Bob Love

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Red carpet interviews with Steve Kerr, Toni Kukoc, Luc Longley, Artis Gilmore, Bob Love, Jason Caffey, Randy Brown, Bill Wennington and Ron Harper at the Ring of Honor Gala.

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Ring of Honor: Red Carpet Interviews

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Bulls.com

CHICAGO – Today, the Chicago Bulls named the inaugural class for the organization’s new Ring of Honor, which will recognize and celebrate past players, coaches and front office staff who made outstanding contributions and helped define the organization throughout its history. The Bulls will celebrate the first class, which includes 13 individuals and the 1995-96 team, with several events in January including a halftime presentation during the Bulls game against the Golden State Warriors on January 12 and a private gala at the United Center on January 11, both proudly presented by Magellan Corporation. Fans will be able to engage with the Ring of Honor through a United Center atrium experience that will be open to the public from January 10 through January 12, as well as a website that will launch in early January.&nbsp;

“The Chicago Bulls Ring of Honor will be a first-of-its-kind celebration honoring many of the legends who have helped shaped our organization over the past 57 years,” said Michael Reinsdorf, president and chief executive officer. “They have deep connections to our fans and community and represent a spirit of competition, hard work, and toughness.&nbsp; This January, we look forward to cementing their legacy in Bulls history and inspiring the future of our organization.”&nbsp;&nbsp;

The Bulls will add to the Ring of Honor every two years with the next class being inducted in 2026.&nbsp;

The inaugural class includes 13 individual Bulls legends and one team: Artis Gilmore, Phil Jackson, Michael Jordan, Johnny “Red” Kerr, Dick Klein, Jerry Krause, Toni Kukoc, Bob Love, Scottie Pippen, Dennis Rodman, Jerry Sloan, Chet Walker, Tex Winter, and the 1995-96 team, which went 72-10 and won the 1996 NBA Championship.&nbsp;&nbsp;

The Bulls will honor the following players, coaches and staff from the 1995-96 team:&nbsp;&nbsp;

Chicago Bulls Ring of Honor Selection Criteria&nbsp;&nbsp;

Chicago Bulls Ring of Honor honorees must all meet a set of criteria:&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;

For the first class, in addition to the general evaluation criteria, all individual players have been honored by the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame or have had their retirement banners raised at the United Center.&nbsp;&nbsp;

To learn more and sign up for updates, please visit Bulls.com/RingofHonor. To buy tickets for the January 12 game, please visit Bulls.com/tickets.&nbsp;&nbsp;

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Chicago Bulls Launch Ring of Honor and Announce Inaugural Class

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Bulls Kid Nation Night at Guaranteed Rate Field 07.22.19

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Bulls Host Youth Guidance Becoming a Man (BAM) Tournament

For some, it's the gleaming hardwood that first catches their eye when stepping inside the United Center. For others, it's a glimpse of a favorite player warming up on the court or the effervescent Luvabulls waving to the crowd. Eventually, though, all eyes look up.

Over the last five-plus decades, NBA fans in Chicago have been blessed with watching scores of talented athletes wear the red, white and black of their beloved Bulls. But only four players stand (or more appropriately hang) alone — Jerry Sloan, Bob Love, Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen. They are the chosen few who have earned the highest honor a franchise can bestow on a player by having his number retired for all of eternity.

So what exactly are the qualifications someone must meet in order to have his number retired? Talent? Well, that goes without saying. Loyalty? Leadership? Consistency? Absolutely. And bleeding Bulls red certainly doesn't hurt, either.

But Chicago's Fantastic Four brought a little more than those admirable qualities to the table. And they brought itto every game — at home, on the road — in tears of pain and ultimately in tears of joy. They also left itall on the floor, and for that they will always be honored high up in the ceiling.

For Jerry Sloan, what he remembers most is not how his jersey ended up hanging from the rafters but how he started.

"At the end of training camp during my first year, the equipment manager laid all the uniforms out on a table, and told us to go pick out a number. By the time I got over there, No. 4 was the only one left," recalls Sloan. "I didn't mind getting No. 4 because getting a jersey meant I made the team."

Sloan was the very first player the Bulls selected (from the Baltimore Bullets) in the 1966 league expansion draft, earning him the nickname "The Original Bull." Perhaps one of his most remarkable career achievements was leading that 1966-67 squad to an unprecedented playoff berth during its inaugural season. No first-year team before or since has ever accomplished such a feat.

Known primarily for his defensive tenacity, Sloan made two All-Star appearances and was named to the NBA's All-Defensive First Team four times and All-Defensive Second Team twice during an 11-year career (10 in Chicago). But, more importantly, he played a vital role with a distinctive band of brothers that firmly established the Bulls on the map.

"Those Bulls teams back in the early to mid-1970s — me, Bob Love, Chet Walker, Norm Van Lier, Tom Boerwinkle — we kind of kept pro basketball alive in Chicago," says Sloan. "It was an amazing group of guys. That's what I remember the most."

Not one to back off from a challenge, the always-hustling Sloan averaged 14 points and 7.4 rebounds per game in his career. After ten unforgettable seasons in Chicago, his playing days were cut short due to a serious knee injury. However, not wanting to limp away from the game he loved, he turned his energy to coaching, where he took control with the same passion and unyielding work ethic that characterized him as a player. Sloan's first coaching job was as a Bulls assistant for two seasons under three coaches in Ed Badger, Larry Costello and Scotty Robertson before taking over as the team's head coach for nearly three seasons.

A little less than two years after he stopped playing, Sloan was approached by Bulls management and told that the team's owner wanted to honor him by retiring his No. 4 jersey, the first to receive such treatment.

"When I was first told the news, I was in shock because I immediately began thinking about all the retired numbers hanging at Boston Garden. All those guys were special players," remembers Sloan.

