Sound-off with Sinkoff
Sports meets pop culture and humor! Join your host, Brian Sinkoff, as he brings you the latest trends and insights from the world of sports, mixed with engaging conversations about pop culture, zombies and whatever he wants to "Sound-off" about.
Whether you're a sports fanatic, a real estate enthusiast or just someone looking for a good laugh, "Sound-off with Sinkoff" is fun, informative, and entertaining.
Sound-off with Sinkoff
Episode #11: Should Danny Hurley take the Lakers job?
What if making the leap from college coaching to the NBA isn't the career jackpot everyone thinks it is? Brian Sinkoff explores the surprising complexities behind the idea of UConn's Dan Hurley potentially joining the Los Angeles Lakers. Inspired by a thought-provoking comment from Francine, my wife, we dive into the historical challenges college coaches face in the NBA, highlighting why only two have managed to secure winning records in the past three decades.
This episode unpacks the unique pressures Hurley deals with at the college level, including NIL, the transfer portal, and player attrition, and questions whether an NBA career would really be the greener pasture it appears to be.
Look forward to more thought-provoking discussions in our upcoming episodes!
Hello everyone and welcome to SoundOff with SinkOff. I am your host, brian SinkOff. Thank you so much for checking out the podcast. Of course, soundoff is sponsored by the SinkOff Realty Group, a full-service real estate brokerage in the capital region of New York. All right, so my wife, francine not a huge sports fan as Francine, but she's sort of the the Genesis for this edition of sound office sink off Um, if you haven't heard Dan Hurley, uh, uconn coach, winner of two national championships, being heavily courted, uh, by the Los Angeles Lakers at this time, at the time of this podcast taping, um, they want to pay him big bucks, they want to lure him from the college game to the NBA.
Speaker 1:And my wife, francine, we're at lunch today and I said I'm thinking about doing a podcast. She said what are you going to talk about? I said, oh, this Danny Hurley situation going from UConn to the Lakers. And Francine, with sort of an ingenious comment, she goes isn't that the natural trajectory, brian, like you, right? You go to college, you, you do well there, and then you get the NBA job. Isn't that like an admirable, like that's, that's what you should be shooting for, right? And I said, francine, that that was like a brilliant comment Because you would think on paper leaving college to go to the NBA just on paper, knowing nothing about anything that that would be a good move. But for Danny Hurley it's a terrible move and I'm going to tell you why. First of all, in the last 30 years okay, we're going back 30 years, okay, we're going back 30 years Only two coaches in the last 30 years have left college, went to the NBA and had a winning record Billy Donovan with the Thunder and Brad Stevens with the Celtics. Neither of them won a championship Winning percentage of those coaches roughly under 545% winning percentage combined. Okay, stevens went to the Celtics. Probably realized being in the front office was a better move for him. He had more control of the roster and things of that nature, and he bolts for the Celtics front office. So you know the history is not there. They're talking about a long-term deal. And you know the history is not there. They're talking about a long-term deal and you know Hurley is seriously thinking about it. This comes roughly about the 20-year anniversary that the Lakers were going to offer Krzyzewski, who at the time was at Duke. He was going to get a five-year $40 million deal. Krzyzewski turned it down, won a couple more championships with the Blue Devils, goes on to be the winningest college basketball coach of all time.
Speaker 1:There's a lot of different ways, a lot of different moving pieces to look at it. You know I'm going to give you sort of maybe the way Hurley's thinking and then I'm going to give you the reality of it. But Hurley's probably thinking it's a challenge, right, I've succeeded at UConn. I've the reality of it. But Hurley's probably thinking it's a challenge, right, I've succeeded at UConn, I've won a couple championships in a row. I played that college game. I can do it. You know he wants. You know the NBA is obviously you're going to have better pay. You're going to be the limelight of Hollywood. You're going to be in that LA crew Lakers coach kind of a prestigious job of Hollywood. You're going to be in that LA crew Lakers coach kind of a prestigious job. You know Hurley also thinks with the NIL and the transfer portal, even a program like UConn, you're going to lose guys to the NBA.
