NEW YORK - Dan Hurley was the No. 1 story in sports for about four days last summer as he flew to Los Angeles and received a massive offer to leave UConn and become the Lakers’ next head coach. Hurley ultimately turned it down, choosing to stay on the East Coast and continue building on his back-to-back national championships with the Huskies.
The saga created pressure on him, his team - which was already fully assembled and on campus when the news broke - and the university. A few weeks later, UConn signed him to a new six-year contract worth $50 million, with additional incentives.
When the New York Knicks fired head coach Tom Thibodeau following a run to the Eastern Conference finals this June, Hurley - a New Jersey native - was naturally floated as a potential candidate.
“Not another summer of that,” he told The Hartford Courant’s Dom Amore a day after the job opened.
Hurley was in New York City on Wednesday night, sitting beside Liam McNeeley and his family as they waited to hear his name called as the 29th overall pick in the NBA draft. Later, he stood in a hallway at Barclays Center, speaking with reporters. The Knicks still hadn’t hired a coach, so the question came up again.
“Where’s Liam? Can I just take my pictures and drive back?” Hurley said, half-joking, when Roger Rubin of Newsday brought it up.
“No, no. I mean, the way that this year went for me personally and how tough it was on UConn - all of us, the staff, the players, the fans, just everyone that supports us - I mean, as soon as this year was over, your total mindset was like, try to regroup mentally because this year was a lot. And then get locked in on putting together a championship roster and play this season the way that we should have played this past year,” Hurley said.
More NBA job openings will come. Hurley’s name will likely surface again. But last summer wasn’t the right time. And this summer wasn’t either.
The Huskies’ head coach spoke for more than 20 minutes, past midnight, about everything from the roster he’s built to contend for a third national title in four years, to the growing rivalry with Rick Pitino, to the brutal schedule he and his staff arranged for the season ahead. All the things he didn’t want to walk away from.
“So yeah, no, that’s not even something I thought about (or) considered,” he said. “I’m a college coach.”