Mitch Kupchak’s otherwise successful tenure as Los Angeles Lakers general manager didn’t end all that well, with his ill-advised signings of Timofey Mozgov and Luol Deng to horrific long-term contracts still haunting the team to this day.

One of his final moves in charge of the Lakers was hiring Luke Walton as head coach, and as Kupchak reveals, Walton was the only one they interviewed for the job.

While interviewing just a single applicant isn’t exactly an ideal way to ensure that you've got the right candidate for a job, it was easy to see why the Lakers were so sold on Walton.

Aside from his obvious ties with the franchise as a player, he showed some of his coaching chops with the Golden State Warriors, where he learned how to implement an exciting, fast-paced, and modern style of play that the Lakers wanted.

The jury is still out on Walton in just over a season as Lakers coach, and LaVar Ball doesn’t appear to be a fan. While the defensive improvement the team has shown this season has been impressive, the offense remains a work in progress.

All in all, though, Walton has earned enough goodwill to be afforded the time to mold his young Lakers team and show why Kupchak had such faith in him to begin with.