Stephen A. Smith Sounds Off Over Dan Hurley Rejecting Lakers’ ‘Undesirable’ $70 Million Job Offer: “Nobody Gives a Damn About College Basketball”

No one would argue that Stephen A. Smith has a lot to say about a lot of things. But did he just call an offer worth $70 million/ 6 years by the Lakers to Dan Hurley not compelling enough? Seems so! The sports analyst has taken some time out of the controversial Caitlin Clark conversations to share his few pennies about the future of LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers after the UConn coach snubbed them despite some great reasons to stay.

Talking on his YouTube podcast “The Stephen A. Smith Show,” he shared his views on why he thought that Dan Hurley would definitely take the Lakers’ offer. He said, “NIL, Name, Image, Likeness issue in college sports, the fact that transfer portal was also relevant issue, and here’s the biggest thing. I don’t know if anybody has noticed this or not. But nobody gives a damn about college basketball anymore until March Madness. Ain’t nobody thinking about this till it’s time to fill up their brackets.”

He added a clarification to his statement saying that these are no longer the days when superstars like Michael Jordan and Kenny Anderson and more were competing. According to him, college basketball was “it” in that era. He further put out the facts that Dan Hurley already has two consecutive National titles and as a high-end competitor, he should have been attracted to the Lakers, a franchise renowned around the world.

Then, he would have played with and against the greatest players in the world. He ended his discussion by saying, “And that that would be compelling enough for him to take the job. But the fact that it wasn’t, says a lot about what the people think about the Lakers these days.” So, what about the Lakers now?

If not Dan Hurley, then who?

The LA Lakers have been going through some rough times for the past few years. Whether you call it the coaching troubles or the overall state of the team, they have not been in the top teams for their games recently. Hence, when Dan Hurley also left the job to try a three-peat with his Huskies, it certainly raised a few eyebrows.

Surely, Smith provided all the right reasons except for the fact that UConn is already in a winning culture. They are already in a flow and the fact that the other teams are not looking as good anymore, there is a high probability that the men’s basketball program will bring another National title to Connecticut.

But what about the Lakers? According to Stephen A. Smith, “This is a devastating blow as far as I’m concerned to the Los Angeles Lakers. It validates that they’re not the franchise they once were. That they’re not nearly as attractive as they once were. Which means the Lakers have their work cut out for them.”

However, there is still another young and talented former professional hooper who was in the run before Hurley even came up. That is JJ Redick. LeBron is currently doing a podcast with him which according to Stephen A. may be a way to keep him in the mix. Although Redick does not have any coaching experience, he is connected to the sport in various ways. One of them is calling out during the NBA Finals this year. Moreover, he is also smart and through his knowledge, he has proven to be worthy of the pick. Only time will tell if that will be enough.

Stay tuned for more such updates, and to follow what Shaq’s ex-agent, Leonard Armato, has to say about the Reese-Clark rivalry and more, watch this video.