This has already been the most interesting of Kevin Love's seven seasons in the NBA and we're not even out of March yet. He's qualified for the playoffs for the first time in his career, which means things are going well, right? Not exactly. On a team with three stars, he's been the odd man out, as LeBron James' usual MVP-ness and Kyrie Irving's emergence as an elite scorer have literally sent Love to the sidelines. Yes, he's averaging a double-double, but 16 and 10 is a lot different from last year's 26 and 12.5. He's shooting fewer 0-2 foot shots and more threes this season than he has ever before. The situation, for a player of Love's caliber, does not seem ideal. And rightly there have been plenty of questions about Love's future, both immediate and long-term.
To be fair, Love has answered them. Again and again. Questions about whether he'd opt out this summer arose roughly a week into the season, and despite his assurances that he is a Cleveland Cavalier and has no plans to be anything but, the question keeps on getting asked. What more can he say? The trade deadline has passed, the Cavaliers are firmly entrenched in second place in the East, and the Cavaliers have a championship run to concern themselves with before anything else. Love is a smart guy—he may not have been to the playoffs before but he's not going to derail them before they start with free agency talk.
So, SPOILER ALERT: When we talked to Love on Monday, we did not ask whether he planned on opting out this summer. Why just get the same answer everyone else has? Plus, there were other, more compelling things to talk about—like why he doesn't break news on Twitter anymore and whether he sees himself ever going home again. Someday.
How happy are you?
How happy am I? I woke up today, the sun was shining, it was early—I’m normally a night person?—and got a little bit of fresh air, threw my clothes on, got my Menace hat on. I feel great.
1.
It seems like it’s been an interesting start to the season for you—I know people are saying stretch four, whatever else—is the whole on the perimeter, shooting a lot of threes, was that by design—did you know it would be like this going in?
I don’t know if I knew exactly what to expect going in just because I didn’t know much about David Blatt and his offense, but as my role has evolved and I think it’s ever-evolving and keeps evolving, is spacing the floor especially with LeBron and Kyrie playing north and south and downhill is something that I’m going to have to continue to do, so, I think I’ve been looking to get a little more in the post, and come the postseason I’m thinking that I’ll be getting a lot more touches and looks there—I could be wrong, but I know that they’re going to be either blitzing on the pick and roll, running on the pick and roll, taking away the ball from LeBron or Kyrie, and different players, myself included, are gonna have to step up and make plays.
So it’s something that I’m continuing to get used to and trying to be effective and some games are better than others, but I’m still taking it game by game.
Is it nice to finally be able to talk about the postseason as a certainty?
Yeah. I mean, for the first time in my career, definitely. It’s very cool, and having clinched two games ago that’s something that I obviously haven’t been a part of and this is my seventh year.
Obviously it seems like it was a given this year but people had issues from the start like, oh my God you didn’t win a championship in October, what’s wrong. Was it still a really big moment for you actually clinching that spot?
I think you hit it on the head saying that we had bigger aspirations and our goal is to hopefully compete for the Larry O’Brien trophy and make it as far as we can. So for me, yeah, making the playoffs was a big deal but it was kind of—bittersweet’s the wrong word, but something of that nature when they told us we had clinched. It was very cool but at the same time it was the idea that we still had more work to do.
2.
Understanding that and that a championship has to be the goal since LeBron has been to the last four Finals, do you think the expectations on this team were still a little bit unfair at the start?
Well, I think—I don’t know if it’s because of the social media landscape, and obviously we put together—or they put together—a pretty great team with some great veterans as well, and three star players so it’s something that kind of came with the territory, but if you look back at 2010 they kind of went through the similar things that we did, that Miami Heat team. We had a few more bumps in the road but we were able to figure it out in good time.
Chris Bosh talked about how you might have to sacrifice certain things. Reality seems to have reflected that.
I don’t think he was wrong—I knew coming in I would have to sacrifice. There’ve been times where maybe I’ve fought it, a game here or there, but it’s for the better of the team and had I been younger in my career maybe I would have acted somewhat different, I don’t know that, but it’s, there’s different times and different games when I’m gonna have to step up and play a really big part on this team, and I feel like as long as we’re winning I’m good with that, that’s what I came here to do.
But it must be difficult for you, being someone who’s been an All-Star three times and been used to being the guy on the team, to sit out the fourth quarter as you have a couple of times. How do you deal with that?
Yeah, I think you just, you look at sometimes it was matchups and other times they just wanted a different look out there. It can be tough, at times you kind of have to swallow your pride, but in a lot of those games I think—I don’t know if it’s been three, four, five games—I believe that we’ve won, I don’t know, you’ll have to check that but I believe in James Jones, he told me only one season he hadn’t made the playoffs, he gets in there and mixes it up, Tristan Thompson is a live, active body, we have different guys on this team that can step up and play big. Yeah, I mean it’s just one of those things.
You went from trade rumors in Minnesota and probably had about three weeks in Cleveland when things were cool, and now people are talking about the summer—are you able to tune that stuff out, and if not, what’s the most ridiculous rumor you’ve heard about yourself?
Oh, you have to—there’s a lot that are ridiculous, it’s funny what people come up with if you sit a fourth quarter or there’s a game or two when you don’t play so well. I guess the sports landscape and the athlete landscape and the coaching landscape has become ‘what have you done for me lately?’ and it’s something you have to live with but for me I just want to win games, and win games here.
maybe at the end of my career going back to Portland or something? I mean, you never know.
It seems that you actually backed off social media a little bit since the glory days when you were breaking news about Timberwolves coaching. Was that by design, just a prioritizing thing?
Yeah, I think more than anything just quieting the noise. It’s not even like I would read the stuff but there’s different places on social media where I followed the different various basketball websites—the ESPNs and the CBS Sports and the… you know, Complex—there’s a little shoutout there—and so on and so forth, and that stuff is all on my timeline and I don’t want to have that stuff running around in my head. It’s not that I’m thin-skinned, but it’s just something that I can take away, and as you asked me with the first question: Are you happy? Yeah, I wake up and I’m pretty happy and that has not changed my life at all, not having that in my life.
Switching gears a little bit I saw this thing in SI about your fridge that your pregame meal is shredded wheat with almond butter, jam and applesauce—where did THAT come from.
[Laughs] Yeah, it’s just a little mashup. I’ll either have that or some sort of rice or chicken. But when I was asked the interviewer had asked me what’s something weird you might eat before a game and that was my answer to it.
So that’s not necessarily an every game thing.
No, no, no.
But chocolate milk is your regular post-game recovery, apparently.
Yup, I keep telling everybody it’s very nostalgic for me. I grew up drinking it as a kid, my brother and I would run around playing the various sports outside and we’d always go and run for the chocolate milk and that was before we knew the benefits backed by science, so it was something that, it was very close to me and I still drink after workouts and after games.
Do your teammates share that?
I think a lot of athletes share that, everyday athletes and exercisers as well.
The last thing I wanted to ask, Kevin Garnett went back to Minnesota this year, do you ever see yourself doing that?
Going back? I mean, going back to a place, well I guess for him Minnesota isn’t necessarily home, but—maybe at the end of my career going back to Portland or something? I mean, you never know. I still love Portland to death, my mom and dad are still there, brother is still there. But now’s not the right time [laughs].
Well, we’ll start the Blazers rumors anyway.
There you go, there you go.
