OAKLAND – Years before instant success and ready-made acumen won him his dream job with the Lakers, Luke Walton had a long flight over the Pacific Ocean and much of the mainland to agonize over a loss in the fifth place game of the 2011 Maui Invitational.

“Luke took it hard after we lost in Maui,” former University of Memphis coach Josh Pastner said.

Jack Murphy, then a Memphis assistant, said Walton was “so upset you would have thought it was Game 7 of a playoff series.”

Walton clarified that he wasn’t throwing any tantrums or breaking locker room fixtures. On Saturday, the morning after being announced as the Lakers next coach, Walton said coolly, “I hate losing. Been in me since I was a kid.”

Walton will leave the 73-win Warriors at the end of the season for a Lakers team that has won just 65 games in three years. The Lakers must rebuild to be rebuilt, and will likely endure many more losses before rejoining the NBA’s elite.

“I know it’s going to happen,” Walton said of losing games, “but there’s always something you can do and losing’s a great motivator for doing more.”

In that game in 2011, the No. 8-ranked Tigers blew a lead in the final minute against Georgetown and lost in overtime.

Walton should have been a month into his ninth season as a Lakers player, but due to that season’s lockout, he sought a new challenge. He signed on as an assistant with Pastner, his former college teammate at Arizona.

Which explained his misery over an early-season college basketball game. Scouting Georgetown was his responsibility.

It may have been a temporary gig – Walton told USA Today at the time he took the job, in part, “to find out how much I’m into coaching” – but the Lakers forward was a serious aide.

“I knew the next week he could be gone,” said Murphy, now the head coach at Northern Arizona, “back making millions of dollars in the NBA.

“That just showed me how invested he is in that moment. He wasn’t looking forward to the future; he was invested in that moment in Memphis basketball. Nothing else mattered.”

The lockout ended and Walton returned to the Lakers in December, but that four-month stint goes down as his first official foray into coaching. It’s the foundation of an ascendant coaching career that will bring Walton back to Los Angeles when the Warriors’ season ends, later this spring – possibly with a second straight NBA championship.

The Lakers announced Friday that Walton, 36, will replace Byron Scott, becoming the organization’s 26th head coach, and fifth since 2011.

Walton was not always as preternaturally cool as a coach as he was in his 39-4 tenure as acting head coach with the Golden State Warriors, including an NBA-record 24-game winning streak to start the season.

When Pastner took the floor with his team for the first exhibition game in 2011, he could not find his newest assistant coach.

Walton had not paid close enough attention to the schedule and was still hanging out in the locker room.

“Not only do we have to work out the kinks for the players, we have to work out the kinks for the coaches,” remembered Pastner.

Pastner, who left Memphis earlier this spring to become the coach at Georgia Tech, said he “held (Walton) accountable like I would any other assistant.” That meant recruiting trips, film study and long hours.

When the coaching staff drove three hours to Clarksville, Tenn., to try to lure a recruit to Memphis, Walton rode in the back seat of Pastner’s car.

“He recruited, he coached, dealt with it all,” Pastner said. “And I think he loved every second of it.”

The interlude in Memphis may have also paved the way to Walton coaching in the pro ranks. In an interview with the San Jose Mercury News last year, Walton said, “It gave me the bug to coach, but not so much in college. There are a lot of responsibilities in college coaching that you don’t have to worry about in the NBA.”

Even then, the signs of a future coach – a full-time one – were on display.

Pastner found Walton to be “a great teacher,” and the coach changed the way Memphis defended screens based on Walton’s suggestion.

“No one had the sense or the feel for the game that Luke did,” Murphy said.

Walton filled out an all-Arizona coaching staff with the Tigers. Pastner was a player and coach with the Wildcats, while Murphy rose through the ranks on Coach Lute Olson’s staff, starting as a team manager while Walton was a player. The other assistant was former NBA point guard Damon Stoudamire, another Wildcat.

For a team with a handful of future NBA players on the roster, including Laker Tarik Black and Denver Nuggets guard Will Barton, Walton’s arrival was a big deal.

“I was excited, honestly,” Black said, “and I was excited to play against him.”

Black said Walton saw his potential and encouraged him to expand his game beyond rebounding and dunks.

“Once he saw me, he said, ‘You have NBA potential, use it,’” Black said.

Walton was a bit player on the Lakers team that won a second-straight NBA title a year earlier, but he was always popular among teammates and fans. Things were the same in Memphis.

“He had a lot of great stories to explain to our guys,” Pastner said.

He shared anecdotes about Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O’Neal, told stories of playoff battles and channeled Phil Jackson.

“It was good for our guys to hear from Luke,” Pastner said, “just about the different type of things that are going on in the NBA and what it takes to get there.”

Walton has remained in touch with Barton, and Black, who will be a restricted free agent this summer, said he always spoke to his former assistant when he played the Warriors. After a Lakers loss on Jan. 14 in Oakland, Walton approached his former pupil.

Black had scored six points and grabbed six boards in 17 minutes. However, he missed all three of his free throw attempts, prompting Walton to ask, “Why are you standing so far to the side and so far back?”

“He’s coaching for another team and he’s still coaching me,” Black said with fondness.

Walton faces plenty of questions as the new head man for the Lakers. His time coaching in Memphis is significant not only because it was his first dive into coaching, but with only two seasons as an NBA assistant under his belt, it represents a sizable chunk of his experience.

When Scott’s third-year option was not picked up for next season, Pastner immediately thought of Walton.

“I knew Luke’s dream job, for a long time, was the Lakers,” he said, “and I knew the Lakers wanted Luke.”

The Lakers announced their hire just after 7 p.m. PDT on Friday. In Atlanta, Pastner received more than 150 late-night text messages within an hour. Most, he said, were from coaches hoping Pastner could help them land a job on Walton’s staff.

Walton’s old boss isn’t in any hurry to pass those messages along. He knows Walton is focused on the remainder of the Warriors’ season and winning another NBA title.

Pastner said he sent Walton a message on Friday, however.

He told Walton congratulations on his dream job, that he was happy for him.

And he said, “Don’t forget where you started.”

Contact the writer: boram@ocregister.com