Over the last few weeks, JJ Redick has seemingly been a strong frontrunner to be named the next head coach of the Los Angeles Lakers. That is, until early Thursday morning.
That is when news broke that they were aggressively pursuing University of Connecticut head coach Dan Hurley. The two sides were scheduled to meet in person on Friday, and the Lakers reportedly prepared an offer of approximately $100 million over eight years.
Reportedly, even as Redick was being reported as the favorite to win the job, the Lakers were secretly courting Hurley.
Via The Athletic:
“The organization’s courting of Hurley, first reported by ESPN and confirmed Thursday by The Athletic via team and league sources, was kept secret from the public and even several key Lakers decision-makers,” wrote Jovan Buha.
“Within some internal conversations, Hurley’s name began coming up as recently as last week, team and league sources told The Athletic. At the time, the likelihood of Hurley’s being the team’s next head coach seemed farfetched. JJ Redick, the ESPN analyst and former player, was seen as the frontrunner by many in the NBA and Lakers organization, and also under consideration was James Borrego, the New Orleans Pelicans’ associate coach who has maintained a strong relationship with All-NBA big man Anthony Davis.”
According to John Fanta on the “Zach Gelb Show,” the team pivoted from Redick to Hurley because at least one player doesn’t like Redick’s attitude (h/t Fadeaway World).
“I think a key part of this, based on people that I talk with in the industry, is that at a certain point, a Lakers player or two or three, not named LeBron James, said, you know, I like JJ Redick, but I don’t know if I love this smartest guy in the room,” said Fanta.
“I’m going to talk down. I’m going to talk at you. I know it all type thing when I’ve played against him and I kind of like I get it, but I don’t.”
“I think that that thing caused Rob Pelinka and Jeanie Buss to reopen the door, and all of a sudden when they started to ask again about Hurley, what was, ah, he’s mildly interested became, he’s interested and he wants to talk.”
While Redick is good friends with LeBron James (they co-host the “Mind the Game” podcast together) and appears to have a strong tactical mind for basketball, he has been criticized for allegedly having too much chutzpah. While that very quality is needed to be a successful leader, too much of it can suffocate the spirit of a team, not to mention breed acrimony and prevent players from respecting their head coach.
Although Los Angeles seems to badly want to hire Hurley, one report indicated that Redick is still very much a candidate at this time.
