There is still no basketball coach on the Los Angeles Lakers roster to take over Darvin Ham's role. After weeks of speculation, ESPN commentator JJ Redick appeared to be the clear favorite to land the position. However, in the final days, Dan Hurley, the coach of UConn, emerged as the front-runner and later declined a contract offer from the franchise. The campaigns of Redick and Hurley were closely linked to reporting by Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN and Shams Charania of The Athletic, respectively. Wojnarowski broke the news of Hurley's interest in the role. Charania was often the most well-known national reporter, stating that Redick was in the lead.
The two had a lengthy connection. Last year, a feature in New York magazine compared their back and forth to a "cold war." On Tuesday, Charania appeared to be relishing the chance to outdo his former master, seemingly taking a shot at him. “Then they, last week, on Wednesday, turned their attention, I’m told, to Dan Hurley,” Charania said on FanDuel TV. “And, he was not the No. 1 candidate, the No. 1 guy to go pursue from the start, from the beginning.” he refutes Woj’s assertion that Dan Hurley was the Laker's number one option from the beginning.
Read More: Over Lakers Dan Hurley Scoop
Shams Charania Seemingly Takes Shot At Adrian Wojnarowski
This contradicts several reports by Wojnarowski. Woj said in his original piece that “Hurley has been at the forefront of the Lakers’ search from the beginning of the process, even while the organization has done its due diligence interviewing several other candidates.” Notably, Wojnarowski reported a month ago that the Lakers were considering Redick as part of their "wide-ranging and lengthy search." Both Charania and Wojnarowski concur that Hurley was not the only person the organization interviewed.
However, Charania made other remarks about Hurley's candidacy that gave the impression that he was disparaging Wojnarowski. When Charania went on Pat McAfee's show, which is shown on ESPN naturally, she came across as rather skeptical of the Hurley issue as a whole. “If the Lakers wanna go hire James Borrego, they’ve had a month to hire James Borrego,” Charania said. “They’ve had this week, after losing out on Dan Hurley, I guess, they’ve had this time to go get James Borrego.” overall, the battle between Shams and Woj will wage on.
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