Dan Hurley - Rejecting Lakers' offer was not 'leverage play' - ESPN

Dan Hurley said Thursday his decision to reject a six-year, $70 million offer to coach the Los Angeles Lakers was not a «leverage play» because he'd already agreed to the terms of a new contract with UConn.

On The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz, Hurley called the choice between coaching the Lakers for an eight-figure sum or returning to chase a third consecutive national title at UConn a difficult decision. But the leverage was unnecessary, he said, because he and UConn had already negotiated a new contract in recent weeks.

«One of the worst takes I've heard is that this is a leverage play by me to improve my situation at UConn,» Hurley said on the show. «I don't need leverage here. We've won back-to-back national championships at this place. This was never a leverage situation for me.

»I've had a contract in place here for a couple of weeks. And the final part, in terms of salary, has been done for a while. There are some other parts, like NIL and staff salary and some different things, that I want adjusted and I'm not comfortable with. But the sense of the idea that this was some conspiracy to get me a sweeter deal at UConn is just, it's lazy."

The Lakers fired Darvin Ham in May after he'd reached the playoffs in back-to-back seasons but had failed to make the franchise a true contender for an NBA title. ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski reported last week that the Lakers had decided to focus their search on Hurley over their other candidates.

Hurley flew to Los Angeles over the weekend to meet with general manager Rob Pelinka and owner Jeanie Buss. He said Thursday, however, that he did not speak directly with the team's biggest star, LeBron James, before he made his choice.

«I did not [speak to James],» Hurley said. «We had