When footage of UConn coach Dan Hurley attending a Billy Joel live performance inside Madison Sq. Backyard surfaced final June amid his flirtation with the Los Angeles Lakers, it introduced widespread reassurance to UConn followers. Although Hurley had but to announce his determination to stay with the Huskies, many took his presence in New York as an omen that he’d be staying put within the Northeast, the place he is spent his total life.

This time round, UConn followers might be hoping there is no such thing as a footage surfacing of Hurley inside The World’s Most Well-known Enviornment.

Amid the New York Knicks’ firing of coach Tom Thibodeau on Tuesday, Hurley’s identify is already garnering consideration as a reputation to observe for a franchise that’s coming off its first Jap Convention finals journey since 2000.

A yr in the past, chasing the NBA dream would have required Hurley to uproot his life, transfer throughout the nation and sacrifice the pursuit of a three-peat. This time round, if the Knicks got here calling, Hurley could be contemplating a equally prestigious job based mostly within the metropolitan space that incubated his basketball odyssey.

Hurley grew up in Jersey Metropolis, New Jersey, and starred below his father — the legendary Bob Hurley Sr. — at St. Anthony Excessive College simply 5 miles throughout the Hudson River from Madison Sq. Backyard. Each teaching job he held from 1996 by 2012 was both in New York or New Jersey, and he is spent on a regular basis since teaching not more than 150 miles from Manhattan.

Because it was said on this 2012 article, “Dan Hurley has been a Knicks fan his total life.” So, after seven seasons at UConn and 15 as a Division 1 head coach, would Hurley make the bounce to the Knicks?

Seeing how shut he got here to accepting the Lakers job this time final yr, the reply appears apparent: he must contemplate it.

Why Dan Hurley turned down the Lakers

As Hurley informed “60 Minutes” in a chunk that aired this March, his household “went backwards and forwards” on taking the Lakers job.

“There have been clearly numerous positives, and the problem was thrilling,” he stated. “There have been positively instances whenever you thought you had been going.”

The supply included a six-year, $70 million contract and the chance to teach one of many sport’s all-time nice gamers in LeBron James.

“That was one of many pluses,” Hurley informed CBS Sports activities’ Matt Norlander final June in a wide-ranging dialogue following his determination. “It was one of many attracts, was the possibility, in your lifetime, to have coached one of many biggest gamers of all time. I’ve numerous confidence that my work ethic and my experience and my potential to attach with him would have made for an ideal partnership there. That was an enormous draw for me.”

In the long run, although, Hurley determined to remain put within the faculty sport and with a UConn program that grants him near-full autonomy to run issues how he sees match, even when which means carrying greater than simply the “coach” hat.

“It is extra demanding within the sense that I am the GM, I choose the gamers, I’ve to recruit the gamers, I rent my very own workers,” Hurley informed 60 Minutes. “Clearly, I determine when planes take off. Each side of this system right here, you management. Not essentially the case within the NBA.”

Hurley additionally identified the completely different rhythms of the NBA calendar as an obstacle to creating the leap to the skilled sport.

“I really feel like the place I am at my greatest as a coach is the ambiance I create in follow,” he stated. “I consider that provides us a aggressive benefit over the people who we play towards. It is like hell week for Seals or one thing. But when I can not replicate that within the NBA, then it takes one of many issues that provides me the aggressive benefit in faculty away from me, as a result of you’ll be able to’t follow within the NBA like that. Play 82 video games, you’ll be able to barely even have follow time.”

Assessing the conditions

UConn seems to have locked in its 2025-26 roster, highlighted by the returns of veteran ahead Alex Karaban, junior guard Solomon Ball and heart Tarris Reed to associate with a switch haul marked by the addition of highly-rated guard Silas Demary Jr. from Georgia. The Huskies have a robust core in place and all of the elements to problem for a Large East title after being dethroned by St. John’s in 2025.

There isn’t any apparent cause why Hurley could be on the lookout for an exit. However there may be one issue that would make leaving UConn behind considerably much less excruciating this yr. Had Hurley taken the Lakers job in 2024, he would have been forfeiting the chance to turn out to be the second males’s faculty basketball coach after John Picket to three-peat as nationwide champion. That is not a priority this yr after UConn was eradicated by eventual nationwide champion Florida within the second spherical of the 2025 NCAA Match.

The Knicks scenario is also interpreted as advantageous relative to how the Lakers job regarded a yr in the past. As an alternative of a franchise anchored by a star approaching 40 — as James was final summer season — and one other over 30 (Anthony Davis), Hurley could be contemplating a company with a core in its championship-pursuing prime. With Jalen Brunson, OG Anunoby, Karl-Anthony Cities and Josh Hart below contract for a minimum of three extra seasons every, the Knicks have a robust, confirmed nucleus in place.

Geographic consolation of the Northeast apart, that might be sufficient to make the Knicks job interesting to somebody who was admittedly shut to creating the NBA bounce only one yr in the past.