Speaker 1:Guys on your roster right, your upperclassmen, your guys that leave for the NBA, maybe the sixth, seventh, eighth, ninth guy on the Huskies bench maybe not be there next year. They go to a different program. They get the NIL money and the promise of playing time. They were frustrated maybe this past season at UConn because they didn't play and they bolt. And Hurley, much like a lot of other, even big-time colleges, he's doing the NIL recruiting tap dance, trying to get guys in to fill a roster for next year. Not IL recruiting tap dance trying to get guys in to fill a roster for next year. Not as difficult. In the major programs it is for, like the mid majors, like the Siena's and you Albany's, because a guy at those programs has one good year and he's done. He's getting more money somewhere else. He's going to a mid major, a higher mid major in a 10 school, even maybe a big power five school. He's done. But at UConn they're suffering attrition. Either NBA or guys on the roster that didn't play last year simply aren't happy and they're promised with more playing time next year. So look, Hurley is also facing that hurdle as well.
Speaker 1:Hurley hurdle, he's facing that hurdle as well. So he's dealing with the NIL. He's dealing with constant turnover in college basketball. We don't know what the college basketball landscape is going to look like in five years, much less 10. You know he's thinking that, all right Now.
Speaker 1:Here's why I don't think this is such a great idea for him to go. For him to go to the NBA and that is the NBA is for him to go to the NBA and that is the NBA is it's not a coach's league? Hurley is a player's coach, but he's a coach's coach. He is. He's sort of an old school grinded out yell at you demand. You know the intensity. I think Led certainly maybe all of college basketball with the amount of technical fouls he got last year. He's really.
Speaker 1:You know Hurley is a little surly right Fired up, yells at people, yells at refs. That crap don't fly in the NBA. The players run the roost. They don't want to hear from the coach, they don't want to hear him whining. You know it's keep the noise down and basically in the NBA you're substitutions. I mean that's what you're doing. These guys aren't really coached, they don't do fundamental drills. They have 77 assistants under them. You know they're freaking, making substitutions. I mean, let's be honest, yeah, they're motivating a little bit, but you know you're making $20 million a year in the NBA. I don't know that you need motivation. You're a grown man, you've kind of been doing this. You're your own boss. So I don't know that the rah-rah plays in LA. I just don't know that it plays in the NBA.
Speaker 1:Here's the other thing. You know, lebron, I love LeBron and you know this If you've been following me over my career. I'm a big LeBron James fan, always have been. Lebron's going to be 40 years old this season and while he's putting up numbers when he was 29 years old, he's 39, you know the 25 points a game and almost averaging a triple-double. He's 40 years old. How many years does he have left? A couple. When he leaves, that team is completely decimated and you can talk to me about draft and all that other stuff, but the core of that team is gone. Anthony Davis is an old 31. He seems to be injured every other season. Are you really banking on that guy? I mean Bronny James, lebron's son. That's a cute story. For a year or two they play together. But am I building a franchise around Bronny James? A guy wasn't even that good in college, like you know. I don't know.
Speaker 1:The other problem with an NBA team being a coach is you don't even run the team the players do. The players have so much power on an NBA roster from who we're going to sign to. And here's the other thing If they don't like you as a head coach, you're done, you're gone, you're fired. How many times have you seen a team get together and blow out a coach? The players always win. That's the problem in the NBA. More so than any of the professional sports, the NBA because the rosters are small. Here's why the rosters are small. Usually one or two stars is what keeps the team together.
Speaker 1:You can win and I've always said the sink off theory of NBA championship tivity is NBA championship. Look it up One team in the last 40 years does not have this going for him and I'll tell you that as in a second. But you need a hall of famer and two all-stars around you to win an NBA title. Yes, you can have a combination, a couple of hall of famers and an all-star, but you need at least one hall of Famer and two all pros around you, all stars around you, to win an NBA title. The only team it's the exception is the Detroit Pistons, when they had Wallace and Rip Hamilton and those guys.
Speaker 1:But the NBA is so dominated by the players. It is a players league the two or three top players on each team. They run the roster. They can blow a coach out of there. If Brad Stevens, if Danny Hurley's, I'm thinking of Brad Stevens.
Speaker 1:But if Danny Hurley's act wears thin with the Lakers, he's done. And how long could that be? A couple of years. If the players don't like him and it doesn't his sort of college rah-rah, get in your face intensity. If that doesn't play for the players, there's no security blanket. And that, I think, is the biggest fundamental problem with the NBA. It is a player's league, it's not a coach's league. Coaches are substitution guys.
