Dan Hurley Opens Up About “Gut-Wrenching” Decision to Turn Down Lakers Job To Stay at UCONN

Dan Hurley in his first interview since turning down the Los Angeles Lakers to stay at UCONN. In a surprisingly honest and vulnerable conversation, Hurley shares how he went about making his “gut-wrenching” decision, the embarrassment he felt over being the center of the story, what he heard on TV that didn’t actually apply to his conversations, whether or not he learned if LeBron will be a Laker next year, why he calls one of his players Stewgotz, and how his family felt about the decision. Plus, Stugotz tries to guess Hurley’s Top 5 Billy Joel Songs.

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[Music] do you get annoyed every time Dan levard pontificates about the sports media industry well to bad mother he know damn what time for media this one’s interesting I’m promising you that people are interested in this one I have seen what Ethan Strauss is doing with his substack uh stats people say that I live in an echo chamber but I do like people who think differently than me and can execute uh making me think a little bit Ethan Strauss at his substack uh he and I are not aligned on a lot of things but one place where we are aligned is in finding fascinating what’s happening with wo and chams because these are the two most competitive monsters that I’ve ever seen it’s King Kong and Godzilla of the information business and Shams learned it from his mentor who’s the most competitive person I’ve ever met in sports media who has relationships with the executives with the old guard in basketball the people who have controlled all of the power in basketball and his Protege who is 30 years old and is much different than him traffics in the information from labor from the players and so there has been a fight at the top of the food chain and Stat I will tell you that Adrien wowski is one of the best writers I have ever seen he doesn’t do it anymore he cannot he is now in the information business and it’s been rough to watch one of the greatest sports writers I’ve ever seen condense to cubes of information as fast as you can because that’s where the money is uh these days and that’s where the power is these days that’s where the interest is these days I mean the money the power the interest all of it the information guys are valuable but when I tell you that this is one of the great Sports writers of my time and I saw the way that Mike Lupa tried to bury any up incomers in that City to see him rise to the level of power he has and this is a man who’s been a friend for a long time although I’ve said some things recently that I don’t think would have him calling me a friend anymore my guess is that he’s pretty mad at me because I didn’t notice until after I left at ESPN how scared everybody in basketball was who worked there if they weren’t totally aligned with the guy who was running the basketball business there to see Shams on McAfee is such a from McAfee to wge and the established infrastructure no one is allowed on ESPN basketball stuff until Shams on McAfee that WJ isn’t good with to see his enemy in the middle of the work day on max AE is hugely interesting to me and then to see them this far apart on what the Lakers were doing and fighting at the top of the information food chain to produce an offer a a story around Hurley that I don’t think any of us but WJ saw coming like that was not something that people were talking about before WJ reported it after Shams had reported JJ reic is the front runner I mean Dan Hurley has talked about going to the NBA what to coach in the NBA but I I’m with you no one saw this one coming the Laker job coming it is interesting with McAfee because he is doing that just to piss off WJ and believe me it pisses off WJ all right uh let’s welcome in we’ll talk more about this in a little bit but the herley family is basketball royalty like they really are and WJ wrote the book on Dan’s father who like conquered the Northeast teaching basketball correctly it’s kind of crazy honestly to see this family dominate this sport this way because they know how to coach fundamental basketball in a way that outsmarts everyone they’re playing against Dan Hurley’s dad is a legend it’s unbelievable a better Coach than Dan Dan’s the bum Dan’s the bum in the family he’s the bum in the family he’s underachieved with only a couple of championships the bum joins us now and this is what a bum is stat he could have been living in Malibu and said he’s coming from an A luxurious all day camp for high schoolers in Orlando where was 100 degrees yesterday e stores over La stores Connecticut over a home in Malibu coaching uh LeBron one of the great idiots of our time ladies and gentlemen Dan Hurley with us let’s go Dan yeah hey guys uh welcome sir I was confused by the last week congratulations on all your success uh and it’s certainly deserved for you to be the big free agent negotiating for Laker money but what do you make of the last 10 days of your life uh Wild Man I mean just just just wild I think um you know for me you just kind of like last week beginning of the week maybe Monday um you know you start to you know have uh you know conversation with with your agent um you know about about what your serious interest level would be making such a such a move um you know so you you really the beginning of last week you started really putting into my mind um you know what what um you know was it something I would really put serious consideration into um and after thinking about it like earlier in the week um you know was something I wanted to explore um you know the opportunity to to potentially coach the Lakers and uh to coach one of the greatest players of all time and to coach another you know one of the best you know players in the NBA in ad and and uh you know to to lead such a a stored franchise and to walk the sidelines you know where some of the greatest to ever do it Pat Riley and Phil Jackson I mean uh it was something in my mind that