DANNY HURLEY’S EXCELLENT DECISION

And not to brag, but I totally predicted it! Actually, I definitely am bragging.

For those of you who don’t know what I’m talking about, I’m going to tell you. If you do know, please bear with me a second while I quickly describe the situation.

Danny Hurley, (my fellow Capricorn,) is the Head Coach of the University of Connecticut men’s basketball team, which has won the last two college championships. I cannot tell you what a big deal it is to win even one, but two is amazing. And two in a row puts you in the highest echelon there is. Very few teams and coaches have been able to achieve that.

So now he has the possibility of making it three in a row next year, which only the amazing Coach Wooden of the UCLA teams of yesteryear has achieved. (His teams actually won seven in a row!)

Meanwhile, after the Lakers made it only as far as the first round of the NBA play-offs this year, their coach, Darvin Ham, was fired pretty quickly. The Lakers actually have a recent history of not giving coaches a lot of time to get the job done. (On a side note, I’m thrilled that Darvin is back with the Milwaukee Bucks, where he is beloved by the players, as the top Assistant Head Coach. I have a feeling that if they don’t start next season perfectly, they will dump current Head Coach, Doc Rivers, for Darvin! Mark my words.)

So the Lakers have been on the hunt for a new coach, and the only name that was being bandied about in public was JJ Redick. I thought they were nuts to look at JJ; he’s been a college player and an NBA player, and is now one of the color analysts on NBA games, (including being on the broadcast team who was chosen to call the Finals, which is a big deal in that field.) But…he has never coached on any level! He has not been a college coach, nor an assistant coach in the league, nor even a high school one. At first I couldn’t figure-out why the Lakers would even look at someone with zero experience for the job, and then the answer came to me—JJ is the podcast partner of none other than…Lakers star LeBron James. Of course.

Then all of a sudden, about a week ago, it came out that the Lakers were going after Danny Hurley, which takes us back to the beginning of this article which explains that he’s the coach of the very successful UConn team. And he’s surrounded by other successful coaches in his own fam. His father was the storied Head Coach at St. Anthony High School in their native New Jersey, and his older brother Bobby was not only a star at Duke, then a player in the NBA, (whose career got a bit derailed by a bad car accident,) but is now the coach at Arizona State University. So I’m sure that Danny has received a lot of good advice from them.

The Lakers talked to him, and are purported to have offered him a six-year $70 million contract. One of the things that recommended him to coach not only an NBA team, but one of the most successful ones of all time, (even though he had never even been an assistant coach in the league,) is that his team strategies are so successful that NBA teams have been examining them to adopt for themselves.

So Danny just came out here to meet with the Lakers powers-that-be last week. And it seemed that just every sports analyst, commentator, and pundit said that he would take the Lakers gig.

But I said he would not. And I have Mr. X as my witness.

So here are my thoughts on why I thought Danny Hurley would choose to stay in Connecticut, which is exactly what he wound-up doing.

First of all, he’s the biggest fish in a much smaller pond than being a coach in the NBA. Second of all, he is a god to that school; I am sure that he is not put upon by the people who run the University, as he would be by the Lakers owners and management personnel. Not to mention the L.A. fans would be all over him every second if the Lakers lost even a few games. He would have peace as an NBA coach only if he was constantly winning. At UConn, they will love him for the rest of his life, no matter what happens from here on out.

Also, in college, his players absolutely adore him! They feel they’re in the presence of greatness, and consider themselves super-lucky to be coached by him, (which they actually are.) Do you think there’s even a small possibility that NBA players are going to feel like that? Not a chance. He’d have to deal with all the personalities of every player who feels that he should have more or different playing time, or think that the coach shouldn’t say anything to him, or whatever. To manage those kinds of personalities takes someone very special and patient, such as Gregg Popovich, Pat Riley, or even the Mavericks current coach Jason Kidd. Danny Hurley would not be able to deal with any of that. He’s just a different kind of guy.

Danny Hurley appears to be a very intense guy. During the college tournament, (March Madness,) he even wears the same pair of underpants to every game. (His wife has to travel with a portable washing machine to help with that unique situation!) He also travels with a picture of the championship trophy so that his guys look at it every day. He has all kinds of other little peccadilloes, as well. I have no judgment on those because I’m very superstitious myself, (although I could not imagine wearing the same anything every day. But oh well.)

As of now*, his contract at UConn gives him $31.5 million for six years, so he’s taking a lot less than the Lakers offered him. But I have a feeling that Danny feels about things like this as I do—that money is not everything. It would be nice to have that kind of income, of course; however, happiness and comfort for yourself and your family are of paramount importance at all times. *[Note: But I believe that UConn is planning on upping his salary to $50 million for that same time span now, saying it’s because of his Championships, but it’s most likely also to make staying there more attractive to him. That’s still $20 million less than he would have made with the Lakers, though. Not a financial discrepancy to sneeze at.]

So I totally applaud Danny Hurley for making the decision that he did. By staying at UConn, he’s going to have the chance to three-peat his college championship. And that, to Danny Hurley and yours truly, is worth more than gold. [Sidebar: I predict that the Lakers will now go back to JJ Redick for the coaching position. And that they will also sign LeBron’s son to play for them this year. Mark my words on this prediction, too.]

But now I have to decide how this will affect me. After all these years that I’ve been rooting for UCLA, Gonzaga, and URI, (where Danny coached for six years, but I cheer for them because it’s my favorite of the four colleges I attended,) I finally feel that I have to go with UConn next year. You go, bulldogs.

One last sports note that’s more in my rooting arena: I just hope that the Yankees new star, Juan Soto, will feel the same way as Danny Hurley does when it comes to his new contract next year! There will definitely be a mega-bidding war for him, and we fans are all just hoping and praying that he remembers how much he’s enjoying playing with Aaron Judge and company, even if the Yanks can’t offer him the absolute biggest contract. From my mouth to God’s ear!