After a few days, the idea sank in and Sloan humbly accepted the team's gesture. On February 17, 1978, in front of a packed house at the old Chicago Stadium, Jerry Sloan Night was officially declared.

"The Bulls put on a great ceremony where my family came out to center court. They even brought out a big rocking chair for me to sit in," laughs Sloan. "Governor Jim Thompson spoke, as well as my first Bulls coach, Johnny Kerr. I was pretty awestruck by the whole experience."

So exactly how does he feel these days whenever he visits the United Center? Does he ever look up at his banner hanging high above, or is that something he's forgotten about?

"I really don't get a chance to forget, because whenever I come to Chicago somebody always brings it up," says Sloan with another laugh. "My grandkids like to talk about it. It's pretty important to them."

What's going on today with former Bulls standout Bob "Butterbean" Love is a far cry from where his journey first began. Like Sloan, the second recipient of a retired Chicago jersey was asked to make a short speech during his ceremony nearly 17 years after he retired, and that in itself is considered a personal triumph.

As one of 14 children who grew up in rural Louisiana, Love discovered early on that he had a rare athletic gift that neither his siblings nor his friends possessed. He could fire up a basketball and make it go swish all day and night long, but what he had a hard time with was expressing his joy because he stuttered horribly. His thoughts were always there, as well as his desire to communicate, but he just couldn't spit the words out.

"I figured if I couldn't speak off the court, I'd try to let my actions talk on the court," Love says today. "I always understood what was going on around me; it just took a real long time to get something to come out of my mouth."

Love arrived in Chicago as something of an afterthought in a 1968 mid-season trade with the then expansion Milwaukee Bucks. The 6'8" forward from Southern University had failed to make an NBA roster his first year out of college and then struggled to find his niche in the league for three more years, before blossoming into one of the NBA's top scorers while playing for Dick Motta's scrappy Bulls squads of the 1970s. During the 1969-70 season, Love became a full-time starter, averaging 21 points and 8.7 rebounds. The following year, he averaged 25.2 points, appeared in the NBA All-Star Game for the first time and earned All-NBA Second Team honors. Love later appeared in two more All-Star games, in 1972 and 1973, and he would go on to average at least 19 points and six rebounds every season until his last. In seven full seasons in Chicago, Love led the Bulls in scoring six times and helped carry the team to four-straight 50-plus wins. He could handle himself at the defensive end of the court as well, three times making the NBA's All-Defensive second team.

Love's verbal difficulties didn't matter during his playing days because his impressive play on the court spoke volumes. However, after racking up 13,895 career points (12,623 with the Bulls, the most by any Chicago player until Michael Jordan arrived on the scene), Love's playing career came to an end after he was traded to the New York Nets, who later dealt him to Seattle, where he averaged just 7.3 points during the entire 1976-77 season — his last in the NBA.

Love had the misfortune to play before the era of high salaries, and his inability to talk cost him several off-the-court endorsement opportunities. So he didn't have a lot of money after he retired, and so he quickly fell on hard times. Although he was occasionally recognized on the street, he learned the hard way that there wasn't much demand for someone with a sweet jumper and poor communication skills.

As the story goes, Love ended up bussing tables at a restaurant located in a Nordstrom's department store in Seattle, then moved on to being a dishwasher, sandwich maker, and, in time, a cashier. Eventually, an executive with Nordstrom's, after getting to know him personally, decided to lend a helping hand and pay for private speech lessons. "I was embarrassed, and I guess they were embarrassed for me," Love says. "Maybe because I tried to be the best employee I could be, Nordstrom's took an interest."

With the help of a speech therapist, Bob Love made tremendous strides almost immediately. Within a year, he was promoted and placed in charge of health and sanitation for all 35 Nordstrom's restaurants. And, at the urging of his friends, a more confident person soon began giving motivational speeches throughout the Seattle area, which eventually brought him back to Chicago and a job with the Bulls. Today, Bob Love is in his 26th season as the Bulls Director of Community Affairs, representing the organization at various functions throughout the world and making close to 200 appearances a year.

On January 14, 1994, the Chicago Stadium turned into one big "Love-Fest." Former teammates Norm Van Lier, Tom Boerwinkle and Jerry Sloan were on hand to witness the second Bulls jersey to make it up to the rafters as Love's No. 10 officially went into retirement.

"That was the greatest night of my life," Love beams. "Seeing my number hanging up there means I've earned respect, and all the hard work and everything I went through really paid off."

Jordan embracing the Larry O'Brien Trophy after the 1991 NBA Finals

Talk about making an impact, North Carolina native Michael Jordan not only left his mark on the Chicago Bulls; he left it all over the world.

Chicago's decision to retire Jordan's No. 23 seemed like a forgone conclusion right from the start. His endless gravity-defying dunks, inexhaustible defense and an innate ability to score at will astounded not only Bulls fans, but opponents alike, throughout a 15-year NBA career. For example, after Jordan notched 63 points against the Boston Celtics during a 1986 playoff game, Hall of Famer and Celtics great Larry Bird described him as "God disguised as Michael Jordan."

To list all of Jordan's accomplishments would literally wipe out a forest. But to highlight a few, heled the NBA in scoring a league-record 10 times. He was named the Most Valuable Player five times. And, to prove he could play at both ends of the court, Jordan led the league in steals three times, was named to the All-NBA Defensive First Team nine times and was also tabbed the league's Defensive Player of the Year in 1988. And, in the unlikely event that someone still may not remember him, Jordan was also named the NBA Finals MVP a record six times, with six NBA World Championship trophies to match.

