J.R. Smith issues warning to Dan Hurley about Lakers coaching job: ‘Don’t fall for it’

NBA

By Ryan Glasspiegel

J.R. Smith had a succinct but dire warning to Dan Hurley as he weighs a blockbuster offer to become the next head coach of the Lakers.

“Don’t fall for it,” Smith wrote on X, though tagging the wrong account and not the two-time defending national champion UConn head coach’s official on in the message.

Smith played his high school ball under Hurley at New Jersey’s St. Benedict’s Prep from 2002-04. 

Earlier this week, ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski reported that the Lakers were “targeting” Hurley for the vacant head coach position after the team fired Darvin Ham.

It’s an ominous statement from Smith, who played with LeBron James for three-plus years in Cleveland.

Smith also briefly played with James on the Lakers during the 2019-20 season, appearing in six games off the bench in his final season in the NBA.

James has a player option that would pay him about $51 million for the 2024-25 season that he must exercise or opt out of by the end of the month.

The Lakers coaching job has had constant turnover in recent memory — the next coach will be the eighth in the last 15 years.

The Post’s Dave Blezow caught up with St. John’s head coach Rick Pitino at Saratoga on Friday, and Pitino was of the belief that Hurley would rebuff the Lakers’ offer.

“What I’m hearing — and I have no [inside information] — is that his father [Bob Hurley Sr.] and his wife [Andrea] are very strong in his life and they don’t want to go,” Pitino said.

“I think he’s going to try it, no different than [John] Calipari tried it or I tried it. I don’t think he’s going to take the job, but I think he’s going to try the pros some day.”