that I had to uh you know had to explore and consider and see what it looked like did you talk to LeBron I did not um you know we we we uh you know we had some communication you know I one of my first games I ever coached uh in as a high school coach was against LeBron in Delaware um when he was at St Mary St Vincent um you know his team came into that game with a 66 game winning streak and we were it was my first year as a head coach I didn’t know what the hell I was doing um you know when the game ended he had a 67 game winning streak and uh you know so I I I shared the court with them once and um you know it was uh it would have been a thrill to to to coach him to to be clear though Dan the reason I asked the question is when Tom ISO was considering this kind of job change uh to Cleveland he couldn’t get a hold of LeBron he never spoke to him the reason I asked the question is because it’d be hard for you to make that particular decision without knowing LeBron’s totally on board with what it is you’re doing yeah no no doubt and um you know I I think uh he he he he’s obviously one of the greatest players incredible basketball mind and uh you know I I know that that he wants uh you know he wants a great coach in that organization um I know that’s important to him what a great recruiting pitch for you though you turned down Kentucky you turned down LeBron you turned down the Lakers you tell the kids I did it for you well that to me is one of the dumbest takes I’ve heard well thank you D not you got I got a I got a stu gots on my team too here I got the Jaylen Stewart and uh man called them I called him uh you know Stu and uh I got in trouble uh for Brianna Stewart so now I call him stat sometimes when he does um but you know like one of the worst takes I’ve heard is like this was 11 play by me um to improve my situation at Yukon like I don’t need leverage here I we’ve won back-to-back national championships um you know at at this place and um like I’ve I’m not this was never a leverage situation for me I’ve had a contract um in place here you know for for a couple of weeks and the financial part in terms of salary has been done for a while there’s some other other parts like nil uh and staff salaries and some different things that that I need that I want adjusted that I’m not comfortable with um but the sense or the idea that this was some conspiracy to get me a sweeter deal at Yukon um is just it’s lazy and um and and not it was truly like a gut-wrenching decision for me because I I I was really Sunday night um going into Monday where where I had a kind of a dead line in my mind I was like torn and I didn’t know really what I was going to do until I went to bed what was the deadline in your mind why did you do that well we had practice with with the players we we had a scheduled practice um at one o’cl on Monday and you know it obviously had become a circus it it it was weighing on uh it was weighing on me and my wife and my my two sons and my whole family and then with the players and their families I mean that that are here um you know just the timing is terrible it’s it’s June like we already had completed like a week of practice together and then this whole thing U you know came up you know I had a player that um removed his name from the draft that very well could have stayed in the draft that hey had come back to Yukon to play for me um and to do one more year and to go for a three Pat so um you know like it just was it would become too too much of a circus and and uh if I had no deadline I would have tortured myself over the decision for a longer period of time because you know the chance to coach the Lakers and LeBron and um and to an ad and to work for Genie bus and to work with Rob penka was like it was a hard thing to pass up Dan I can’t pretend to know you I have read W’s book on your father and so I’m assuming from your body language the way you’re fing in your hat on some of the praise that you’re getting and some of the attention you’re getting in the middle of the basketball finals given how much you respect basketball from the crib are you embarrassed by what the last few days have been publicly yeah I think so uh to a degree um while you’re really breaking me down here uh I it for me it’s not been uh my my life has changed a lot in the last 22 months in terms of how I’m viewed um you know in in sports in basketball uh you know for me I I’ve always been um you know not quite good enough or you know or or or the third or or or the third wheel or um or or just pretty good and and um obviously a lot has changed you know for me in terms of the success in in basketball and and uh just didn’t imagine um you I I guess just being in this position it’s not something that you know was some plan I had you know 25 years ago when I got into coaching or 15 years ago when I was a high school coach driving a I can’t curse on you yeah you can now you’re good yeah I mean I was driving a cheese bus you know I driving a mini cheese bus around going to high school games 15 years ago like I didn’t think I’d be uh choosing between coming back for a threee at Yukon or or turning down the Lakers I didn’t see you coming man well but the reason I asked the question is because you’re coach’s son and I feel off of you I cannot know this the sort of embarrassment of I’m not the story like you guys understand like yes I can be I can have my ego and and it’s my leadership and my discipline but you’ve been dominating the basketball story when my guess is that if you were in some other position you would want people talking about Jason Tatum yeah um I mean absolutely it it it it took out a a um just a a crazy dynamic and obviously it had um you know most of it had to do with just the the Lakers right I mean like anything Lakers with the NBA is is going to be a huge Story I mean um I mean they’re talking about the Lakers non-stop uh I mean it’s just you know it’s La it’s the brand it’s the history it’s it’s the media Market it’s all those things and and I’m like