Even his retired jersey has a history like no other. In October 1993, at the age of 30, after leading the Bulls to a third straight World Championship, Jordan stunned everyone by announcing his retirement from basketball. A year and a month later, a national TV audience watched a classic rafter-raising ceremony honoring him at the United Center. Five months later, he staggered the planet once more by announcing his return to the Bulls with the release of a simple, two-word press release — "I'm back."

Since No. 23 was already hanging from the rafters, Jordan opted to sport No. 45 at the start of his second tour of duty in honor of his older brother, Larry, who used to wear that number during his playing days in high school. (There's a charming, little-known story as to why Jordan chose to wear the No. 23 in the first place. The reason, he says, is he hoped one day to be half the player his brother was.)

At times, Jordan's initial return was a struggle, which prompted Orlando Magic forward Nick Anderson to smugly suggest after a playoff victory over the Bulls that No. 45 looked old and not as good as No. 23. As if he needed any extra incentive, Jordan requested that the No. 23 banner come down from the rafters and that his original digits immediately be placed on his back. Three NBA Championships later, Jordan called it quits for a second time in January 1999. "It was a very emotional time," Jordan says about his decision to hang up his Bulls jersey for the second and last time. (Note: Anderson never played on a championship team during his 13-year career, whereas Jordan captured 6 gold rings.)

Even Michael Jordan couldn't predict what would happen three years later, when he un-retired for a third go-around, but this time he came back wearing the blue and copper of the Washington Wizards. After two seasons in our nation's capital, Jordan's tank finally ran dry. At age 40, with aching knees and a creaky back, he played one of his final games in Miami, where Heat President and Head Coach Pat Riley stunned the basketball icon during a pregame ceremony by pointing towards a No. 23 banner hanging high above the Heat's home court, pledging that no Miami player would ever wear that number again.

"I wanted to do something special that would honor Michael and all that he achieved for the game of basketball," Riley explains. "About a month before [the game], I discussed the idea of retiring his number with my owner, Mickey Arison. We both thought it would be a terrific gesture."

A shocked and grateful Jordan said afterwards, "To have my number hanging in someone else's building says a lot. Pat Riley and Mickey Arison are truly class acts. What they did was very special, and something I'll never forget."

Scottie Pippen was also beyond belief when his number 33 was officially called into a life of leisure on December 9, 2005. It was as if the old band got back together one last time as former Chicago teammates Horace Grant, Craig Hodges, Toni Kukoc, Dennis Rodman, Will Perdue, Bill Wennington, Stacey King, Charles Oakley and Michael Jordan all attended Pippen's banner ceremony. Former Bulls Head Coach, Phil Jackson, was also on hand, along with Pippen's family and numerous friends from all around the globe. NBA Commissioner David Stern addressed a packed house at the United Center, listing all of Pippen's career accomplishments, but was quickly drowned out by the 23,000-plus fans in attendance chanting, "Scottie, Scottie."

And why not? The most famous co-pilot in any sport holds quite an impressive resume of his own. Pippen and Jordan are the only two Bulls to have been a part of all six Chicago World Championships. Pippen was also named one of the NBA's 50 greatest players and was a seven-time All-Star. Not bad for an Arkansas country boy who initially didn't receive a college scholarship to play ball.

"Scottie was a great student and a really fine leader on the court," Jackson said before the ceremony. "He directed a lot of what happened and was one of the reasons why we were so successful."

A highlights package aired on the United Center's scoreboard, as did taped messages from former teammate and current Bulls Executive Vice President of Basketball Operations John Paxson and former coach Doug Collins. But the biggest reaction of the night came after legendary roundball pundit, Hall of Famer and good friend, Charles Barkley, blurted to the crowd, "Scottie, Michael Jordan should be kissing the ground you walk on because you helped him win all those Championships — you did all the heavy lifting, too."

Jordan himself, backed by thunderous applause when introduced, had only warm words from the heart for his old teammate.

"Scottie Pippen, he's my guy. I love him like a brother," Jordan said. "He pushed me to be the best every day in practice. And I pushed him to be the best he could be. When we went into battle, I always knew I had someone there to watch my back."

Pippen fought back tears as his banner was unveiled to a deafening standing ovation.

"This is one of the greatest honors a player can ever receive. It's something you dream of as a kid. To have my number hang alongside Michael's (Jordan), Jerry's (Sloan) and Butter's (Bob Love) means so much."

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Rise & Shine

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PHOTO GALLERY: BULLS, MERCY HOME AND TRANSUNION HOLD 27TH ANNUAL DRAFT NIGHT

Long before Michael Jordan arrived the Chicago Bulls employed another unshakable superstar who could float the ball into the basket and defend against an opponent's top scorer with efficiency and ferocity — a man who was a perennial championship contender's go-to guy. Three NBA All-Star appearances and All-Defensive Teams, and two All-NBA nods highlight his résumé, but if you ever needed confirmation that Bob "Butterbean" Love was one of the very best players in the NBA during the early 1970s, then all you need to do is ask some of his teammates, opponents and a few fans of old school what they think.

"We had a lot of guys who could score: Chet Walker, Jerry Sloan, myself," recalled former Bulls All-Star point guard and Love teammate Norm Van Lier shortly before he passed away in February 2009. "But it was plain and simple — in crunch time, you give Bob Love the ball."

And while most remember him as a smooth scorer, Bob Love was also a defensive stalwart, too.

"Bob could definitely score, that's for sure, but he was really a great player at both ends of the floor," remembered another former teammate of Love's with the Bulls, Hall of Fame center Nate Thurmond. "Besides him having to score 20 points a game he was always asked to shut down top players on every team we played, All-Stars like Rick Barry, Elvin Hayes, and Spencer Haywood. Butter could do it better than anybody."

"Bob Love was a real handful," adds former Milwaukee Bucks forward Bob Dandridge. "He always worked me hard. I think Bob always seemed to have it out for [his former team] Milwaukee and, boy, did he ever make me pay for the Bucks trading him."

