Kevin Love
Kevin Wesley Love is an American professional basketball player for the Utah Jazz of the National Basketball Association. He is a five-time All-Star and a two-time member of the All-NBA Second Team, winning an NBA championship with the Cleveland Cavaliers in 2016. He was also a member of the gold medal-winning United States national team at the 2010 FIBA World Championship and the 2012 Summer Olympics. In 2011, Love won the NBA Most Improved Player Award and led the league in rebounding.
The son of former NBA player Stan Love, Love was a top-ranked prospect out of Lake Oswego High School in Oregon. He played one season of college basketball for the UCLA Bruins and led the team to a Final Four appearance in the 2008 NCAA tournament. Love was named a consensus First Team All-American and was voted player of the year in the Pac-10 Conference. He elected to forgo his remaining three years of college eligibility and entered the 2008 NBA draft. He was taken fifth overall by the Memphis Grizzlies, and was traded to the Minnesota Timberwolves on draft night for the third overall selection, O. J. Mayo, in an eight-player deal. During the 2010–11 season, Love established the longest streak for consecutive games recording double figures in points and rebounds since the ABA–NBA merger.
After six seasons with Minnesota, Love was traded to the Cavaliers in 2014. After making four straight NBA Finals with the team and winning a championship, Love suffered multiple injuries from 2018 to 2021. He slotted into a reserve role in 2021–22 and finished as runner-up for the Sixth Man of the Year award. However, reduced playing time the following season led Love to reach a contract buyout agreement with the Cavaliers. After nine seasons with Cleveland, he joined Miami in February 2023, where he reached his fifth NBA Finals in as many playoff appearances.
Early life
Love was born on September 7, 1988, in Santa Monica, California, the second of three children to Karen and Stan Love. He grew up in Lake Oswego, Oregon, where he was childhood friends and Little League teammates with fellow future NBA star Klay Thompson. Love played basketball from his earliest days; as a child, he would practice his bounce passes with a cardboard box and study tapes of Wes Unseld. His father Stan, a former NBA big man who was an adept shooter, had his son develop his outside shooting and ballhandling skills.Love played high school basketball for the Lake Oswego Lakers. In his sophomore season, he averaged 25.3 points, 15.4 rebounds, and 3.7 assists per game, leading the Lakers to the 2005 state championship game, where they lost to Jesuit High School. The following summer, Nike removed him from its Portland Elite Legends AAU team after he chose to participate in the Reebok ABCD Camp against other top recruits. He went on to play for the Southern California All-Stars, helping the team compile a 46–0 record while garnering three MVP awards. In his junior year, he averaged 28 points, 16.1 rebounds, and 3.5 assists per game as Lake Oswego returned to the state championship game, this time winning behind Love's 24 points and 9 rebounds. In his senior season, he averaged 33.9 points, 17.0 rebounds, and 4 assists per game. Lake Oswego made their third straight trip to the state championship game, losing in a rematch of the prior year's final to South Medford High School and Love's rival Kyle Singler despite 37 points from Love. At the conclusion of the season, Love was named the Gatorade National Male Athlete of the Year. He was also a first-team Parade All-American. He finished his high school career as the all-time leading scorer in Oregon boys' basketball history, with 2,628 points.
College career
In July 2006, Love verbally committed to play college basketball at UCLA. He had also considered playing for North Carolina. Before the 2007–08 season, he received permission from Walt Hazzard to wear number 42 for the Bruins even though the school had retired the number for Hazzard in 1996. After arriving at UCLA, Love regularly sought out retired Bruins legends Bill Walton and John Wooden for advice. His decision to play for UCLA brought anger from fans of Oregon, his father's alma mater, where it was expected Love would play. Prior to a game at Oregon, Ducks fans obtained Love's cell phone number and left obscene messages as well as death threats; the fans also subjected Love's family to obscenities and threw garbage at them during the game. This event, along with similar incidents directed at other players, prompted a discussion of whether abuse by college basketball fans is becoming too extreme.In the 2008 Pacific-10 Conference men's basketball tournament, the Bruins defeated the USC Trojans, featuring O. J. Mayo, in the semi-finals. Both Mayo and Love were nominated to the All-Pac-10 tournament team. Later, Love guided UCLA to the regular season Pac-10 conference championship, the conference tournament championship, and a No. 1 seed in the 2008 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament. Love helped the Bruins to the Final Four of the tournament, where they lost to the Memphis Tigers, whose season and tournament appearance, in turn, were later vacated. At the end of the 2007–08 regular season, Love was named consensus first-team All-American, Pac-10 Player of the Year, All-Pac-10, and Pac-10 Freshman of the Year. He led the Bruins with 17.5 ppg, 10.6 rpg, and 23 double-doubles.