a simple guy man I just the the Least Complicated part of my day and and the best part of my day as as like as a basketball coach is the time on the court the practice time I love The Practice time um I I I love the purity of of coaching probably in the end um a lot of people just they talk about how how bad college basketball is uh with nil and transfer portal and I think a lot of that is just you know I think it’s a lot of it it’s excuses and it’s whiny um like it it’s uh it’s a it’s a privilege to be able to to coach at this level make the amount of money that we make and then Coach like 18 19 20 year olds and you could still like impact lives and coach at a high level um it’s just uh being a college coach is incredible Dan what did your wife want to do she got in she was like crying in the beginning um I think initially that that the first couple days of it she got violently angry and emotional like not like hitting me and stuff uh not like you know get away from me I don’t want to consider this you you you you’re you’re you’re torturing me with this incredible opportunity you horrible human being she was um she got emotional like like I can’t believe you’re bringing this our life is so great um um it’s perfect like like our lives couldn’t be better and now you’re bringing this so um she she was bad in the beginning but then she warmed up to it when we got out there and she met Rob and she met jeie and um and and and felt the weather and uh we drove around Manhattan Beach and and just met the people though mostly and and she saw the vision of it uh um she was into it but then when we got back to Connecticut you know without having made a decision and we got back home and and um we we uh you know she we we both flipped back ambition has been something I imagine that could test uh any relationship like the stuff you know what I mean so that when you’re getting to a point really again we’re got we got to move I we got settled we’re good here we’re we’ve arrived at the top of the mountain this is Success right the nerve of Dan to bring his wife a $70 million offer that’s that when you say it’s gut wrenching though I get it from there Dan who who we what are we choosing are we choosing family or we choosing what Dan wants all the time yeah and and for me um you know I I I was a high school coach for nine years so I got a chance to you know when when my kids were young I got a chance to you know to to get to little e games and to get to CYO games and and you know like when my kids were in in grade school I was able to kind of be there for them before I went into the college you know Rat Race um but I I also too it’s like um you know I’m still haunted by my playing career in a lot of ways in and just in terms of uh you know how how disappointed I am to this day in terms of how that how that went for me at seatan Hall um so now I I I do feel this enormous pressure in in coaching to um uh you know to to kind of make up for that in a way and and to uh and to achieve more greatly because of the disappointment that will kind of eat eat away at me whenever my playing days are brought up that one yeah that one that one is rough like this the tapestry of who it is that you’ve built to get to this moment to conquer like what an interesting fascinating decision for you to have to make and I don’t think that people would understand that the last 10 days haven’t been entirely joyful to you that you would arrive at all beyond your wildest dreams and you’d still be gutwrench because it’s a an embarrassment of riches but it people don’t understand what it’s like to be you I mean two incredible yeah I mean like it I mean you don’t want to say it because people going roll their eyes like like real people that like have like real problems and real struggles and so it’s like you know you you sound like an idiot but in it’s absolutely true like you you have two incredible opportunities and it’s like uh it tears you up inside I mean from from when we got on the um from when we landed and and and started spending time with with Rob and jeie uh and and spent time around the facility and and um and then knowing like what you’d be leaving at Yukon and and like trying to imagine walking into the locker room and and telling your team like uh I’m not with you guys anymore because the beautiful thing that is still there for us in college that at Yukon that the nil and the portal hasn’t destroyed is is like we have a real beautiful connection here uh like still in college like there’s uh there’s a feeling of of connection Brotherhood um um there there’s real true emotion and feelings for each other here because of the way that our program functions that uh you know in the end it’s probably a deciding factor is um is 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 in the professional ranks were there any good parts of the last 10 days because I got to be honest you’re making it seem like a misery I mean theed you I’m I’m making it seem like that let let’s be fair to him because I I am putting him in a bad spot talking about the difficulties of this but I am surprised by some of the human answers that he’s given because I think people I think people think these guys are ambition monsters and they are but they also have loved ones and and you’re uprooting a lot that is really good right now is there amount of money Dan is there an amount of money that they could have offered that would have changed the decision yeah I mean first I think coach coach talk is dead I think nobody wants to hear coach talk anymore right I think that’s over with um so yeah I think there I mean to leave there probably is um you know to leave a place at any moment in your life I think that like to say that that it’s not a motivating factor the finances to leave a place is definitely a thing to stay at a place I don’t think it’s ever G to be a thing um like to to stay somewhere like Yukon there wasn’t it would never have been um I I think a financial thing uh like again this wasn’t like some like