Dan Hurley is a Genius Negotiator

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Dan Hurley was never going to the Lakers and I think yukon’s head coach used the media to gain leveraging contract negotiations and everyone fell for it let me explain so last Thursday NBA Insider aen rinowski shocked everyone when he reported that the Los Angeles Lakers were targeting Dan Hurley as their next head coach the report seemingly came out of nowhere not only did it directly contradict fellow NBA insor Shams toria’s report that the Lakers were zeroing in on JJ reck but Hurley is coming off back-to-back national championships at Yukon he had just turned down the Kentucky job after Calipari left and despite the Lakers coaching search starting a month prior Hurley’s name had never even been mentioned in the process still W’s report dominated the news cycle ESPN’s top NBA Insider made special appearances that day on Sports Center get up first take ESPN radio and the NBA Finals pregame show providing everyone with minute-to-minute updates on the potential Lakers offer W Janowski proclaimed Dan Hurley has been the Lakers top Target from the very beginning Hurley is the most sought effort coach in all of basketball and plink and Genie bus are determined to bring him to La they are preparing I am told a long-term massive contract to get him to come to the Lakers the only problem with this of course is that I don’t think Dan Hurley was ever seriously considering leaving Yukon for the Lakers and my guess is that Adrien W Janowski knew that too there is the obvious angle that W notoriously hates being beaten to a scoop especially by his former Protege and cooworker Shams who used to work with him at Yahoo so by directly contradicting chom’s previous reporting on reck’s hire wo gets a two for one he not only gets to break the Ino news but he also gets the followup that Hurley’s not taking the job that’s Obviously good for w and ESPN and it’s a big part of the reason that the world’s largest Sports Media Company signed W to a $35 million contract extension in 2022 but the real question is why would Dan Hurley throw his name in the ring at the last moment if he knew all along that he likely wouldn’t take the job now obviously some people will say that it’s for attention but this is really about leverage Hurley has been negotiating a new deal with Yukon ever since his team won its second consecutive national champion ship in April several government employees including the state’s Governor have publicly said that Hurley deserves to be College basketball’s highest paid coach but Hurley lost most of his I’ll just leave leverage after turning down the Kentucky job and yukon’s current offer is only worth $8 million annually which would be a sizable raise from Hurley’s current $ 5.35 million salary but still far from the number one spot as Bill self is the highest paid coach in college basketball today at 9.6 million annually so yes a 6year $70 million offer from the Lakers is underwhelming in terms of NBA money that’s because an annual salary of $1.6 million would have made hurly the League’s six highest paid coach behind guys like Monty Williams and the difference between that money and the $8 million annually at Yukon is insignificant after you consider taxes in the cost of living however that 11.6 million offer from the Lakers is suddenly much more valuable if it gets yukon’s final offer closer to $10 million annually and that’s without considering all the other stuff like the fact that Connecticut Governor Ned Lamont signed a $4.4 billion Bond Bill last week that provides $625 million in financing for Yukon over the next 7 years including $80 million earmarked explicitly for basketball arena Renovations so while every Sports show in America spends time discussing how the Lakers brand is damaged because they couldn’t get Dan Hurley the real story goes much deeper Adrian rinowski literally wrote a book on Dan Hurley’s father Bobby Hurley everyone in and around basketball knows that W still has a fantastic relationship with the huray family and it doesn’t take a genius to connect the dots once you follow the incentives W gets a big scoop during the NBA Finals while also little brothering his former Protege and Hurley gains back critical leverage for a huge raise now the tricky part about a story like this is that many people in the sports business will refuse to talk about it or simply ignore it part of that is because they don’t want to upset W or ESPN who hold a lot of power within the sports media landscape but this quidd pro quo Arrangement is too blatant to ignore for example in wo’s TV background on ESPN his book on Bobby Hurley is prominently displayed above his shoulder some of this is to be expected of course the game is a lucrative business these guys get paid millions of dollars annually because their vast network of connections is incredibly valuable in a social media world that rewards being first much more than second however these connections go both ways teams agents and Executives give insiders like w valuable information because they expect valuable information in return how much is a team offering for a player in free agency when will a player return from injury is that owner actually going to sell the team is that guy unhappy with his current agent can you put in a good word with a team that I’m interviewing with these questions are things that insiders deal with every single day and these insiders hold a ton of power because they act as information Brokers within the industry that they operate with the most blatant example being when Adam shefer sent a full draft of a story to then Washington Redskins team president Bruce Allen he wrote in an email please let me know if you see anything that should be added changed or tweaked thanks Mr editor for that and the trust I plan to file this to ESPN about 6:00 a.m. most people within the sports industry understand how this works works you’ll hear that it’s just part of the job and that it should be accepted and to some extent I kind of agree as Sports is hardly the only industry that allows people to gain power through favor however there’s also a major difference between an NFL agent making insiders refer to him as quote a tight end Guru in exchange for free agency leaks as compared to an NBA Insider working with one of the nation’s top head coaches to create news and get him a raised the former example is harmless while the latter has much more significant implications thank you so much for watching this video If you enjoyed it please subscribe to the channel as I create weekly videos breaking down the most interesting stories in sports business [Music]