Speaker 1:Here's the other thing UConn. You're there for life. I mean you literally, as I've always said, you have to drop your pants and poop in the president's office to lose your job at UConn. I mean that's how secure Hurley is in his gig. It's a pretty good gig. And yeah, if the NIL and the Power Five and UConn becomes a little less relevant, he'll get a Power Five job making crazy money. But he's got great job security at UConn. He's not going anywhere. He is going to be there for as long as he wants to be there.
Speaker 1:Two national championships for Hurley in the last two years. First team to do that since Florida in 06 and 07. And prior to that was Duke in 90, 91. So you're talking about. Hurley did something that's done about every 17 years the life of a cicada, right when cicadasadas are hatched. That means a team repeats in college basketball okay, and Hurley pulled a cicada. Every 17 years there's a national championship repeat. He's got a long leash at UConn. He is not going anywhere. I mean, they have to really be terrible for him to lose his job and guess what it would be like four years before there's even talk of him being fired. I don't think that would ever happen. But he'd get a job in 27 seconds. So money, cash, job security for Hurley staying at UConn is not a problem.
Speaker 1:There's no loyalty in the NBA. They don't give a rat's ass what you did in college. They don't care about past performance at UConn. They don't care about anything. They care about what have you done? Can you control the players, can you babysit and can you be a substitution guy? Give you some names of college coaches successful college coaches that went to the NBA.
Speaker 1:That sucked. John Beeline, michigan and the Cavaliers 14-40. Have a nice day. Donovan did okay, went to Oklahoma City. He was okay. Fred Hoiberg Iowa State to the Bulls 115-155. Brad Stevens had a good record, one of the few that you could say made the nice transition from college to the pros. He was good, reggie Theus, I don't even remember him with the Sacramento Kings but he went from New Mexico state.
Speaker 1:Sacramento lasted like two seasons. Mike Montgomery, member Stanford went to some final fours, went to some lead elite eights in the early two thousands, goes to golden state. He was unbelievable and he was literally last of two seasons with Golden State. Leonard Hamilton remember him From Miami to my Wizards. They were terrible.
Speaker 1:He went back to Florida State. He's been there 22 years since 2002. He's had tremendous success with the Seminoles. Why on earth would he leave? You know he left. He realized dumb mistake, mistake back at Florida state. Has been there for two decades.
Speaker 1:Lon Kruger, illinois to the Hawks uh, lasted three seasons. Tim Floyd remember him. Iowa state to the bulls lasted three seasons. Now he had a tough gig because he took over after the Jordan um broke, breakup John Calipari. He took over after the Jordan um broke, breakup John Calipari, umass to the nets disaster disaster. Two and a half seasons um three and 17. In his third season, blown out PJ Carlissimo. Seton hall to Portland uh, losing record. He had a bunch of gigs in the NBA and did not do well. So there is history with coaches making that jump from college to the pros and exactly two of them have had winning records. It's not a good track record.
Speaker 1:I don't think it's a great move for Danny Hurley to make. I just don't like the Lakers roster either. I don't think it's a great move for Danny Hurley to make. I just don't like the Lakers roster either. I don't think it's a roster. Yeah, you can rebuild it. It's like maybe you get a fresh slate in a couple years, but you still have LeBron James for at least two years. You have Anthony Davis and his bad injuries and you have a couple of core guys there, but it's just not a great fit. It's limelight, it's glitz, it's Hollywood, it's Tinseltown. I get it Not a good move. Stay with UConn Hurley. That's all I can say. I mean.
Speaker 1:Again, thanks to Francine for giving me the topic of this, because that was like a pretty smart comment. It's a natural trajectory to go from the college to the NBA. Maybe not for Dan Hurley. All right, that's going to do it for this edition of SoundOff with SyncOff. I want to thank you so much for listening, for watching. Give my podcast a like, give it a subscribe, give it a share. Whatever you kids do with your podcasts that's what she said Do it with this one as well, and I look forward to many more awesome podcasts ahead. We got some special surprise guests coming up in the next couple of weeks and I want to thank you for joining and we'll talk to you next time, everybody.
