Rumors

The mere mention of the large, gray, trunked mammoth that wandered into the banquet room was enough for Dan Hurley to cringe. Addressed more directly, he just waved it off. “Not another summer of that,” he said, as the dais was breaking up. That should be enough to calm any fears that Hurley would entertain the possibility of leaving UConn and coaching the Knicks, who fired coach Tom Thibodeau a few hours before Hurley arrived at the Aqua Turf Club, where his wife, Andrea, received the St. Clare Award at the Franciscan Sports Banquet in recognition of her community service.

Hartford Courant

How close were you to taking that Lakers job? Dan Hurley: We went back and forth. I mean there were there were obviously a lot of positives and the challenge was exciting so there were definitely times where you thought you were going.

YouTube

It appears that time has arrived, with NJ Advance Media’s Adam Zagoria reporting that Hurley is set to release a “tell-all book” this fall. Taking to X, the 52-year-old head coach made his own announcement regarding the book, which will be titled Never Stop: Life, Leadership and What it Takes to Be Great and written in the first-person alongside author Ian O’Connor. “I’ve confronted a lot of adversity on my life’s journey and I’m proud to share those stories–along with my leadership philosophies in building championship teams at UConn–in my book ‘Never Stop,'” Hurley wrote. “I’m writing this to help people overcome & succeed.”

Awful Announcing

From when Redick first talked about the position with Pelinka during the NBA draft combine in May, to officially becoming a Lakers candidate along with New Orleans assistant James Borrego and UConn coach Dan Hurley, several people close to Redick told him it would be a bad idea to take it, sources told ESPN.

ESPN

With so many similarities with Dan Hurley (not the least of which, a couple of New York-area Irish kids who were former Big East point guards), Billy Donovan was a perfect sounding board for Hurley while he considered the NBA last spring. "We didn't get into the Lakers' situation or their personnel," recalled Donovan, who is entering his fifth season as Chicago Bulls' head coach. "I think Danny needed to go through whatever he went through. He was going to be able to find out the inner workings of the Lakers. I don't know anything about that ... Danny had to go through that on his own."

CTInsider.com

Rather, Donovan and Hurley's conversations were more about NBA life in general: the 82-game schedule, the work flow that is totally different from college. "It's like backwards, if that makes any sense," Donovan noted.

CTInsider.com

"Those were the conversations that Danny and I had, that kind of stuff," Donovan reported. "The X's and O's and the basketball stuff, I think most coaches enjoy that part of it. And the game's different than college is. The rules are different, you've got to pick up on those things. But it was more like, 'what's a year like, what's a week like, what's training camp like?'"

CTInsider.com

During an interview on In Depth with Graham Bensinger, Hurley finally gave an extensive explanation for why he eschewed one of the NBA's premier jobs to return to college basketball and chase a third straight NCAA title with the Huskies. At the heart of it, Hurley wanted to continue impacting the lives of his players, something he didn't feel like NBA coaches can do. Bensinger asked Hurley if he still wanted to coach in the NBA eventually, and the 51-year-old said he wasn't sure. "I don't know. I don't know about that. If you're not going to take the Lakers job, then what job are you going to take," he said.

Sports Illustrated

Hurley's wife, Andrea, also revealed she always wanted Dan to stay at UConn, but would have accepted his decision to go to the Lakers if he had made that choice.

Sports Illustrated

Dan Hurley: "That meeting with my players before I left for L.A. was the turning point. Their faces told me everything I needed to know. They were counting on me, and I realized that what I had here was special. You don’t get that same relationship in the NBA."

YouTube

Sources say the Lakers were ready to fire Ham as soon as last season ended. It wound up taking a week to make that decision. Hiring Ham’s replacement took almost two months, and sources close to the Lakers say Redick was the choice for the vast majority of that time, outside of that wild weekend in which the Lakers made that infamous and polarizing offer to Dan Hurley. “Hurley leaked the kind of offer it would’ve taken to hire him,” an Eastern Conference executive told me. “They knew what it was going to take and still came in well below that line. If you do that, are we sure they ever really wanted to hire him? So was JJ just always the guy?”

Lakers Daily

Harrison Faigen: Woj says on TV that a big part of the Lakers' recruitment of Dan Hurley was to develop Bronny James and that taking him in the second round was "always" their plan

Twitter

On Tuesday, he made a claim regarding Dan Hurley's decision to stay at UConn instead of becoming head coach for the Los Angeles Lakers that was met with some steadfast disapproval. “Allow me to tell you what sources in LA told me,” Smith said, per Awful Announcing. “They thought they had a deal with Danny Hurley…I can assure you there are people within the Lakers organization who believe that Mrs. Hurley made that decision.”

Clutch Points

Longtime “First Take” host Molly Qerim quickly fired back and told Smith not to state that information on air because she believes it to be false. It is unclear if her objection stems from the notion that the Lakers feel such a way, or if she disagrees with the idea of Hurley's wife, Andrea Hurley, being the reason the two-time defending national championship-winning head coach is not leaving Storrs, Connecticut.

Clutch Points