Sports
exclusive

UConnĀ coach Dan Hurley shopping book after turning down Lakers $70M offer

Connecticut Huskies head coach Dan Hurley is shopping a book, we hear. Getty Images

He’s drawing up a book play!

UConn basketball coach Dan Hurley is shopping a book, Page Six has exclusively learned, and sources say he’ll dish on his blockbuster $70 million job offer from the Los Angeles Lakers.

A top editor was seen reading Hurley’s proposal on a Metro-North train on Tuesday, and multiple sources confirmed the book is making the rounds.

Hurley is the reigning two-time defending champion coach of NCAA basketball. AP
Hurley turned down a $70 million offer from the Lakers. Getty Images

We hear that Hurley will be meeting with potential co-authors.

Said a literary source of the proposal: “He gets into whether he should run a ‘fast break to the showtime Lakers.'”

Last month Hurley — the reigning two-time national champion coach of the Huskies — rejected a six-year, $70 million head coaching gig with the storied NBA franchise.

Hurley opted to stay at UConn. Getty Images
A spy saw an editor reading the proposal on Metro-North. Charles Wenzelberg / New York Post
His brother, Bobby, is also an NCAA coach. Getty Images

Hurley instead signed a six-year, $32.1 million contract extension after winning his first title in 2023.

Reports had circulated that the college coaching great intentionally considered NBA candidacies to get a raise from UConn.

But he blasted the buzz by saying in an interview last month: “One of the worst takes Iā€™ve heard is this was a leverage play by me to improve my situation at UConn… I donā€™t need leverage here. Weā€™ve won back-to-back national championships at this place.ā€

A source quipped of the editor reading the proposal on the train, “Perhaps the literati should get some spy craft training before riding the ‘Mad Men’ express to NYC. It seems.”

Another NYC publishing insider said of reading hot properties in public, “You’ve got to be careful when you’re reading a proposal — especially on the subway or Metro North. Or any train coming from Brooklyn or Montclair [New Jersey]. Even the Jitney could be risky!”

Hurley said his Lakers courtship even took a toll on his personal life.

We hear Hurley is going to meet with potential co-authors. Getty Images

He has said of his wife, Andrea, on ā€œThe Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotzā€: ā€œShe was like crying in the beginning… the first couple days of it, she got violently angry and emotional, not like hitting me and stuffā€¦ she got emotional like, ā€˜I canā€™t believe youā€™re bringing this. Our life is so greatā€¦ itā€™s perfect. Our lives couldnā€™t be better and now youā€™re bringing this sā€“t.

Hurley was a former basketball player himself at St. Anthony High School in New Jersey — where his dad, Bob Hurley Sr., was the coach — and at Seton Hall. His brother, Bobby Hurley, was a former Duke and Sacramento Kings player, and is the head coach at Arizona State.