Just a week ago, it looked like the Los Angeles Lakers were fixated on hiring JJ Redick to be their next head coach. That was what was being reported by multiple journalists with sources close to the team, including Shams Charania of The Athletic and Anthony Irwin.
That is why Thursday’s news from ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski that the Lakers were aggressively courting University of Connecticut head coach Dan Hurley felt like a bolt from the blue. According to Wojnarowski, Hurley had been the Lakers’ top coaching candidate for a while, but that their interest in him had been kept a secret from even some in the organization.
Of course, Hurley said no to an offer that, according to Wojnarowski, was worth $70 million over six years. Over the last couple of days, everyone has been trying to figure out what exactly went on.
Fox Sports 1 personality Skip Bayless, who, of course, spends lots of time on his show “Undisputed” talking about the Lakers and LeBron James, feels Wojnarowski’s account is bogus.
When the Hurley-Lakers news first broke early Thursday morning, Bayless felt something was fishy about it. He repeated that sentiment on Tuesday.
Skip Bayless again says the Dan Hurley Lakers reporting from Adrian Wojnarowski didn't pass the smell test from the beginning.
"Woj is plugged in there, so all of a sudden he drops a Woj Bomb… I believe that Dan Hurley approached the Lakers not vice versa." pic.twitter.com/kRHWyjAgA4
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) June 11, 2024
“They tried to tell us once this story broke from Adrian Wojnarowski, who is very close to the Hurley family because he wrote that book ‘The Miracle of St. Anthony,’ which featured Bob Hurley, the father of obviously Dan and Bobby, who coached a great high school team in Jersey City,” Bayless said. “So Woj is plugged in there. So all of a sudden he drops a Woj Bomb that — ‘oh, Dan Hurley to the Lakers!’
“I believe that Dan Hurley approached the Lakers, not vice versa. Even though they tried to sell from the start that, ‘our focal point of the start of our search for a coach was Dan Hurley.’ Well then why would you wait a whole month before you would talk to even meet him? That was the first time Jeanie [Buss] and Rob Pelinka had ever sat face to face with Dan Hurley was a month into your coaching search after you had interviewed James Borrego at least twice.”
Is Bayless implying that Hurley (with Wojnarowski’s help) was merely using the Lakers as leverage in order to get a bigger contract from the Huskies?
Charania has disputed Wojnarowski’s account that Hurley was L.A.’s top candidate from the beginning and that its interest in him was kept under wraps.
Perhaps there is a lot more to this story than it seemed at the time.
