The career of an NBA player consists of some ups and some downs. You can up in terms of your individual success but down in terms of the success of your team. Then you can be down in terms of your own individual production but up in the case of your team doing well which can result in your squad winning it all. Through those highs and lows, you can learn a lot about yourself as an individual and how you fit in the grand scheme of things with the team you are a part of. All of this and then some occurred for the latest guest on NBATV’s “#NBATogether with Ernie Johnson.”
Via video chat, Ernie Johnson, NBA on TNT’s studio host and host of “Inside the NBA” caught up with 12-year veteran big man of the Cleveland Cavaliers Kevin Love, whose a five-time All-Star, NBA champion; Olympic Gold Medalist from 2012 Summer Games in London; and two-time All-NBA Second Team selection.
Like the rest of America, and the world in general these days, a lot of us are working from home and that has been the case for the players for each of the respective 30 NBA teams.
In the last couple of weeks as all the states in the U.S. have eased restrictions, those cities with NBA teams have begun to open their facilities, with some restrictions in place of how many people can be in the building.
Love told Johnson that he had just come back from working out where those that attended were spread out, maintaining social distancing with the players being on two courts with four baskets. The coaching staff had mask and gloves on, and every area was disinfected.
“We’re gonna look back on and say, ‘This was a surreal and different time,” Love said about what he will remember about this moment in our country’s history. “So, taking all the necessary precautions, but at the same time when you’re shooting, when you’re going through your workout you almost have to put it out of your mind that, you know, that coach is literally wearing these latex gloves and has the mask on. It just really odd and different, and something I’ve never experienced before.”
With talk of the possible restart of the 2019-20 NBA season later this summer, Love said that he is “excited” about it if it comes to fruition saying that there can be so much good that can come from it like providing people with that necessary “escape.”
The former No. 5 overall pick in 2008 by the Minnesota Timberwolves also said that coming back would also be good for the NBA players themselves because they want to get back to doing what they “love most” and do so for the fans.
“We obviously have our concerns. But as far as getting back and playing, I know that at least from the playoff teams as well, I mean, we want to crown a champ,” Love said. “As a fan, I would love to see who comes out at the top at the end of the year, just being a fan and always being a fan of this game.”
If the NBA does resume play, it is being talked about that they would have all the 30 teams and their respective staffs be placed in either Las Vegas, NV where the NBA holds Summer League play in the offseason month of July or in Orlando, FL at the Walt Disney Wide World of Sports Complex.
But if the NBA would resume, whether it be in Las Vegas or Orlando, the arena the teams would play in would not have any fans, which has never happened in league history.
On top of that, with no fans in attendance would mean that viewers that would see the game on television would hear and see things that you were never aware of took place during before because of the plethora of fans in attendance, which Love said is going to be “really odd.”
“I was actually trying to put it through my mind what even a playoff game would be like,” he said. “You walk into an arena and it’s the quarterfinals, Eastern Conference/Western Conference Quarterfinals it’s electric… As soon as you walk into the arena, there’s that energy that the fans bring, which make it so special.”
“That’s something that’s not lost on us. And at the same time, it’s something that’s in the back of our minds too that’s going to be really, really odd when we do get back to play.”
As difficult as this has been for the fans that the NBA and NHL have had to put the pause button on their season’s, along with the fact that MLB and the WNBA have had to postpone the start of their respective seasons, Love said this has been just as tough on the roughly 450 players in the NBA.
Love referenced his teammate in rookie guard Darius Garland, who played just four games at the University of Vanderbilt his lone year a season ago because of a knee injury and plays only 59 games his first season so far in the NBA.
Garland with this stoppage in the season Love said does not get the experience of hitting that famed “rookie wall” of playing an 82-game season for the first time in his career and being able to push through it. He also is denied the opportunity to measure himself against the top players in the league at his position like two-time Kia MVP Stephen Curry, Kyrie Irving, Damian Lillard, Kyle Lowry, and Ben Simmons.
Love really brought of what this stoppage has meant by saying how NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said in an interview with Rachel Nichols, host of ESPN’s “NBA: The Jump” in the first week of the NBA’s hiatus that you are “losing” a year of your NBA career is the equivalent of losing “10 years” relative to someone else in a different line of work because the average career for an NBA player is right around four years.