When it came to playoff basketball, Love's lifetime regular season stats (17.6 points and 5.9 rebounds over an 11-year career) always got better. He was the centerpiece of six consecutive Bulls postseason runs (1969-70 / 1974-75), upping his output to the tune of 22.9 points and 7.5 rebounds in an astounding 43.9 minutes over 47 postseason games.

"I was the iron man of the team," Love says today. "I didn't complain but that was a lot of pressure. Guys would always look to me on offense, and then sometimes two or three different guys on the other team would take turns defending me."

Perhaps the greatest stretch of Love's playoff career came in 1971, his second postseason with the Bulls. After a regular season that saw him average 25.2 points and 8.5 rebounds over an exhausting 43.0 minutes per game, Love and the Bulls faced Wilt Chamberlain and the Los Angeles Lakers in the Western Conference semifinals. The fifth-year forward did his best to carry his team to the Western Conference Finals, posting averages of 26.7 points on .491 shooting, pulling down 7.3 rebounds while logging a ridiculous 47.1 minutes per game. Still, the Lakers prevailed, winning the deciding seventh game of the series, 109-98.

Bob Love shooting a free throw against the Los Angeles Lakers

One can certainly understand why Los Angeles still isn't one of Love's favorite places to visit as the Lakers sent the Bulls home from the playoffs four times during the franchise's first eight seasons.

"Man, we used to move the ball around but we wouldn't shoot it until the last second of the shot clock," Love says. "If we missed or committed a turnover, it was a fast break and an easy basket for LA. Those losses to the Lakers were really heartbreaking. We would work so hard and most of the time we would build up a nice lead, but suddenly we would go cold and the Lakers would, poof, takeoff and our leads would disappear."

Robert Earl Love's road to stardom was, to say the least, long and winding. Nicknamed "Butterbean" as a boy due to his fondness for the vegetable, Love grew up in a two-bedroom shanty in rural northeastern Louisiana as one of 14 children. His mother was just 15-years-old when he was born, and his father was usually nowhere to be found. When Love was eight his mother married an ex-Marine who seemed to be angry all the time and would often hit Bob whenever the mood struck. Not long after they became married, Bob ran away to live with his grandmother, who was happy to take him in. As Love tells the story, when his stepfather came to get him, his grandmother answered the door holding an axe handle. "Get out of here," she said. "The boy lives here now."

Love had a favorite uncle who had a severe stutter when he spoke. Bob says he enjoyed being around his uncle so much that he started stuttering as well. Then after he began going to school he would often sit in the back of the classroom praying his teacher wouldn't call on him because he knew his classmates would tease and laugh at him whenever he tried to speak.

As a little boy Love enjoyed playing sports, but growing up poor meant he had to improvise. For example, his basketball playing days began with an old sock stuffed with grass and paper to form a ball, and he bent a wire coat hanger into the shape of a hoop and stapled it to the side of his grandmother's house so he could practice his jumpshot.

When he reached high school Love still had a severe stutter but that didn't stop him from being the starting quarterback on the varsity football team. Love didn't stutter whenever he sang, so he used to sing the play calls in the huddle and at the line of scrimmage before the ball was snapped. He had a really strong arm and could throw downfield with ease. Then after undergoing a major growth spurt between his sophomore and junior years, shooting up from 6'0" to 6'7", he quarterbacked the Morehouse Tigers to a Louisiana state championship.

After football that junior year, he decided to try out for the basketball team, but he couldn't crack the starting lineup because Lucius Jackson, a future Olympic gold medalist (Team USA, 1964) and NBA 1st round draft pick (4th overall by the Philadelphia 76ers in 1964), was a far better player who played the same position. However, after Jackson graduated Love got to play as a senior and quickly became the best player on the team, averaging over 30 points a game.

Up until that point nobody in Love's family had ever thought about going to college, but Bob had a drive to become something special, so when college coaches began showing up on his doorstep with scholarship offers, he was more than ready to talk. However, the men that knocked on his door weren't basketball coaches, they coached football. In the end it came down to Bob deciding whether to attend Grambling State or Southern University, but after the Grambling State coach showed up at his home some 90 minutes late, Love informed him that he had decided to attend Southern.

During the summer before his freshman year began, Southern's head football coach, A.W. Mumford, happened to come across Love playing a pick-up game with some of the varsity basketball players inside the school's gym. Mumford quickly understood his prized recruit's best chance for a bright future wasn't on the gridiron but on the hardwood. He then pulled Love aside and urged him to seriously consider switching sports. It didn't take long for Love to heed Mumford's advice because Bob has always been a bit apprehensive going up against a bunch of hungry football players, many of whom were a lot bigger and stronger.

Love made the jump to the basketball team and it didn't take long for him to make an impact. His scoring average improved each year, starting out at 12.8 points his freshman season to 22.6 as a sophomore to 25.6 as a junior and 30.6 as a senior. By the end of his senior year Love had completely rewritten Southern's record book. Pro scouts took notice, however many of them were very wary of players from small black colleges. They dismissed the idea of ever drafting a player like Love, believing the level of competition he faced couldn't compare to any of the major college programs of the day, such as UCLA, Notre Dame, Indiana or Kentucky. So it really wasn't a surprise that Love ended up as a fourth round pick of the Cincinnati Royals at a time when the NBA consisted of just nine teams and rookies rarely played.

From the beginning of his first professional training camp Love realized he had an uphill battle to make the team since Cincinnati's roster included a couple of high-profile future Hall of Fame forwards in Jerry Lucas and Jack Twyman, as well as a pretty good two-way player in his own right, Happy Hairston. Disappointed yet still determined after being told that he was let go, Love quickly signed a contract to play for the Trenton Colonials of the Eastern Professional League, a minor league circuit made up of a handful of small Pennsylvania and New Jersey towns where players got paid only after games. Because of that, Love was forced to take a part-time job as a maintenance man at a local hospital whenever he wasn't playing in order to keep food on his table and a roof over his head.

