Dan Hurley was ‘really taken away’ by Lakers, viewed contract offer as ‘once in a lifetime’

The Lakers’ attempts to land Dan Hurley from UConn were unsuccessful, but it sounds like the team certainly made a compelling offer.

The Lakers’ pursuit of Dan Hurley ended unsuccessfully, but not without a concerted effort. The team courted Dan Hurley on Friday, bringing him to Los Angeles and laying out a vision with him.

That, though, was not enough to lure him away from UConn. On Monday, Hurley decided to remain in the college ranks, turning down the Lakers. According to Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN, the Lakers’ offer was more than compelling.

If this feels a bit disingenuous, you’re not alone in that thought. Talking about how good and compelling an offer was that you turned down feels like a bad consolation prize. The offer clearly wasn’t that good if you said no to it.

There’s been much discussion on the offer itself, which was reportedly $70 million over six years. That would come out to just over $11.6 million, a figure that would put him among the top six earners among coaches in the NBA.

While that falls well, well short of the $100 million offer reported over the weekend, it is also a lot of money for someone who has not coached in the NBA. Outside of Monty Williams’ insane contract with the Pistons, the names above him are title-winners like Erik Spoelstra, Steve Kerr and Gregg Popovich.

That’s a perfectly fair offer for the Lakers to make and a reasonable line in the sand to draw. It is not only the longest the Lakers have offered a head coach, but it’s over twice as much money as they’ve ever offered a coach.

About the only comparative offer the Lakers have made is when they signed Phil Jackson to an extension in 2007 that paid him $12 million annually. If it was framed as the Lakers paying Hurley Phil Jackson money, would it be seen differently?

At the same time, if I was a betting man, I’d question a lot about this whole process. It feels rather convenient for the Lakers to be pursuing Hurley for nearly a whole month in silence only for the public to find out at the last minute, days before a decision is made.

If I were a guessing man, I’d say there were some ulterior motives going on in which the Lakers went after Hurley to make it look like they chased a big name instead of sitting back and waiting on the Finals to end while Hurley got to use the leverage from the Lakers to get a big payday from UConn. It then leaves the Lakers able to go after their presumed top target while also saying “look, we tried!”

In the end, this was all a pretty weird and wild weekend in which the Lakers made a compelling offer but are still in the same spot they’ve been for much of the offseason.

You can follow Jacob on Twitter at @JacobRude.