To take this a step further, someone like four-time Kia MVP LeBron James, whose in year No. 17 at age 36 had the Lakers (49-14) rolling despite their 104-102 loss versus the Brooklyn Nets on Mar. 10. They had gone 11-2 their last 13 games and achieving a 25-7 mark their last 32 games, sitting atop the loaded Western Conference before the league shut down on Mar. 11.
The prospects for James and his new teammate in fellow perennial All-Star Anthony Davis were looking good for them to possibly win the franchise’s 17 Larry O’Brien trophy around this time if the league had not been suspended because of the COVID-19 Pandemic.
Which led Love to ask, “How’s that gonna look when we do come back to play? Are they still going to be, you know, the next breed of ‘Showtime?’ Is A.D. going to be playing, you know, at a very high level?”
“Are they going to be clicking? Because that continuity and that feeling of just having a rhythm as a team is very different.”
If there is anyone who understands what is likely on the horizon for the league, especially for the eight respective playoff teams currently in the Eastern and Western Conference is Love because in the four previous seasons prior the these last two, the James led Cavaliers represented the East in The Finals four straight seasons, winning the franchise’s first NBA title in 2016 and the first pro sports title for the Cleveland since 1960 when the Browns of the NFL led by Hall of Famer Jim Brown won it all.
Things have not been easy for the Cavaliers and Love since the departure of James for the second time as he left in free agency in the summer of 2018 to join the Lakers.
Their mark when the NBA as mentioned halted play on Mar. 11 was 19-46 following a 108-103 loss at the Chicago Bulls (22-43) on Mar. 10, which snapped a two-game winning streak.
There was speculation that Love would be dealt to a title contender or playoff contender back in February because it was clear that the Cavaliers were in rebuild mode and especially how things were going between the team and first-year head coach John Beilein, who was relieved of his duties in the middle of February right before the conclusion of the All-Star break. He was replaced by associate head coach J.B. Bickerstaff, whose mark since taking over has been. 5-6.
Love has learned since he was acquired by the Cavs from the Minnesota Timberwolves in the summer of 2014 that his name will always come up at the trade deadline or during the offseason because they want to go young, which is the safe way of saying rebuild. That has for sure been the case for the Cavaliers in the two separate times James has departed in free agency first to the Heat in the summer of 2010 and to the Lakers as mentioned two summers back.
This especially came to Love’s mind two weeks into this season’s training camp back in October 2019 when he was getting treatment in the Cavs’ training room and he was looking at the training camp roster that at age 34 he is the oldest player on the team.
Knowing that the NBA is a business and also knowing that teams in the Cavs position want to give their youngsters the most time on the court, Love sees himself as the voice for the likes of the previously mentioned Garland, Colin Sexton and Kevin Porter, Jr. and showing them the ropes on how to have a long and productive career in the NBA.
“That’s been great to see those guys grow,” Love said adding, “by every deadline or every free agency or even the draft my name has always come up but I’m just full speed ahead.”
Love became this vet who has plenty of game left from the work he put in as a youngster growing up in Lake Oswego, OR as the second of three children to Karen and Stan, who played for the then Baltimore Bullets, now Washington Wizards, Los Angeles Lakers, and San Antonio Spurs from 1971-75.
Everything Love is now from being a great rebounder and all-around scorer who can produce points from down low and with a solid perimeter jump shot, especially from three-point range he learned from his dad, who displayed those skills during his time in “The Association,” even though there was no three-point line during that time.
Mr. Love had his son really pay close attention to when he watched games to future Hall of Famer Dirk Nowitzki, who retired last season after 20 years in “Big-D.”
“He was somebody that was tough to model my game after being 7-foot, shooting that fadeaway,” Love said about pattering his game after Nowitzki. “But somebody I really looked to be a big and he’s one of the people I really tip my hat to and pay tribute to.”
After finishing as the all-time leading scorer in the history of the Lake Oswego High Lakers in 2007, Love went on to attend the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), who he committed to verbally in July 2006.
