Feelin’ The Love
Related Images
A simple Internet search returns over 3,400 songs with the word “Love” in the title. So, when Minnesota held its first preseason game at Target Center back in October, the Timberwolves game-night staff had a decision to make. What song were they going to play when the 6-10, 255-pound rookie, Kevin Love, entered the game for the first time?
They went with the 1989 hit from the B52s’ “Love Shack.” Not a bad choice, but it will likely never be heard again when the No. 5 pick out of UCLA rises from the bench. “Sorry, but I can’t stand that song,” Love said.
Well, at least the staff has plenty more chances to find something that fits. Nazareth’s “Love Hurts,” “Addicted to Love,” by Robert Palmer or perhaps “Power of Love,” by Huey Lewis and the News. The list goes on and on.
“I love my last name. All the little plays on it get a little corny once in a while, but there’s no getting around it,” Love admitted.
C’mon, Kevin. What’s corny about Jennifer Warnes’ and Joe Cocker’s “Love Lifts Us Up Where We Belong”?
There’s no doubt, marketers and media members love Love, but quickly others are feeling the Love as well. The rookie is beginning to show the fans why Minnesota pulled the trigger on a seven-player, draft-night deal with the Memphis Grizzlies that brought him to Minnesota along with shooting guard, Mike Miller for the draft rights to USC’s O.J. Mayo.
Love averaged 10 points and seven rebounds in the first two weeks of the season and earned his first NBA start after just five games. Against the Kings on Nov. 7 in Sacramento, Love connected on 6-of-7 field goals for 20 points and pulled down eight rebounds.
Two nights earlier against San Antonio at Target Center, Love logged a season-high 37 minutes and just missed his first career double-double finishing the game with 14 points and nine rebounds, adding three blocks for good measure. More impressively, he banged with future Hall of Famer, Tim Duncan, and held his own. He helped frustrate Duncan into just 3-of-11 shooting during the first half.
“I was very excited to go up against him (Duncan) because he is probably one of the best winners in the last 10 years and he’s a guy I’ve tried to pattern my game after,” Love said. “I might be an inch or two smaller than he is, but he’s a person I’ve looked up to.”
The Wolves have lost some heart-breaking games already this season, none more disappointing than that double-overtime loss at home to the Spurs in November. It was a painful defeat, but it came with a lesson learned. It gave Love one more reminder of what it takes to win in the NBA.
“Just the little things,” Love said. “For example, boxing out. In college I could get away with running to the basket or just standing under the basket to get rebounds, now it’s a lot more physical,” Love said. “As a rookie, it’s those intangibles that are going to make the difference and I know I’m going to have my ups and downs. It’s just a part of the process.”
Love admits he’s got a lot of learning to do. He played just one season at UCLA averaging 17.5 points and 10.6 rebounds for a Bruins team that lost in the national semifinals to Memphis and finished the season with a 35-4 record. He entered the NBA draft as a teenager and just turned 20 years of age on Sept. 8, but he’s been preparing for a career in the NBA since he was just a little boy and he has basketball in his blood.
Love’s father, Stan, was a star forward at the University of Oregon and played four seasons in the NBA with the Baltimore Bullets and Los Angeles Lakers from 1971-75. His love of the game was passed on to his son, Kevin. When Kevin was a kid, he would tell his parents that he wanted basketball videos for Christmas or his birthday. “I never asked for Big Bird,” Love said. “I asked for Larry Bird.”
Some of the tapes he received included the NBA’s greatest forwards, the NBA’s greatest centers and the NBA’s greatest guards. Stan Love said Kevin would go to sleep at night watching the videos, and then the next day he’d be out in the yard, practicing some of the moves he saw.
“I would always ask for the superstar tapes,” Love said. “I’d go out and practice Moses Malone’s moves, whether it was throwing it off the backboard and trying to get a rebound so I could get closer to the basket or Hakeem (Olajuwon) with the up-and-under move.”
Like all the successful NBA players before him, Love became a student of the game and now he plays like one of those throwback players he grew up watching tapes of as a kid.
One player many say Love resembles the most is a former teammate of his father’s — Wes Unseld — a player from whom Kevin got his middle name, Wesley. Unseld was an undersized power forward, much like Love, but is known for being one of the best rebounders in league history. The Wolves are already starting to see that same type of instinct in Love that distinguishes him from most other 20-year-olds.
If Wolves head coach Randy Wittman had a vote on Love’s game-night entrance music, he might pick the 1975 hit from Captain & Tennille, “Love Will Keep Us Together.” Because he’s already showing he’s willing to put the team first and do the dirty work it takes to win.
“What he brings on to the floor, it’s hard to teach,” Wittman said. “Being at the right spot at the right time, those types of things. He has a knack for those things.”
“I try to go after every rebound,” Love said. “My dad and Coach (Ben) Howland at UCLA always told me that there is no such thing as a selfish rebound, so go out there and try to get every one.”
“For a rookie he’s getting better and better every game,” frontcourt mate Al Jefferson said. “We’ve already put him in some tight situations — I mean, during my rookie year, I wouldn’t have even been in the game in some of the situations he’s been out there in, and I think he’s performed well and he’s only going to get better.”
Because he and O.J. Mayo were part of the same deal on draft night, Love knows some will rate the trade based on the play of the two players, but Love is quick to point out that is just unfair.
“O.J. and I, we play two completely different positions and he’s on a team (Memphis) where he’s gonna get an opportunity to shoot a lot.” Love said. “I just have to go out, be myself, play my game and not worry about what other guys do and really define my own success. If there are people that want to doubt me, then I’m going to prove them wrong.”
