“Andrea, his wife might not like me”: When Geno Auriemma gave his 2 cents about Lakers’ $70 million offer for Dan Hurley

In June 2024, UConn men's basketball coach Dan Hurley was offered a substantial contract by the Los Angeles Lakers. Despite winning two consecutive national championships with the Huskies, Hurley turned down the six-year, $70 million offer to remain in Storrs.

During a video interview on the Dan Patrick Show, UConn women's basketball coach Geno Auriemma, who has led the team to 11 national titles, shared his thoughts on the situation with his trademark candor and comedic flair. At that time, Hurley had not yet made his decision.

"The state of college basketball is a mess. If anybody could manage it though, it would be [Dan Hurley] because he coaches this program like it's a high school program. Their player development program is second to none," Auriemma said (2:07).

"If Danny were to leave and somebody said to me, 'He just took this NBA job' — I won't name any particular city — I would say, 'You know you're set up for failure,' but it's the Lakers."

"Andrea's wife might not like me, but he's crazy if he doesn't take it ... It's a huge family decision, no question about it."

However, a few days after Auriemma made those remarks, Hurley turned down the Lakers' offer to remain at UConn.

"I am humbled by this entire experience," Hurley said in a statement. "At the end of the day, I am extremely proud of the championship culture we have built at Connecticut."

Geno Auriemma shared thoughts on NBA opportunities in his career

During his illustrious coaching career, Geno Auriemma has been offered NBA coaching jobs several times, but he has always stayed true to UConn.

Speaking with Dan Patrick in June last year, he revealed that he had received around four job offers over the last 10-15 years — from men's college and NBA teams.

"I talked to a couple people about being an assistant," Auriemma said (4:30). "And I thought, wow, I wish I was younger because it was at an age where it's like, do I really have it in me to be that and be fair to that for 100 and some games?"

"I thought, what if I could be an assistant for a couple years, three, four years, I think I could do this job. But it just came at the wrong time in my career. If it had come earlier, I would have done it."

Geno Auriemma celebrated his 40th year as the head coach of UConn in Nov. 2024.

He also became the NCAA's all-time winningest coach — across both men's and women's basketball — with win No. 1,217 when the Huskies defeated Fairleigh Dickinson earlier this season, surpassing the legendary Stanford coach Tara VanDerveer.