When he got to the Bruins, Love had a chance to talk to legends of that program in legendary head coach John Wooden and Hall of Famer Bill Walton.
Love said that he asked the then 97-year-old Wooden, who died on June 4, 2010 asked questions that ranged from how he came to love the game of basketball? How he came to UCLA after growing up in the Indiana. How can he add to the winning tradition that began under Coach Wooden from being a great teammate to how he can get the best out of himself on the collegiate hardwood?
Love said that he really learned about the legend of Wooden when he visited his house in Encino, CA that had a picketed porch that had three to four of the pillars taken out because he had so much mail coming to him every day.
“He was just so sharp, his mind,” Love said of when he conversed with Mr. Wooden.
When Love talked with Walton, that conversation that would last for 30 minutes, 25 of those minutes would be of Walton speaking.
After averaging 17.5 points and 10.6 rebounds in his lone season with the Bruins, producing 23 double-doubles on his way to winning then Pac-10 Player of the Year, First-Team All-Pac-10 and Consensus First-Team All-American, Love entered his name into the 2008 NBA Draft and was chosen by the Memphis Grizzlies. He was traded following the draft along with now University of Memphis assistant coach Mike Miller, Brian Cardinal, and Jason Collins for the No. 3 overall pick O.J. Mayo, Antoine Walker, Marko Jaric and Greg Buckner.
The Timberwolves that season started Love’s rookie season 4-15, which prompted the dismissal of head coach Randy Wittman and then General Manager in Kevin McHale took over and the Hall of Famer Love said developed a close relationship.
“I was ecstatic,” Love said of the call he got from his agent when he got dealt to the T’Wolves on that draft night. “Just having somebody that I looked up to, and somebody that in some ways I tried to model some of my post game after. Those moves and being around him and just listening to his stories, and really getting with him, even when the cameras weren’t around, everybody was out of the practice facility. Just getting with him and going through the moves.”
Love said that he remembered those great Celtics teams of the 1980s with McHale, who is now a studio analyst for NBATV, fellow Hall of Famer Larry Bird, Robert Parish, the late Dennis Johnson, Walton, and current Celtics lead executive Danny Ainge.
The best piece of advice Love said that he got from McHale, which was as much about life as it was basketball was to “chase the game” and everything else you want will “chase you right back” McHale also said to Love to “chase what you love” and “love will chase you right back.”
He also said that he remembers from that era of the 1980s and the 1990s that included the “Bad Boys” era of the Detroit Pistons; the “Showtime” Lakers. The 1992-93 Phoenix Suns led by then Kia MVP, now NBATV/NBA on TNT studio analyst Charles Barkley; the Michael Jordan era of the Chicago Bulls winning six titles in eight seasons; and the 1992 Dream Team that won Gold in Barcelona, Spain.
Love also talked about as a kid going over to the home of two-time champion from those “Showtime” Lakers Mychal Thompson, father of three-time champion with Golden State Warriors Klay Thompson working on post moves in the backyard that McHale used on many defender back in his playing days.
Along with getting a basketball education from Mr. Thompson, Love became good friends with not just Klay, but his older sibling Mychel and his younger brother Trayce, who he played basketball and baseball with all the time.
“Those Kevin McHale moves, I would be in that backyard playing on the hoop with Mychal Thompson, he’d be saying, ‘Alright, this is how he scored on me’ because he had a counter and so many moves for the things that he did.”
While Love had individual success in his first six season with the Timberwolves averaging 19.2 points and 11.1 rebounds on 36.2 percent from three-point range, there was no trips to the postseason each of those springs.
That all changed on August 23, 2014 when Love was dealt to the Cavaliers in a three-team deal involving the T’Wolves and Philadelphia 76ers, where No. 1 overall pick in that year’s draft by the Cavs Andrew Wiggins, now with the Warriors was dealt to the T’Wolves along with the No. 1 overall pick in the 2013 draft Anthony Bennett and current Chicago Bulls’ forward Thaddeus Young. The 76ers received Luc Mbah a Moute, Alexy Shved and the Cavs 2015 First-Round pick.
