like I’m uh I I had my my chance to kind of see what that looks like and I I think uh that’ll suffice for for several years now I think for me how important uh the chance to make history how much did that factor in coming back try for a three Pat huge uh huge Factor the chance to uh potentially match something that John woodn’t did oh man that’s crazy that’s crazy I mean that that’s that’s mind-blowing those UCLA teams the UCLA program um Alex cariban coming back to school recruiting these players in like Liam mcney who who commits to you just a couple weeks earlier and seeing his face while that whole situation was going on um you know and then like the way people in this state knowing how important Yukon is to the like to the state of Connecticut to the people of Connecticut how they view me here at this point um that meant that means a lot you know like the way you’re received uh so there was a lot that went into it did you talk to LeBron personally and tell him that you weren’t taking the job no um but we had some conversation and that was that was exceptionally cool moment uh to communicate with one of the greatest um and then um you know post uh you know post decision I reached out for him and uh you’ll let him know that uh my offensive system would be really good for any James sons that play moving forward in college uh who’s the best coach in the Hurley family now oh still my that okay all right he’s here he’s here today I’ll tell him I set AO tell him I he gets to practice an hour before just to watch the Players rotation on their shot and but if you go three Pete though Dan yeah he’s I mean you got to be up a get you got to be getting closer to Mount Everest there with your dad yeah if if I three Pete I think he’s uh second best yeah and yeah and then but I know you know just knowing how competitive we all are you know you know Bob’s loaded up with a roster this year so Bob Bob has both both of us in his sights Before I Let You Go we had gin Orma on that that day and he said he had talked to you the night before jokingly said you know about you being the Lakers head coach he said he had no idea that you were being offered this job and he said if it was up to him he would tell you to have taken that job well I became aware maybe um uh like maybe a half hour before that appearance that um that that word was trickling out that uh that there had been conversations and it was potentially uh you know going to be a meeting uh and then the next day it it it it dropped in the morning so um I was staring at him like wondering like did he know like like did you what are the odds though Dan that he says to you you could lead the Lakers to whatever playoff birth or whatever the conversation was and you’re thinking how does he know this that’s what I’m saying I mean I know Gino is like the the goat of all goats but like like how does he does he know so I was so distracted at that hour appearance they were asking me questions up on a de next to him and like I wouldn’t I I I I could think about is did did Gino know something and Gino is my guy so if if I don’t say something and he knows it now I’ve just lost my you know my my buddy so it was a bad spot he put me in good to keep you in the state and uh thanks for joining us Dan you’re the man brother thank you Dan that’s Dan Hurley

UConn men’s basketball head coach Dan Hurley joins the Dan Patrick Show to discuss why he turned down the Los Angeles Lakers job, possibility of coaching in the NBA in the future and more. #NBCSports #DanPatrickShow #LosAngelesLakers
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UConn’s Dan Hurley reveals why he turned down Los Angeles Lakers job | Dan Patrick Show | NBC Sports
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