Dan Hurley faced a difficult decision on Monday. Should he leave the comforts of UConn to pursue an NBA title with LeBron James and the Lakers, or remain with the Huskies as they look to win a third straight NCAA championship?
In the end, Hurley decided to stay in Storrs. He disdained the Lakers even though they offered him a purse to lead the team in the post-Darvin Ham era.
Hurley appears likely to land a lucrative extension with UConn after deciding to stay with the Huskies. Still, the 51-year-old risked turning down what would have been one of the NBA’s most lucrative contracts to continue coaching at the college level.
Here’s what you should know about Hurley’s decision and what the Lakers would have paid him to lead LeBron and Los Angeles.
Dan Hurley contract details
The Lakers presented Hurley with a six-year, $70 million offer to train in Los Angeles, according to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski. The contract would have made Hurley one of the highest-paid head coaches in the NBA.
Ultimately, Hurley returned to UConn to pursue a third consecutive NCAA championship. That leaves the Lakers still in the search for a new head coach, with JJ Redick and James Borrego connected to the job.
The highest paid coaches in the NBA
Had Hurley accepted the job with the Lakers, he would have immediately become the fourth-highest-paid coach in the NBA. Only Gregg Popovich, Eric Spoelstra and Monty Williams would have made more money annually than him.
Here’s a look at the NBA’s highest-paid coaches:
| Range | Coach | Equipment | Average annual value (AAV) |
| 1 | Gregg Popovich | Spurs | $16 million |
| 2 | Erik Spoelstra | Heat | $15 million |
| 3 | Monty Williams | Pistons | $13.08 million |
| 4 | Steve Kerr | Warriors | 9.5 million dollars |
Hurley’s AAV would be about $11.67 million per season if he had accepted the Lakers job. Instead, he will return to UConn and hope to land a lucrative extension that will help him recoup some of those potential losses.
UConn may have to go broke to keep Hurley. They could offer him more than $10 million per season to keep him around as the Huskies try to make it three NCAA Tournament champions.
That would make Hurley the most expensive college coach in the world.
The highest paid coaches in college basketball
Currently, no college basketball coach gives his head coach more than $10 million a year. Bill Self is the highest-paid college coach at $9.6 million per season at Kansas.
Could that change the extension Hurley now appears destined to receive from UConn? Only time will tell.
Here’s a look at the highest-paid college basketball coaches ahead of a potential Hurley extension.
| Coach | Annual salary | School |
| bill me | 9.6 million dollars | Kansas |
| Juan Calipari | $7 million | Arkansas |
| Tom Izzo | 6.2 million dollars | state of michigan |
| bruce pearl | 5.7 million dollars | Chestnut |
| Rick Barnes | 5.7 million dollars | Tennessee |
| Scott Drew | 5.1 million dollars | Baylor |
| Dan Hurley | $5 million | University of Connecticut |
| Brad Underwood | 4.7 million dollars | Illinois |
| Kelvin Simpson | 4.6 million dollars | houston |
| oatmeal | 4.5 million dollars | Alabama |