Love thrived with the Colonials, averaging more than 25 points and 16 rebounds and was named the league's Rookie of the Year for 1966. He made his way back to Cincinnati for a second shot at the NBA the following season, and this time he made the final cut, but languished at the end of the Royals bench as a little-used reserve for two years.

The NBA expanded before the start of the 1968-69 season, adding the Milwaukee Bucks to the fold. The Royals left Love unprotected in the expansion draft and the Bucks grabbed him, but then Milwaukee traded him to Chicago after only 14 games. Love continued riding the pine with the Bulls, playing just 35 games that season and averaging career-lows of 9.0 minutes and 5.1 points.

However, in his fifth year in the NBA Love started turning heads after Bulls Head Coach Dick Motta moved him into the starting lineup alongside Chet Walker. Love more than answered the call, playing every game that season, averaging 38.1 minutes, 21 points and 8.7 rebounds.

The following year (1970-71) he led the Bulls' charge as the team jumped from 39 to 51 wins. He played in 81 games and averaged 43 minutes, 25.2 points and 8.5 rebounds. Love was also named an NBA All-Star for the very first time — a streak that would run for three consecutive seasons (1970-71 thru 1972-73) — and was later named to the All-NBA Second Team.

Love posted a career-best scoring mark of 25.8 points, ranking sixth in the league, and was once again named to the All-NBA Second Team the following year as the Bulls won a then-franchise best 57 games, but Chicago ended up being swept by the 69-win Lakers in the playoffs.

The following year Love suffered a slightly detached retina during the first half of the season, but he didn't miss a game as doctors were able to repair his eye thanks to a new medical procedure — laser surgery. He went on to post back-to-back games of 49 points right after the surgery. For the year, Love averaged 23.1 points and was named an All-Star for the third time.

Bob Love pushing off of a screen in 1974 against the Milwaukee Bucks

Love went on to enjoy three more strong seasons with the Bulls, averaging 21.8 points in 1973-74, 22 points in 1974-75, and 19.1 points in 1975-76. Overall, from the 1969-70 through 1975-76, Bob Love played in 543 out of a possible 574 games, and averaged 37 minutes, 21.4 points and 6.7 rebounds for the Bulls as the team went 323-251 (.563).

Love began the 1976-77 season with Chicago, but after 14 games was traded to the New York Nets for second round draft pick. The Nets ended up releasing him a little less than two months later, but Love was able to hook up with the Seattle SuperSonics and hung on for the rest of the year battling through a very painful back, an ailment that ultimately forced him to retire at the age of 34.

In total, Love played 789 NBA games over 11 seasons (eight with Chicago) and scored 13,895 points (12,623 with the Bulls). For a long time he was Chicago's all-time leading scorer — that is until Hall of Famers Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen arrived.

Unfortunately, Love starred in the era before multi-million dollar salaries became the norm, plus his inability to speak clearly cost him a number of endorsement opportunities. Thus by the time his playing days had come to an end, Love didn't have a stash of money in the bank to help ease his adjustment. His injured back also became so painful that he was forced to undergo surgery where the doctors warned afterwards that he might never walk properly again. Then one afternoon, on crutches, he returned home to find a note taped to the front door from his wife that said, "I don't want to be married to a stutterer and a cripple." When Bob went inside he saw all of their furniture and everything of value in the house was gone. The next day he discovered all the money they had in a joint bank account had also been cleared out.

For the next seven years Bob worked a series of dead-end jobs. Then on Christmas Eve of 1984, he tossed aside his cane and headed to Nordstrom's, a Seattle-based chain of department stores that also operated some 150 restaurants nationwide. Love, who graduated from Southern University with a degree in Food and Nutrition, applied for a job in the food services division and was hired as a 42-year-old busboy, cleaning tables and washing dishes for $4.45 an hour.

Love was always a hard worker, and one day his diligence paid off when John Nordstrom, a third generation chairman of the department store chain, decided to change Bob's life. "Bob Love never missed a day's work," Nordstrom recalled long ago. "And he never missed a ketchup stain on a dish or a table."

Nordstrom called Love into his office and told him that he wanted to promote him to manager, but that Bob would first have to learn to speak clearly, so if he could find a speech therapist, Nordstrom's would cover the cost.

On the bus ride home from work later that day, Love happened to spot a sign in a storefront window promoting speech lessons and immediately got off the bus and headed inside where he met a woman named Susan Hamilton.

"I remember this tall man coming in and he wouldn't make eye contact with me," recalls Hamilton. "He told me he had tried speech therapy several times, but the techniques the therapists used embarrassed him, like making him walk up to complete strangers in the street and try to start a conversation. But on the day he came into my office he must have been at a point in his life that he had decided, ‘No matter what, I'm going to do it."'

For a full year Love worked with Hamilton for two hours a day, three days a week. Eventually his speech improved to the point where John Nordstrom fulfilled his promise and promoted Love to manager of health and sanitation. Two year later Love was promoted again, this time to the role of corporate spokesman. Then in 1991, Bob received a phone call from Chicago Bulls Chairman Jerry Reinsdorf, who told Bob that he remembered him from his playing days and that he had also recently read a number of good things in newspapers and magazines, and wanted to know if Love had any interest in returning to Chicago to work for the Bulls.

"I had always wanted to get back into sports, so how could I turn something like that down," says Love.