Professional career
Minnesota Timberwolves (2008–2014)
Rookie season (2008–2009)
In a press conference on April 17, 2008, Love announced his intention to leave UCLA to enter the 2008 NBA draft. He was taken fifth overall by the Memphis Grizzlies, immediately after his teammate at UCLA, Russell Westbrook, who was selected by the Seattle SuperSonics. Following the draft, Love was traded, along with Mike Miller, Brian Cardinal, and Jason Collins to the Minnesota Timberwolves, with the third overall pick O. J. Mayo, Antoine Walker, Marko Jarić and Greg Buckner going to the Grizzlies. Love went on to play in the 2008 NBA Summer League and led all players in rebounding.In his NBA debut on October 29, Love came off the bench to contribute 12 points and nine rebounds in a 98–96 win over the Sacramento Kings. The Timberwolves lost 15 of their first 19 games, prompting the dismissal of head coach Randy Wittman. Timberwolves general manager Kevin McHale assumed duties as head coach and they developed a close relationship. Under McHale, the Timberwolves improved their play in January by going 10–4, with Love averaging a double-double. Love was not selected to the NBA All-Star Weekend Rookie Challenge, to the surprise of his teammates and coaches. After the team's leading scorer Al Jefferson was sidelined for the rest of the season with a torn ACL in February, Love's minutes increased, and he was named NBA Rookie of the Month for March. Love finished the season ninth in the league in rebounding, first among rookies, and ranked third in total offensive rebounds. Love also led all first-years with 29 double-doubles, the most by a Timberwolves rookie in franchise history. He also ranked first in the league in offensive rebound percentage, becoming the first rookie to lead the league since Hakeem Olajuwon in. Love was named to the 2009 NBA All-Rookie Second Team and finished sixth in Rookie of the Year voting.
Sophomore season (2009–2010)
In the off-season, Love was invited to participate in the USA National Team mini-camp that was conducted from July 22 to 25 in Las Vegas. Love also generated attention from his Twitter account when he broke the story that Kevin McHale would not return to coach the Timberwolves for the 2009–2010 season.Love began the season on the injured list when, in a pre-season game on October 16, 2009, against the Chicago Bulls, he broke the fourth metacarpal in his left hand by banging it against the elbow of teammate Oleksiy Pecherov. Following surgery, Love missed the first 18 games of the season. He returned against the New Orleans Hornets on December 4, 2009, and made immediate impact for the Timberwolves, who were struggling out of the gate with a 2–16 record.
Love was selected to play in NBA All-Star Weekend Rookie Challenge. He finished the season ranked as the NBA's best rebounder per 48 minutes, besting Dwight Howard and Marcus Camby. He attempted nearly two three-point field goals per game, which accounted for 16 percent of his overall field goal attempts, an increase over his rookie rate of 3 percent.
First All-Star and Most Improved Player (2010–2011)
The Timberwolves' trade of Jefferson before the 2010–11 NBA season was expected to result in more playing time for Love. However, he averaged 28 minutes through the first nine games, exceeding 30 minutes only twice. Chris Mannix of SI.com wrote that many speculated there was a rift between coach Kurt Rambis and Love. In a home game against the New York Knicks on November 12, 2010, Love became the 19th player to record a "30–30" game, when he recorded 31 points along with a career-high 31 rebounds. His 31 rebounds set a Timberwolves franchise record and were also the most by a player in an NBA game since Charles Barkley recorded 33 rebounds in a game in 1996. Love became the first player to record a 30–30 game since Moses Malone in 1982. Love scored a career-high 43 points and had 17 rebounds on December 18 in a 115–113 loss to the Denver Nuggets. On February 4, 2011, Love was selected by Commissioner David Stern to his first NBA All-Star Game as replacement for the injured Yao Ming. The day before, Love was not selected as an All-Star as a reserve although averaging 21.4 points, a league-best 15.5 rebounds, shooting 43.9 percent from 3-point range, and having 34 straight double-doubles for the 11–37 Timberwolves. On February 8, Love set a team record with his 38th consecutive double-double after scoring 20 points and recording 14 rebounds in the Timberwolves' 112–108 win over the Houston Rockets. He scored 37 points and had 23 rebounds on February 27 in a 126–123 win over the Golden State Warriors. It was his fourth 30-point, 20-rebound game of the season, and Love went 18 for 23 from the free throw line to tie Minnesota's team records for made and attempted free throws. On March 13, Love's consecutive double-double streak ended at 53 games in a loss to the Golden State Warriors. It was the longest streak since the ABA–NBA merger in 1976, surpassing Malone's 51-game streak from 1979 to 1980. Love was two short of Elvin Hayes's streak of 55 consecutive double-doubles set in the 1973–74 season. According to the Elias Sports Bureau, Wilt Chamberlain holds the record with 227 consecutive double-doubles from 1964 to 1967. The NBA does not recognize the double-double as an official statistic. Love suffered a strained left groin on March 20 against Sacramento. He missed the final six games and nine of the last 11 games of the season due to the injury.Love led the NBA in rebounding, averaging 15.2 per game. He won the NBA Most Improved Player Award after increasing his points per game by 44 percent and his rebounds per game by 38 percent over his previous season. Love established career highs in rebounding, scoring, assists, double-doubles, field goal percentage, free throw shooting, and minutes played. He became the first player to average at least 20 points and 15 rebounds in a season since Malone in the. While amassing double-doubles, a statistical hallmark of traditional power forwards, Love was also evolving into a stretch four, making a career-high 41.7 percent of his 3's, while upping his three-point attempts to almost three per game. He emerged as the new face of the franchise since Garnett was traded from the Timberwolves to the Boston Celtics in 2007. In 2010–11, Love's No. 42 was the Wolves' top-selling jersey; sales were comparable to Kevin Garnett's when he was in his prime.