NBA Exec Says Dan Hurley Used Adrian Wojnarowski, Lakers As Leverage To Get More Money From UConn

An NBA executive told Hoops Wire that Dan Hurley used ESPN reporter Adrian Wojnarowski and the Los Angeles Lakers as leverage to get more money from UConn. 

The exec said Hurley “was never going to leave UConn” and that he used his relationship with Wojnarowski and the “Lakers name” to get an increase in his salary from Connecticut. 

The Lakers turned their attention to Hurley after word got out that Hurley was in extension negotiations with UConn. Los Angeles offered Hurley a six-year, $70 million contract. 

While Hurley was impressed by the Lakers’ presentation during his interview, he was never seriously going to leave the powerhouse program he built at UConn, the NBA exec told Hoops Wire. 

Hurley played this perfectly. He gets to stay at UConn and pursue a third straight title while getting a pay raise. Hurley’s father and wife had no interest in leaving the East Coast for Los Angeles, per Rick Pitino. 

“What I’m hearing — and I have no [inside information] — is that his father [Bob Hurley Sr.] and his wife [Andrea] are very strong in his life and they don’t want to go,” Pitino told Dave Blezow of The New York Post. “I think he’s going to try it, no different than [John] Calipari tried it or I tried it. I don’t think he’s going to take the job, but I think he’s going to try the pros some day.”

The Lakers were once again used as leverage. Los Angeles Clippers coach Tyronn Lue‘s camp repeatedly leaked his name to the Lakers on purpose so that the Clippers would sign him to an extension, a source told Hoops Wire. 

That tactic worked out very well for Lue, who got his extension. 

The Lakers will pivot back to JJ Redick, James Borrego, Sam Cassell and David Adelman. Redick, who co-hosts a podcast with LeBron James, is calling the NBA Finals for ESPN with Mike Breen and Doris Burke.  

If the Lakers hire Redick, that move will happen after the NBA Finals.