Bob Loves shoots a jumper against the Golden State Warriors in 1975

"I thank God every day for John Nordstrom and Jerry Reinsdorf," Love says. "They saw something in me that I could never have dreamed of being. I had sunk as low as anybody could sink, and yet thanks to those two men I was able to make something out of myself.

"I get on my knees every day and thank the Lord for keeping me strong through all of those embarrassing moments and the ups and downs. Staying strong and believing in your dreams is the theme of every speech I give."

Bob Love's legacy is impressive and lives on. On the basketball court, he had few peers. Off it, the man with the massive heart is above reproach.

"Whenever I see Bob Love, I always have to smile," the greatest player the game of basketball has even known, Michael Jordan said recently. "I have nothing but admiration for Bob, and I always will. What he has accomplished is very inspiring."

Another Chicago Bulls legend, the late Johnny ‘Red' Kerr once said: "When I think of Bob Love, I think of humility. His name says it all: L-o-v-e. There's a lot of love in that man. There's a lot of love for that man. God certainly gave Bob the perfect last name — Love."

NOTE: On January 14, 1994, Bob Love became the second Chicago Bulls player in history to have his jersey — No. 10 — retired by the team (Jerry Sloan's No. 4 was the first on February 17, 1978). Since then only two other Bulls have received such an honor: Michael Jordan's No. 23 on November 1, 1994, and Scottie Pippen's No. 33 on December 9, 2005.

the-power-of-love

The Power of Love

The American Basketball Association (ABA) didn't last any longer than former Bulls guard John "Crash" Mengelt's playing career. But, from 1966-67 to 1975-76, the ABA revolutionized professional basketball in America by giving fans loads of thrills, the three-point shot, the Slam Dunk Contest and ultimately four present-day NBA franchises. But this story isn't about the rich and wonderful history of the ABA. The tale being spun here covers the somewhat forgotten account involving the ABA and the Chicago Bulls.

Some may only remember the ABA as the Santa Claus who gifted the Bulls with one of the all-time greatest centers in basketball history — Artis Gilmore. But did you know that while the two leagues repeatedly battled each other for talent and media attention, they also met on the hardwood for more than 150 interleague preseason games between 1971 and 1975 — and that the ABA won the all-time series, 79-76?

The Bulls played in 10 such exhibitions, going 4-6 overall. Specific game details are hard to track down — especially in contrast to today's extensive coverage via television, radio and newspaper write-ups. However, back in the early-to-mid 1970s, oftentimes the preseason was ignored by the media, as it was fairly common for beat writers to stay home when the teams they covered hit the road prior to the start of the regular season.

A good number of NBA players during that time period also weren't in tune with what the ABA had to offer. Hall of Famer Nate Thurmond, a veteran of interleague games while a member of both the Golden State Warriors and Bulls, said years ago, "We all thought the ABA was a joke. But once you got past the fact that they played with a [red, white, and blue] Harlem Globetrotter ball, you learned pretty quick that the ABA was loaded with a lot of fantastic players."

"From the beginning, basketball fans from NBA cities such as New York, Los Angeles and Chicago looked upon the ABA as minor league," recalls basketball historian Arthur Hundhausen, who developed and continues to administer the definitive ABA Web site, www.RemembertheABA.com. "Most ABA teams were located in small cities and towns — Louisville, Norfolk, Virginia, Memphis, Greensboro, North Carolina, Denver, San Antonio — places the NBA didn't consider to be very important at the time."

And, if you were alive and a Bulls fan back then, you really can't be blamed for drawing a blank when it comes to remembering the particulars of the Bulls vs. the ABA. Interestingly enough, none of the Bulls' 10 interleague exhibitions was played in Chicago, and none were ever broadcast locally to fans.

Because the two leagues played under slightly different rules (the NBA had no 3-point shot; there was a personal foul limit of six in the NBA, but ABA players didn't foul out; and the NBA shot clock was 24 seconds, compared to the ABA's 30-second shot clock), the interleague exhibitions adhered to a guideline where one half was always played under NBA rules, and the other was governed under the ABA's. Furthering the circuslike atmosphere was the fact that it was usually the host team that provided the referees, a notion that often annoyed Bulls Head Coach Dick Motta.

Basketball back in the 1970s was fast and loose, especially when the ABA came to play. And one of the craziest chapters in the history of the Bulls stemmed from the first interleague exhibition the team ever played.

October 2, 1971: Pittsburgh Condors 123, Chicago Bulls 121; at Sarasota, Florida

The very first Bulls vs. an ABA team — only the 10th interleague exhibition ever — boasted a sinister subplot.

It centered on 3-time All-American Howard Porter, who had secretly (and improperly) signed a contract to play for the ABA's Pittsburgh Condors in December 1970, halfway through his final college season at Villanova. While many collegiate stars inked ABA contracts prior to the NBA Draft, no other player had ever signed a deal while still playing for his college team.

Porter's situation was unusual in two key ways. First, Villanova came out of nowhere and went on an incredible run that season, making it all the way to the 1971 NCAA National Championship game against perennial power UCLA. In the Championship game, Porter scored 25 points, but the Wildcats still lost, 68-62. Afterwards, he was named the Final Four's Most Outstanding Player. Second, news of Porter's secret contract with Pittsburgh had been publically leaked a couple of months earlier after the document was discovered inside the briefcase of then-ABA Commissioner Jack Dolph at the league's All-Star Game!

"I was just a kid who wanted to make a living," Porter recalled back in 2006. "At the time, signing with Pittsburgh sounded like a good idea. But, once the contract became public, I figured all bets were off, and so I was open to the idea of going to the NBA instead."

Motta was a huge fan of Porter's, going so far as to equate the 6'8" forward with all-time great Elgin Baylor. The Bulls had an extra second-round draft pick in 1971 and used it on Porter, triggering the first and only trade between the NBA and the ABA as Chicago agreed to send journeyman center Paul Ruffner to the Condors for the rights to Porter.

