Exit strategy

 So apparently the Los Angeles Lakers are going hard at UConn's Dan Hurley as their next coach, and I'm thinking, sure, why the hell not? It's not as if UConn is throwing wads of cash at him to keep him around.

Oh, wait. UConn is.

The word out there is the Huskies are willing to make Hurley the richest college basketball coach in America if he sticks around, but here's the problem: For one of the few times in the history of business transactions, it might really not be about the money this time.

 Oh, the Lakers will pay him more than enough to keep Hurley in hair, er, bald product, make no mistake. But this is more about Hurley's none-too-secret desire to give the NBA a whirl. And what better time than now?

First off, he's won back-to-back NCAA titles at UConn, so what's left for him in the college ranks but more of the same? Cutting nets down is fun, but after awhile, it's just origami with scissors. The Lakers will give him all the scissors and basketball nets he wants if he misses it.

And then there's this: College hoops ain't college hoops anymore.

Back in the day, when Rick Pitino and John Calipari bailed for the NBA and Mike Krzyzewski told the Lakers, nah, he was good in Durham, it was mostly about the money, not to say ambition. The Celtics and Nets lured Pitino and Calipari with both large green and an appeal to their outsized egos, and Coach K told the Lakers no because he didn't need either the money or the ego stroke.

Plus, he'd already gotten his fill of coaching NBA players when he coached the U.S. Olympic team. So thanks but no thanks.

Now, however ...

Well, it's all different, right? The NBA dynamic is now the college dynamic, courtesy of the out-of-control NIL monster and the transfer portal. College coaches -- who for decades ruled like pashas, holding absolute sway over their subjects, er, players -- now awaken every day in an alien landscape where the players hold sway over them. It can't be the most comfortable feeling in the world.

It also begs the question: If you're going to work in an environment in which the players wield the power (or at least a chunk of it), why not do it at the game's highest level? Keeping LeBron happy can't be all that different from keeping Billy Bob Jumpshot happy at State U., can it?

And in Hurley's particular case, he won't have to keep LeBron happy for long. Hell, LeBron himself has told the Lakers that they should consider a future without him in their hiring process. Don't bring in another LeBron's Coach, in other words; bring in a coach for all seasons, or at for all Lakers.

"But Mr. Blob," you're saying now. "Hurley's disciplined, share-the-wealth system is the very antithesis of the NBA culture. What if it doesn't work in that culture? What if Hurley winds up as the next Frank Vogel or Darvin Ham, forced out because they weren't the ones driving the bus?"

Well ... in that case, Hurley will have spent three or four years cashing chunky paychecks, and he can simply go back to cashing even more chunky paychecks at the college level. Because every major program in the country will be lining up to hand him the keys the vault, so to speak.

And who knows? There's always a chance his NBA model won't be that of Pitino or Calpari, who crashed and burned in the Association, but that of Brad Stevens. Whom lots of people (i.e.: me) thought was a bizarre hire by the Celtics, but which turned out to be pretty much genius.

Either way, where's the downside?

Take your time. I'll wait.