With an attitude like that, perhaps a new entrance theme should be Jackie Wilson’s 1967 No. 1 hit, “You’re Love Keeps Lifting Me Higher and Higher.”
And the hits keep coming.
They went with the 1989 hit from the B52s’ “Love Shack.” Not a bad choice, but it will likely never be heard again when the No. 5 pick out of UCLA rises from the bench. “Sorry, but I can’t stand that song,” Love said.
Well, at least the staff has plenty more chances to find something that fits. Nazareth’s “Love Hurts,” “Addicted to Love,” by Robert Palmer or perhaps “Power of Love,” by Huey Lewis and the News. The list goes on and on.
“I love my last name. All the little plays on it get a little corny once in a while, but there’s no getting around it,” Love admitted.
C’mon, Kevin. What’s corny about Jennifer Warnes’ and Joe Cocker’s “Love Lifts Us Up Where We Belong”?
There’s no doubt, marketers and media members love Love, but quickly others are feeling the Love as well. The rookie is beginning to show the fans why Minnesota pulled the trigger on a seven-player, draft-night deal with the Memphis Grizzlies that brought him to Minnesota along with shooting guard, Mike Miller for the draft rights to USC’s O.J. Mayo.
Love averaged 10 points and seven rebounds in the first two weeks of the season and earned his first NBA start after just five games. Against the Kings on Nov. 7 in Sacramento, Love connected on 6-of-7 field goals for 20 points and pulled down eight rebounds.
Two nights earlier against San Antonio at Target Center, Love logged a season-high 37 minutes and just missed his first career double-double finishing the game with 14 points and nine rebounds, adding three blocks for good measure. More impressively, he banged with future Hall of Famer, Tim Duncan, and held his own. He helped frustrate Duncan into just 3-of-11 shooting during the first half.
“I was very excited to go up against him (Duncan) because he is probably one of the best winners in the last 10 years and he’s a guy I’ve tried to pattern my game after,” Love said. “I might be an inch or two smaller than he is, but he’s a person I’ve looked up to.”
The Wolves have lost some heart-breaking games already this season, none more disappointing than that double-overtime loss at home to the Spurs in November. It was a painful defeat, but it came with a lesson learned. It gave Love one more reminder of what it takes to win in the NBA.
“Just the little things,” Love said. “For example, boxing out. In college I could get away with running to the basket or just standing under the basket to get rebounds, now it’s a lot more physical,” Love said. “As a rookie, it’s those intangibles that are going to make the difference and I know I’m going to have my ups and downs. It’s just a part of the process.”
Love admits he’s got a lot of learning to do. He played just one season at UCLA averaging 17.5 points and 10.6 rebounds for a Bruins team that lost in the national semifinals to Memphis and finished the season with a 35-4 record. He entered the NBA draft as a teenager and just turned 20 years of age on Sept. 8, but he’s been preparing for a career in the NBA since he was just a little boy and he has basketball in his blood.
Love’s father, Stan, was a star forward at the University of Oregon and played four seasons in the NBA with the Baltimore Bullets and Los Angeles Lakers from 1971-75. His love of the game was passed on to his son, Kevin. When Kevin was a kid, he would tell his parents that he wanted basketball videos for Christmas or his birthday. “I never asked for Big Bird,” Love said. “I asked for Larry Bird.”
Some of the tapes he received included the NBA’s greatest forwards, the NBA’s greatest centers and the NBA’s greatest guards. Stan Love said Kevin would go to sleep at night watching the videos, and then the next day he’d be out in the yard, practicing some of the moves he saw.
“I would always ask for the superstar tapes,” Love said. “I’d go out and practice Moses Malone’s moves, whether it was throwing it off the backboard and trying to get a rebound so I could get closer to the basket or Hakeem (Olajuwon) with the up-and-under move.”
Like all the successful NBA players before him, Love became a student of the game and now he plays like one of those throwback players he grew up watching tapes of as a kid.
One player many say Love resembles the most is a former teammate of his father’s — Wes Unseld — a player from whom Kevin got his middle name, Wesley. Unseld was an undersized power forward, much like Love, but is known for being one of the best rebounders in league history. The Wolves are already starting to see that same type of instinct in Love that distinguishes him from most other 20-year-olds.If Wolves head coach Randy Wittman had a vote on Love’s game-night entrance music, he might pick the 1975 hit from Captain & Tennille, “Love Will Keep Us Together.” Because he’s already showing he’s willing to put the team first and do the dirty work it takes to win.
“What he brings on to the floor, it’s hard to teach,” Wittman said. “Being at the right spot at the right time, those types of things. He has a knack for those things.”
“I try to go after every rebound,” Love said. “My dad and Coach (Ben) Howland at UCLA always told me that there is no such thing as a selfish rebound, so go out there and try to get every one.”
“For a rookie he’s getting better and better every game,” frontcourt mate Al Jefferson said. “We’ve already put him in some tight situations — I mean, during my rookie year, I wouldn’t have even been in the game in some of the situations he’s been out there in, and I think he’s performed well and he’s only going to get better.”
Because he and O.J. Mayo were part of the same deal on draft night, Love knows some will rate the trade based on the play of the two players, but Love is quick to point out that is just unfair.
“O.J. and I, we play two completely different positions and he’s on a team (Memphis) where he’s gonna get an opportunity to shoot a lot.” Love said. “I just have to go out, be myself, play my game and not worry about what other guys do and really define my own success. If there are people that want to doubt me, then I’m going to prove them wrong.”
With an attitude like that, perhaps a new entrance theme should be Jackie Wilson’s 1967 No. 1 hit, “You’re Love Keeps Lifting Me Higher and Higher.”
And the hits keep coming.
