Bobby Hurley, the head coach of Arizona State Sun Devils, and his brother Dan Hurley, the head coach of UConn University, are in line when dominating the top seeds on the basketball court. While Dan’s Huskies are preparing for today’s hunt against the Final Four debutant Alabama Crimson Tide, earlier this season, Bobby Hurley secured a fourth-consecutive win over Washington. If you didn’t know already, Bobby’s popularity stems from his NBA career, unlike his younger brother Dan who is well-known in the coaching world.

Despite a well-kept family reputation passed on by their father—retired head coach Bob Hurley—when asked about Dec. 12, 1993, Bobby travels back to his NBA rookie season tragedy. He said, “That day is always like the worst for me to go through.” It has been an incredible journey so far that nearly went wrong and cost the Hurley family their eldest son Bobby 31 years back. Here’s what happened to the ASU sensei.

How Dan Hurley’s brother’s NBA career got butchered

It all happened after Dan Hurley’s brother finished his nineteenth game as a freshman starter for the Sacramento Kings at 22. In an awful 112-102 loss to the Los Angeles Clippers, he recorded seven assists but played scoreless for 19 minutes. Driving home that night, Hurley’s car clashed with a local house painter Daniel Wieland just a mile from the arena at a dimly lit intersection.

Hurley’s Toyota 4Runner got hit by Wieland’s station wagon which he was driving without headlights. Hurley wasn’t wearing a seatbelt at the time of the incident and flung almost a hundred feet and landed in a drainage ditch. Luckily, Hurley’s teammate Mike Peplowski, who was behind him by a few minutes, found him and saved his life reported the Duke Basketball Report. However, the damage was grievous.

The 52-year-old coach suffered numerous life-threatening injuries after the crash, including collapsed lungs, shattered ribs, a severed trachea, a fractured shoulder blade, a compression back fracture, and other troubles with his legs and wrists. Wieland himself suffered some injuries including a fractured femur. Later, he was found guilty of reckless driving and given three years of probation and a $300 fine. Wieland, however, didn’t apologize to Hurley and his family until 2012.

Hurley undertook a miraculous recovery in the years that followed, beating all odds to make a comeback to the NBA. When he returned to the Kings for the next season, he shocked both teammates and coaches alike with his toughness. While he may not have been the same player that he used to be, Bobby showed signs of his old talent, especially when coming off the bench. Given his consistency, he was traded to the Vancouver Grizzlies in 1998, where he played twenty-seven games before being waived on January 25 the following year. After this, he joined Dan Hurley in the exciting NCAA career that followed.

Aftermath of the crash

Bobby Hurley dealt with the accident’s impacts for years. Even though he had a passion for thoroughbred racing, he didn’t find a way to express his competitive nature until he began basketball coaching in 2010. Before taking on the position of associate head coach at Rhode Island, he earned invaluable experience working under his brother Dan Hurley at Wagner College from 2010 to 2012. Hurley was hired as Buffalo’s first head coach in 2013 and stayed there until 2015. Then, he took on control of the Arizona State Sun Devils, a position he has maintained ever since.

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