Dan Hurley admits there was a contract number that would have convinced him to come to Lakers

There was a number that would’ve brought Dan Hurley to the Lakers, but even he doesn’t know what it is.

In a capitalistic society, money, work and productivity are the holy trinity the system applauds. Even if you rebel from the status quo, ultimately, many of our decisions are based on money and the work needed to produce it.

The Lakers reportedly offered Dan Hurley $70 million over six years, which he turned down, deciding to stay at UConn.

The deal would have made him the sixth highest-paid coach in the NBA. That wasn’t enough to convince Hurley to leave his current position as a back-to-back college national champion, but was there a number that would have convinced him to walk away from UConn and take the Lakers job?

Hurley appeared on the Dan Le Batard show and admitted there was a number, even though he couldn’t say what it was.

“To leave, there probably is. To leave a place at any moment in your life, to say it’s not a motivating factor, the finances to leave a place is definitely a thing. To stay at a place, I don’t think it’s ever going to be a thing. Like, to stay somewhere like UConn, it never would have been a financial thing. Again, this wasn’t some pressure tactic to make me the highest-paid college coach. That was already done.

But to leave a place that you feel the way we do and the family connection with my wife, my sons, my mother-in-law, my brother, my father – who I know how much it means to my dad to go to the Big East Tournament and to come to 10 UConn games a year at home and sitting courtside when I’m coaching against Rick Pitino – yeah, to leave all that behind, there probably is a number. I don’t know what that is.”

Perhaps the rumored six-year, $100 million deal would have been enough to get him to take his talents to Southern California. Those numbers would have made Hurley the third highest-paid coach in the NBA, behind only Gregg Popovich and Steve Kerr.

That would be a lot for someone who has never coached professionally, but it would have been a bold statement that the Lakers were taking chances and investing in the people they believed in.

Instead, the Lakers made a good but not great offer and the search for their next coach continues.

The pressure is on for this organization to get this hiring right. If they don’t, fans will claim they could have gotten a great coach had they just done like Teddy KGB in Rounders and paid that man his money.

You can follow Edwin on Twitter at @ECreates88.