I’ve been shopping for a new car, and if you haven’t done that lately, you’re in for a tremendous treat.
Every dealer will tell you candidly why their line is the best and how you’ve certainly come to the right place to get your new vehicle.
No need to kick the tires or test drive it, just sign here for a totally guaranteed, great experience for your foreseeable driving future.
Two-time defending NCAA Men’s Basketball Champion coach Dan Hurley recently went job shopping and quickly discovered that his current gig was a great one, offering all the security both he and his family deserve in addition to having total control of the coveted Connecticut Basketball program.
In what had been billed as both the opportunity of a lifetime and the perfect match by the Los Angeles Lakers and those in the national media who worship them, the fiery Hurley was just the coach they needed to return them to the promised land.
Forget the fact they’ve jettisoned two competent coaches in recent history, including one that led them to an NBA championship during the difficult pandemic bubble season. We want this guy, and we’ll get him.
The Lakers felt the pizzazz of Los Angeles along with two aging superstars coupled with a marginal raise would be enough to lure Hurley and uproot his family to a job filled with a dysfunctional owner in one Jeannie Buss, and an incompetent vice president, and general manager in Rob Pelinka, whose biggest claim to date is being the agent who represented the legendary Kobe Bryant.
I should note that Pelinka holds both a law degree and one in business to boot, so on paper this would appear to be an intelligent man and one to take seriously from a business perspective as well.
However, the reality of this debacle of a franchise is neither Buss nor Pelinka run the L.A. Lakers.
That distinction lies at the feet of the great LeBron Raymone James Sr., who has not only taken the NBA to superb heights in his decorated career, but along the way has fired a list of quality basketball coaches he didn’t like in the process of it all.
The whole theory the Lakers used to influence “their guy” to take the highly overrated and completely toxic Laker job never stood a chance with a tough, intelligent basketball lifer such as Hurley, and while he’s said on numerous occasions he’d like a go of it someday in the NBA, this individual recognized a pig-in-a-poke quickly and was on a flight back to the East coast, running to an environment he can both control and totally trust.
For those who think I’m wrong about James and his malcontent wing man Anthony Davis, you apparently haven’t watched a Laker game in some time. LeBron has a direct line to Jeannie Buss, one that eliminates Pelinka’s authority and gives him the ultimate bully pulpit.
He’ll use that to force the Lakers to acquire the rights to his son in the upcoming NBA draft and secure his dream of playing alongside of him despite the fact the young man isn’t ready (and may never be) for the rigors of professional basketball.
All the nonsensical aforementioned aside, Hurley knew he wouldn’t be in charge and politely said no thanks.
He’ll undoubtedly coach in the NBA someday, but not for an organization that’s clearly as troubled as the “storied” Los Angeles Lakers.
He’ll get yet another raise at Connecticut but that was in the works immediately when the Laker job was whispered into his athletic director’s ear. Call it leverage or simply good business, but Hurley demonstrated excellent judgment by deciding to pass on a job that devoured both Frank Vogel and Darvin Ham as he flew back to Connecticut on the Laker Lear jet that they had quickly dispatched for him.
With LeBron lurking as the man behind the curtain pulling the levers in the great movie “The Wizard of Oz,” Hurley knew he would never rule the roost in Tinseltown and subsequently made the right decision, one that will guarantee both his reputation and sanity all in the name of seventy million dollars.
Danny Bridges, who thinks the Lakers coaching job just might be the worst one in today’s NBA, can be reached at 317-370-8447 or at bridgeshd@aol.com.