The “Big Three” of James, Love and now All-Star lead guard for the Brooklyn Nets Kyrie Irving led the Cavaliers to three of their four straight trips to The Finals from 2015-2018, winning it all as mentioned in 2016.
While the production was not equal to what he did with the Timberwolves, with a lot of that having to do with injuries he had to battle through, Love played a major part in the Cavaliers’ dominance in the East during that four-year period despite the fact that he averaged 16.4, 16.0, 19.0, and 17.6 points respectably. He did provide consistent production on the glass with averages of 9.7, 9.9, 11.1, and 9.3 rebounds respectably during those consecutive seasons.
When Johnson asked Love in reflection of the acclaimed 10-part ESPN documentary “The Last Dance,” which took a close look at Michael Jordan and the Bulls run toward title No. 6 in eight seasons that are their similarities to what it was like to play with a superstar player like James, who like Jordan demands greatness through his play and his actions, which can rub their teammates the wrong way a lot of times.
“I think he’s demanding in all the right ways for the right reasons,” Love said of James leadership and demeanor during that time. “He has that ‘Strive for Excellence’ that he always lives by. And he really won’t accept anything else.”
Love also said that the late great Hall of Famer to be Koby Bryant was the same way with the Lakers trying to get the most out of his teammates.
The difference between Jordan and Bryant from James is that he looked out for his Cavs teammates as he did when he was with the Miami Heat from 2010-14 and now with the Lakers in which he built up your confidence whether it was done in private or when he talked with the press before and after games.
Jordan and Bryant, especially in practice tested their teammates at times to find out their threshold of mental toughness, which Jordan definitely did during that 1997-98 season to Scott Burrell.
Love said that James would get on you if you were not playing hard or giving the game what you should. He also said though that he never been around someone that was so much about “comradery.”
Each time the Cavs played on the road during the regular season, the team would gather for a meal together. Every time that a member of the roster did an event or something of that nature, the entire team was there to show support.
It is because of that “synergy” Love said translated to the success those Cavs teams had on the court and led to the ultimate success of a title four years ago.
One play that will stand out from that title clinching Game 7 at Oracle Arena in Oakland the Cavs won 93-89 over the Warriors on June 19, 2016 is when Love got switched on two-time Kia MVP Stephen Curry.
It was not the chase down block on the fast break James had on 2015 Finals MVP Andre Iguodala. It was not the eventual game-winning three-pointer by Irving in the closing minute. It was how Love keeping two-time Kia MVP in front of him on a defensive possession during the final minute and forcing him to miss a long three-pointer.
“We had gone over that play I can’t even tell you how many times preparing,” Love told Johnson. “I switched off and I kept my feet down, and actually made him give up the ball.”
“But a lot of people don’t realize that the game plan for us was if we had a 4-5 man switch (power forward/center) off on to their smalls, we were going to deny back the ball….So thankfully I was able to contest.”
The other difference between the Jordan era and the Bryant and James era is that there was no 24/7 news cycle unlike now where if you say one bad thing or make one false move it is all over cable news, on Twitter and all social media in the snap of a finger.
“I can’t imagine what life would’ve been like for those three-peat Bulls teams to have gone, especially in this era where news cycles are 24/7,” Love said. “There’s so many different storylines.”
As great of a player Love has been in his NBA career on the hardwood, he has also been a major influence off of it speaking about mental health.
Back in March 2018, Love in response to San Antonio Spurs All-Star DeMar DeRozan revealing his struggles with depression said that he had been getting therapy for several months after he suffered a panic attack in a game for the Cavs in November 2017.
These panic attacks Love said have always happened from an early age, and he always had a place to go and “escape,” particularly as a youngster.
“Like anybody, especially being a young man, I packed it all away,” Love said about dealing with a panic attack earlier in his life. “I wasn’t gonna show anybody signs of weakness. I had that playbook of just do not talk about it.”
Love said that kind of thinking is tiresome because the numbers say there are a lot of people dealing with issues pertaining to mental health like anxiety and depression.