As part of the Porter trade, the Bulls also agreed to play two exhibitions against Pittsburgh, with the Condors keeping all gate receipts. The first contest took place in Sarasota, Florida, where Porter grew up and played high school basketball. [NOTE: The Condors folded after the 1971-72 season; thus, the second exhibition between the two franchises was never played.]

"Before the game, Pittsburgh General Manager Mark Binstein offered a bounty on Porter's head," remembers former Condors public relations executive Fred Cranwell. "In front of Porter's hometown crowd, Binstein thought the kid should be taught a lesson for wanting to ditch us. So Binstein told the team in the locker room before the game that whoever could knock Porter out of the game that night would get a $500 bonus."

George Thompson led the Condors to victory by scoring 43 points, while Bob Love chipped in 23 in a losing effort for Chicago. But it was ABA hit man John Brisker who came away with a pocket full of cash, claiming Binstein's $500 bounty after exacting a hard foul on the Bulls rookie that sent Porter to the bench for the rest of the night. "I don't remember much about the game, but I know after Brisker hit me pretty good I had to sit down," said Porter. "It was our first preseason game, and Coach Motta didn't want to risk me getting hurt anymore."

October 9, 1971: Chicago Bulls 124, Dallas Chaparrals 113; at Dallas, Texas

A rare exhibition played in the host team's actual home arena, the Bulls evened their interleague record at 1-1 behind 24 points from Love and 19 from Chet Walker. Steve "Snapper" Jones tallied 30 points, and Donnie Freeman chipped in 29 for the Chaps.

As a young player out of Southern University in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Love had attended the very first training camp of the ABA's New Orleans Buccaneers back in 1968, in a sense his "hometown" team. "My dream was to always play in the NBA, against the best," says Love. "Still, even though I'd already played my first year for the [NBA's] Cincinnati Royals, I was looking for a better opportunity with the Bucs. But at that time, the ABA just didn't measure up, so I went back to Cincinnati."

September 21, 1972: Chicago Bulls 90, Utah Stars 86; at Honolulu, Hawaii

Love, seeing rich contracts awarded to Porter ($1.5 million) and Kennedy McIntosh ($375,000), considered holding out at the start of the 1972-73 season, which for Chicago opened at the Honolulu International Center Arena. But, before training camp opened, Love opted to report on time and make the trip to Hawaii with his teammates. Only 1,832 fans showed up for the Bulls victory over the Utah Stars. Chicago's Bobby Weiss shot seven of 10 from the field, while McIntosh led Chicago in scoring with 16. Jerry Sloan was in midseason form, floor burning himself through 29 minutes and picking up a technical foul with 1:54 remaining in the first half. Utah's "Wondrous" Willie Wise led all scorers with 22 points.

Motta was never a fan of interleague games, often complaining, "If we're going to play ABA teams, we'd better merge. This is like the Vietnam War, where your friends are your enemies. To play them now weakens our bargaining position. Let's either get them in our league, play a championship series at the end of the season or forget it all together."

Likewise, Bulls beat writer Bob Logan of the Chicago Tribune at the time wasn't all that enamored with the idea of playing the ABA, and clearly wasn't mellowed by a trip to the beach, describing the ABA ball as "funny-looking," and questioning whether or not it was "borrowed or stolen from a circus seal."

Logan also termed the game a "hate-in," commenting that the ABA had an "inferiority complex," and claimed the ABA referees "awarded their league five free trips to the foul line." Logan concluded his coverage saying that, by winning, the Bulls "upheld the greater glory of the National Basketball Association."

September 21, 1973: Chicago Bulls 107, Indiana Pacers 94; at Indianapolis, Indiana

While the Bulls could lay claim to being one of the NBA's most feared teams, the Indiana Pacers packed a bigger boast as they were the ABA's only three-time titlists and back-to-back league Champions. So it is Indiana and not Chicago who might have been excused for taking this preseason get together lightly.

"Oh, yes, we believed we were better than the Bulls, no question," longtime Pacers forward Darnell Hillman recalls. "Unlike Chicago, we won titles. People were calling us the ‘Boston Celtics of the ABA.' We wanted to win every time out, of course, but we didn't believe we needed to beat the Chicago Bulls in a preseason game to validate just how good we were."

Norm Van Lier scored 20 to lead Chicago, as the Bulls took command of the game early and never trailed. The Pacers did mount a comeback, knotting the game at 74 by the end of the third quarter, but the Bulls went on a 12-0 run to start of the fourth to put the game away.

Again, indicating that any claim of casualness on the part of Chicago was pure bull, both Motta and Sloan were ejected during in the second quarter.

Pacers guard Billy Keller led all scorers with 27 points, and Indy's George McGinnis chipped in 19 in a losing effort.

October 4, 1974: New York Nets 96, Chicago Bulls 78; at Uniondale, New York

The ABA long had to fight the notion that it was somehow "bush" league. Potshots about the tricolored ball were common, and its high-flying style of play, while proving popular with fans, was frequently dismissed as amateurish by NBA executives. But it was the Bulls who literally looked unprofessional in their first and only game against the ABA's New York Nets and the amazing Julius "Dr. J" Erving. It wasn't bad enough that Chicago was blown out right from the start, as Erving tallied 14 points in the first quarter, or that New York cruised to a very comfortable 57-38 lead by halftime.

It's that the Bulls looked bush league. Both Van Lier and Love were no-shows as they were holding out in hopes of forcing the team to fork over more money and sign them to a multiyear contract extension. All-Star Chet Walker also hadn't yet signed a new deal with the Bulls, so he wasn't there either. Worse, Chicago's top offseason acquisition, future Hall of Famer Nate Thurmond, was forced to play while wearing a nameless jersey. Ditto for newly acquired guard Matt Goukas. Rookie Mickey Johnson sported an old Garfield Heard Bulls jersey on the night as well — Chicago had traded Heard two seasons earlier. Journeyman Bill Hewitt wore Walker's No. 25 uniform; while rookie Bobby Wilson donned Van Lier's familiar No. 2 shirt.

