The Los Angeles Lakers are reportedly focused on making University of Connecticut head basketball coach Dan Hurley their next head coach.
Hurley is reportedly in Los Angeles on Friday meeting with the team, and the Lakers are expected to give him a massive offer to try to lure him out of UConn.
While rumors have circulated on social media regarding Hurley potentially taking the job with the Lakers, one former Laker and longtime teammate of LeBron James appeared to send him a warning.
J.R. Smith, who spent 16 seasons in the NBA — his last coming with the Lakers — posted on social media on Friday tagging Hurley (although it wasn’t Hurley’s actual account) saying “@danhurleyuconn don’t fall for it!”
→ Swipe to see more articles
@danhurleyuconn don’t fall for it!
— JR Smith (@TheRealJRSmith)June 7, 2024
It would be difficult to imagine this has to do with anything that isn’t about the Lakers rumors, but it’s also unclear why Smith is trying to warn him against taking over as the head coach in Los Angeles.
Smith played under Hurley at St. Benedict’s Prep from 2002-04. From there, he elected to forgo college and enter the NBA Draft.
Smith was drafted in the first round of the 2004 NBA Draft by the New Orleans Hornets. He then played for the Denver Nuggets and New York Knicks before being traded to Cleveland in the middle of the 2014-15 season.
Smith was in Cleveland for five years, and the first four overlapped with James. Together, Smith and James won an NBA title in the 2015-16 season, while losing in the NBA Finals during the 2014-15, 2016-17, and 2017-18 seasons.
James left for the Lakers ahead of the 2018-19 season, and Smith joined the Lakers midway through the 2020 season right before it started back up in the bubble. The Lakers ended up winning the championship, giving Smith his second ring. He appeared in six regular season games and 10 postseason games with the Lakers.
That marked Smith’s final season in the NBA. He then enrolled in college at North Carolina A&T State University, where he played golf.
Smith and James seemed to be good friends, with James having Smith join him on the Lakers en route to a claiming second NBA title together. However, Smith appears to have some lingering issue with Los Angeles, which appears to have led him to warn Hurley against taking the L.A. job.
While Hurley seems to be the leading candidate, the Lakers have also been linked to JJ Redick, a 15-year NBA veteran who’s currently on ESPN’s broadcast team for the NBA Finals. Redick also has a podcast with James called Mind the Game.