He described when he had a panic attack during that night of 2018 in a Cavs’ game that it felt like he was going into what he felt like “cardiac arrest.” He added that he could not get any oxygen to his brain. That his throat was closing up on him. He was unable to find something that he was looking for and ended up on the floor of the Cavs Head Athletic Trainer Stephen Spiro’s office.
Love was able to get oxygen and went to the Cleveland Clinic and was given the all clear after getting checked out.
It was then that Love said he had to “look” in the mirror and decide if he was going to make a change and finally take this issue on or continue to live with it in the shadows.
“It just wasn’t a healthy lifestyle that I was putting forward. And I didn’t want to continue to live in the shadows. Live in the darkness and just not feel comfortable with these anxiety bouts and these depression bouts that I’ve had since I can remember.”
In August of that same year, Love discussed his family history of depression and how he would hide in his room and not speak to anyone when he had a panic attack.
After Love came forward about his mental health issues, so many people reached out through e-mail about their own mental health problems and it got to the point that Love had to open a separate e-mail account so people could reach him to tell their story.
Love said a week on the dot that he spoke out, he received 10,000 e-mails of people telling their story, which led to him starting his own foundation “The Kevin Love Fund,” that focused on mental health, with the focus especially on young boys.
Love said how back in September 2018 NBA Commissioner Adam Silver in a discussion with Robin Roberts of ABC’s “Good Morning America” at that year’s “Time 100” that being able to scale up these messages and have the reach “The Association” has being such a global game that it has been a big help to not only people here in the states but across the globe.
There was a girl named Madeline, who also suffered from panic attacks that got to the point she no longer wanted to live and her father reached out to Love on Twitter. Love said that he followed them on social media and even invited them to attend a Cavs game in person. Love added that he has kept in touch with them.
This moment brought Love back to a time when Johnson’s colleague in the TNT studio in Hall of Famer and four-time NBA champion Shaquille O’Neal when he was with the Orlando Magic and when they came to play at the Portland Trail Blazers at the Memorial Coliseum back in the middle of the 1990s he took time to talk to him after Love’s dad Stan did a radio interview and saw the Hall of Famer the night before.
Shaq on his way walked past the area Love and his father were and Stan said to his son, “Well, at least you got to see him.” But Love’s father tapped him on the shoulder, turns around and says to Love, “How you doing young fella? I’m Shaq.”
“That’s what I’ll never forget, and that’s probably why how I am today and try to be gracious to people. Especially people dealing with this,” Love said about taking the time to greet fans, especially those that reach out to talk about their anxiety issues. “It’s allowed me to have an open ear. Be more empathetic. And at least for those younger years in my life, that will always stick out to me was how great Shaq was to me when I was young.”
To show how the NBA has taken the issue of Mental Health to heart, especially during the COVID-19 Pandemic, they have provided a way to get confidential support from a trained Crisis Counselor 24/7 from Crisis Text Line by texting “TEAM” to 741741.
There are as mentioned a lot of highs and lows, ups-and-downs a professional athlete, particularly an NBA player faces in their career. Kevin Love has faced a lot of ups-and-downs in his 12-year NBA career. He was a great individual player with the Minnesota Timberwolves, but it did not have any team success. His number were down a little bit with the Cleveland Cavaliers, but was a big part of the team success with four straight appearances in The Finals and winning a title in 2016. Today, Love is the veteran voice of a young Cavs team trying to find its way back to being a playoff perennial but also has taken charge in his personal life while also showing that it is okay to speak up when you are having difficulty with something that many people kept to themselves like their struggles with their mental health.
Kevin Love learned how to be a champion on the basketball court as a youth and in the NBA and he has become a champion off the court helping kids, especially boys showing how it is okay to ask for help when you do not have all the answers.
Information, statistics, and quotations are courtesy of 3/10/2020 game scores via www.nba.com; 5/23/2020 8 p.m. edition of NBATV’s “#NBATogether with Ernie Johnson;” https://www.basketball-reference.com/boxscores/201606190GSW.html; https://www.basketball-reference.com/players/l/loveke01.html; https://www.espn.com/nba/team/stats/_/name/cle; https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mychal_Thompson#Personal_life; https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Wooden; and https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kevin_Love.
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