"We were just not all there. It's hard for me to visualize that this was the Chicago Bulls," an aggravated Motta said afterward.

October 5, 1974: Indiana Pacers 95, Chicago Bulls 86; at Evansville, Indiana

In this obvious tip of the cap to University of Evansville alum Jerry Sloan, the second ever Bulls-Pacers game was played in what might be considered true, small-town, ABA territory. Indiana exacted revenge from the previous season's trouncing with its own runaway victory, as Pacers All-Star guard Billy Knight led all scorers with 20 points, and the awe-inspiring McGinnis powered his way to 19 points and 15 rebounds.

October 12, 1974: Kentucky Colonels 93, Chicago Bulls 75; at Louisville, Kentucky

The Kentucky Colonels pretty much had their way with the Bulls in both exhibition meetings between the teams. The first time they met, Kentucky, who was coached by the energetic Hubie Brown, would go on to post a 58-26 regular season record and capture the 1974-75 ABA title.

This particular contest turned into an eye-opener for Thurmond, who was playing his third game in a Bulls uniform: "Before the Kentucky game, I thought Artis Gilmore couldn't match up with me, but I learned quickly he could hold his own against anybody. Artis was one of the strongest guys I've played against. He was a man in the pivot. Artis, Dan Issel … those guys were serious ballers. At first I didn't give them any respect — that is, until we played against them."

In this game, Gilmore led all scorers with 24 points, Issel added 15 points and Wilson led the Bulls with 20.

October 1, 1975: Kentucky Colonels 95, Chicago Bulls 86; at Cincinnati, Ohio

The Bulls and Colonels christened Cincinnati's brand new Riverfront Coliseum in front of 4,219 fans to open the next season, with each team headed in distinctly different directions. The Colonels took the floor as the defending ABA Champions, and after the final buzzer few would've argued they couldn't have beaten the reigning NBA Champion Golden State Warriors if ever an interleague title would take place. Chicago was still reeling from its crushing Game 7 Western Conference Finals loss to the Warriors from five months earlier, and was playing without Walker, who later ended up deciding to retire rather than play one more season under Motta.

Beforehand, Motta made the claim, "Our main job down there [in Cincinnati] will be to get out alive. There is no way they're going to let us win tonight with ABA referees and a home crowd rooting for Kentucky."

Motta needn't have worried, as his veteran squad was grossly overmatched from the opening tip. While Thurmond won the battle of the boards over Gilmore, 14-7, he struggled from the floor, shooting just two-of nine. "The ABA ball always threw me off," Thurmond said years later. "I just hated it. It was a little smaller than our ball and those spinning colors … there was a different feel to it, too."

The Bulls in fact dominated Kentucky on the glass, 59-40, with Mickey Johnson backing up Thurmond at center due to an injury to Tom Boerwinkle. Gilmore and Wil Jones led Kentucky in scoring with 22 points apiece, while Love paced Chicago with 14 points in only 17 minutes of action. Per usual, the stormy Sloan got in referee Ed Rush's face and was ejected after only 13 minutes.

Ironically, Thurmond would appear in only a handful more games for the Bulls before being traded to the Cleveland Cavaliers, while Gilmore would end up attending his next preseason training camp in Chicago where he would man the center position for the Bulls at the start of the 1976-77 season.

October 12, 1975: Virginia Squires 105, Chicago Bulls 102, Norfolk, Virginia

Despite the Virginia Squires entering the game with only one preseason victory under their belt, Virginia's Luther "Ticky" Burden hit for 28 points on the night to lead all scorers in the ABA's final triumph over the Bulls. Willie Wise, this time playing for Virginia, chipped in 19 as Burden's co-star.

Initially Chicago came out uninspired, going four minutes without scoring a point to start the game, eventually digging themselves into a 13-0 hole. However, the Bulls stormed back to lead 29-28 after the opening quarter, and later overcame another double-digit deficit late in the game to take a 100-98 lead with just 1:30 left on the clock.

The Bulls were led by Mickey Johnson's 17 points and rookie Cliff Pondexter, who pumped in 15. With Sloan sitting this one out thanks to a knee injury, the passionate Van Lier took up the referee-bating slack by earning an early technical foul, which most likely gave Sloan something to smile about.

The game was played in front of 3,992 fans at the Scope in Norfolk, Virginia. Later that year, the Bulls filed a law suit against the Squires for failure to pay $13,000, which Virginia had guaranteed Chicago for playing the game on the Squires' home floor.

October 14, 1975: Chicago Bulls 122, Utah Stars 119 (OT), Salt Lake City, Utah

Two nights later, Chicago's final interleague contest was also one of its wildest. The Bulls again were minus Sloan and Boerwinkle, as well as veteran forward John Block, due to injuries. Late in the game, a grouchy Van Lier was forced to sit after fouling out, as the Bulls overcame a 10-point deficit midway through the fourth quarter, and eventually upended the host Utah Stars, 122-119, in overtime.

Ron Boone drilled the Bulls for 43 points, matching Pittsburgh's George Thompson's brilliant effort in Chicago's first-ever interleague game for the most points scored in interleague play. Bobby Wilson led Chicago with 20 points and second-year guard Leon Benbow chipped in 16.

As with Virginia, the wobbly Utah Stars later reneged on payment for hosting the game in Salt Lake City, inviting a $17,000 law suit which was never settled. Both the Squires and Stars folded before the finish of the 1975-76 season.

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