EL SEGUNDO, Calif. -- Los Angeles Lakers general manager Mitch Kupchak said the decision to hire Mike D'Antoni instead of Phil Jackson didn't come down to money, demands over personnel control or travel restrictions.

It came down to basketball.

"It revolved almost completely around the personnel that we had on the team and the style of play that we saw going forward for the team," Kupchak told a small group of reporters gathered in a meeting room inside the Lakers' practice facility on Tuesday.

Jackson was the first candidate the Lakers met with after the dismissal of Mike Brown on Friday. Kupchak and Lakers vice president of player personnel Jim Buss had a "basketball discussion" at Jackson's home in Playa del Rey on Saturday. During the meeting the Lakers didn't offer the job to Jackson, nor did Jackson say he wanted it, according to Kupchak.

"Much has been made of the perceived agreement to wait until Monday," Kupchak said. "The actual way it took place after the basketball discussion was kind of, 'Where are we now?' And Phil said he needs some more time and I asked him, 'How much more time?' And he said, 'I will get back to you on Monday.' "

Jackson told Kupchak he would call him.

"At that point, I said, 'Phil, I have a job to do and I'm going to have to continue my search and interview candidates,' and he nodded that he understood," Kupchak said.

Kupchak was true to his word, not wasting any time to contact D'Antoni -- who was at his home in New York, rehabbing from a recent knee-replacement surgery -- over the phone Saturday afternoon and also setting up an in-person interview with Mike Dunleavy for Sunday. After Kupchak's initial conversation with D'Antoni and several more subsequent calls Sunday afternoon between him, D'Antoni, Jim Buss and Lakers owner Dr. Jerry Buss, the Lakers knew they had their man.

After deciding to hire D'Antoni at around 5 or 6 p.m. on Sunday, the team spent the next five-plus hours negotiating with D'Antoni and drafting a contract. The process was slowed because D'Antoni was in New York and the groups had to work around a "fax machine malfunction," according to Lakers spokesman John Black. By the time everything was finished, it was approaching 11:30 p.m.

That's when Kupchak decided to call Jackson rather than wait until Monday morning.

"Our feeling was the worst thing we can do, since we already made our decision, was to go into Monday," Kupchak said. "I can get a call at 8 in the morning or 9 in the morning or 12 from Phil indicating that, 'I've thought about it and I would like to be the coach. Let's start negotiations.' To say at that point, 'Well, we've decided to go in a different direction,' our feeling was that would be even worse than what we did Sunday night."

Kupchak left a message on Jackson's cellphone that went unreturned, so he followed up with a call to the landline at Jackson's home after digging up the number.