pressure tactic uh to make me the highest paid college coach like that that was already done um but to a place you to leave a place that you you feel the way we do and the family connection um with with my wife my sons my mother-in-law my my brother my father you know who like I know how much it means to my dad to go to the Big East tournament and to come to you know 10 Yukon games uh a year uh at home and and you know sitting Courtside when I’m coaching against Rick patino you know like I mean yeah you know to to leave all that behind there probably is a number um I don’t know what that is was the name bronnie ever brought up at any point on TV a lot uh that’s a you know what like you know I love bronnie um when I watched him in high school I love bronie I think you know we have kind of unique style of the way that we play offense um here at Yukon I think it’s uh you know our tactics and strategies I think are are a little bit more unique and I think it has a lot to do with my background the high school coach and then my upbringing with my father and you know what’s weird is like he would have been incredible in our system with the way that we play basketball um because he’s like he’s so athletic he defends but then he’s like such a smart player and uh you know he could shoot he could pass he’s got a great feel he could play a couple different guard spots um I really like Brony but his he was not specifically um you know part of any particular conversation that I did not see on television can you tell me whether you got a firm answer with conviction on whether it was known that you would indeed be coaching LeBron James next year oh man I’ve been so honest the whole way too now I’m going to start well now you have to tell the truth I yeah I I I I think uh you know um I can’t answer there was no uh definitive I think anyone that’s that’s going to take that that that position there is is anticipating you’re going to get a chance to coach you know one of the top two or three players of all time I really put you in a bad spot there didn’t I because I Tred to play cool here no you’re not playing cool you’re you called him a liar he’s trying no he’s comfortable and and he is being super honest and that question the reason I asked it is because Tom EO wouldn’t move couldn’t move couldn’t get a hold of LeBron the power has changed in that Sport and I don’t know if you can get a 100% answer on that the job has to be independent of LeBron because he’s a free agent he he can leave yeah I I just think uh you know the the the the exciting thing about coaching LeBron is is in your mind or any of these great players in the NBA like if you show up with Incredible work ethic uh like incredible work ethic and you have like an incredible level of of expertise of all aspects of of of of of of the art of coaching and then and then if you’re like authentic honest and and and and a strong leader you’re going to get the respect um you know whether you played in the NBA whether you’ve coached in the NBA you know there’s obvious adjustments that you’d have to make to do it but um you know just great players like that like all-time great players um they just want those uh those things in in the in the coach that’s that’s leading the organization I appreciate Dan your way obviously the work speaks for itself the results speak for it for themselves but the way that you represent uh the entirety of this sport is worthy of admiration I will get you out on this uh note I just want quick answers from you on who voted which way Dad which way did he vote what was Dad leaning was he saying Lakers or Yukon Big East tournament I mean Yukon uh mother-in-law I’m sorry he he did give his Blessing to uh to go out there with with an open mind because it was too good of an opportunity but but he was he was Yukon mother-in-law uh easy one uh Yuka and wife at the end Yuka yeah you were outnumbered you were outnumbered yeah but there was a number yeah there was there was a number I we need to get the family on what was the number because I’m not sure there was a number he was out numbered he thinks there was a number there wasn’t a number there was not a number uh I yeah I was done I mean it didn’t matter what I wanted um last thing because St God desperately wants to talk Billy Joel with you yeah I do I want to guess your top five Billy Joel songs of all time I want to guess what yours would be can I do that yeah uh you know obviously New York State of Mind anytime that we we go in for the Big East tournament or or we go play at MSG you know we blast that on on the bus custom bus when we and the players like who the hell is this right that’s not uh that’s not their that’s not their the version they like they like the JZ Dan I had that at number two by the way I guessed your top five and I had it at number two do you want to hear the rest of your top five and you tell me if I’m right yeah go okay number five my [Music] life that’s in it right yeah because you’re not a piano guy you’re not gonna do that Piano Man Captain Jack you’re not gonna do that that’s too easy everyone has that in their top five so I’m going to go number four Only the Good Die Young Only the Good D young yes I know this guy uh number three big shot yeah he’s being polite there number two I like some girly I like some of the I don’t want to say like girl I don’t know if they’re like more um of a f uh you know scen from an Italian restaurant just careful careful D I like that I like it’s just long it’s just a long song it is it is you don’t have time for that Dan good talking to you congratulations it really has been a Wonder to watch your work sir and I’m happy for your success no it was great being all with you guys man love the show you guys are uh you’re awesome in the stand van um you know I’ve listened to that multiple times man that’s like one of the best uh best things I’ve ever heard and and I I I love you guys I love the van gundies uh thank you Dan for making the time for us congratulations thank you Dan later