When footage of UConn coach Dan Hurley attending a Billy Joel concert inside Madison Square Garden surfaced last June amid his flirtation with the Los Angeles Lakers, it brought widespread reassurance to UConn fans. Though Hurley had yet to announce his decision to remain with the Huskies, many took his presence in New York as an omen that he’d be staying put in the Northeast, where he’s spent his entire life.
This time around, UConn fans will be hoping there is no footage surfacing of Hurley inside The World’s Most Famous Arena.
Amid the New York Knicks’ firing of coach Tom Thibodeau on Tuesday, Hurley’s name is already garnering attention as a name to watch for a franchise that is coming off its first Eastern Conference finals trip since 2000.
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A year ago, chasing the NBA dream would have required Hurley to uproot his life, move across the country and sacrifice the pursuit of a three-peat. This time around, if the Knicks came calling, Hurley would be considering a similarly prestigious job based in the metropolitan area that incubated his basketball odyssey.
Hurley grew up in Jersey City, New Jersey, and starred under his father — the legendary Bob Hurley Sr. — at St. Anthony High School just five miles across the Hudson River from Madison Square Garden. Every coaching job he held from 1996 through 2012 was either in New York and New Jersey, and he’s spent all the time since coaching no more than 150 miles from Manhattan.
As it was stated in this 2012 article, “Dan Hurley has been a Knicks fan his entire life.” So, after seven seasons at UConn and 15 as a Division 1 head coach, would Hurley make the jump to the Knicks?
Seeing how close he came to accepting the Lakers job this time last year, the answer seems obvious: he would have to consider it.
Why Dan Hurley turned down the Lakers
As Hurley told “60 Minutes” in a piece that aired this March, his family “went back and forth” on taking the Lakers job.
“There were obviously a lot of positives, and the challenge was exciting,” he said. “There were definitely times when you thought you were going.”
The offer included a six-year, $70 million contract and the opportunity to coach one of the game’s all-time great players in LeBron James.
“That was one of the pluses,” Hurley told CBS Sports’ Matt Norlander last June in a wide-ranging discussion following his decision. “It was one of the draws, was the chance, in your lifetime, to have coached one of the greatest players of all time. I have a lot of confidence that my work ethic and my expertise and my ability to connect with him would have made for a great partnership there. That was a huge draw for me.”
In the end, though, Hurley decided to stay put in the college game and with a UConn program that grants him near-full autonomy to run things how he sees fit, even if that means wearing more than just the “coach” hat.
“It’s more demanding in the sense that I’m the GM, I pick the players, I have to recruit the players, I hire my own staff,” Hurley told 60 Minutes. “Obviously, I decide when planes take off. Every aspect of the program here, you control. Not necessarily the case in the NBA.”
Hurley also pointed out the different rhythms of the NBA calendar as a disadvantage to making the leap to the professional game.
“I feel like where I’m at my best as a coach is the atmosphere I create in practice,” he said. “I believe that gives us a competitive advantage over the people that we play against. It’s like hell week for Seals or something. But if I can’t replicate that in the NBA, then it takes one of the things that gives me the competitive advantage in college away from me, because you can’t practice in the NBA like that. Play 82 games, you can barely even have practice time.”
Assessing the situations
UConn appears to have locked in its 2025-26 roster, highlighted by the returns of veteran forward Alex Karaban, junior guard Solomon Ball and center Tarris Reed to go along with a transfer haul marked by the addition of highly-rated guard Silas Demary Jr. from Georgia. The Huskies have a strong core in place and all the ingredients to challenge for a Big East title after being dethroned by St. John’s in 2025.
There’s no obvious reason why Hurley would be looking for an exit. But there is one factor that could make leaving UConn behind somewhat less excruciating this year. Had Hurley taken the Lakers job in 2024, he would have been forfeiting the opportunity to become the second men’s college basketball coach after John Wooden to three-peat as national champion. That’s not a concern this year after UConn was eliminated by eventual national champion Florida in the second round of the 2025 NCAA Tournament.
The Knicks situation could also be interpreted as advantageous relative to how the Lakers job looked a year ago. Instead of a franchise anchored by a star approaching 40 — as James was last summer — and another over 30 (Anthony Davis), Hurley would be considering an organization with a core in its championship-pursuing prime. With Jalen Brunson, OG Anunoby, Karl-Anthony Towns and Josh Hart under contract for at least three more seasons each, the Knicks have a strong, proven nucleus in place.
Geographic comfort of the Northeast aside, that could be enough to make the Knicks job appealing to someone who was admittedly close to making the NBA jump just one year ago.
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