"He's Disgusted": A Body Language Expert On Kevin Love and LeBron James

A human behaviorial expert tells us why she sees friction between stars in The Land.

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Image via Complex Original
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Amid last night's ongoing Steph Curry sneaker slander, Klay Thompson "they lost, I was hoopin'" memes, and an improbable road victory for the Cleveland Cavaliers, a short clip of LeBron James supposedly leaving Kevin Love hanging on a high five found a way to go viral. Of course, we now realize that Love wasn't trying to high five LeBron James since the ref called a foul against the Cavs (and because this is not your typical "let's celebrate with hand slapping" face):

But the point of there being some friction between the two all-stars remains. Love has tried his best to "FIT-IN" and not "FIT-OUT" in his second year with Cleveland, yet to anyone with eyes who understands basic human social cues it's clear things aren't all peaches and cream and outlet passes.

What is going on between these two?

We decided to reach out to Dr. Lillian Glass—a renowned human behavior and body language expert, author, and PhD—to find out what she can tell us about the relationship between LeBron James and Kevin Love based on several recent interactions between the two star Eastern Conference Champs.

On the video of Kevin Love getting yelled at by LeBron James in Game 5.


“LeBron is yelling here; it seems so uncharacteristic. He’s just so disgusted with the whole thing. The look in Kevin Love’s eye is like fear. It’s like fear. And he’s trying to make up and LeBron is just completely disgusted with him. He can’t even look at him! When [LeBron's] head is cocked to the side that is severe anger. I thought he was talking to somebody else. He’s not even looking at [Love], he looks like he’s talking to the referee. He can’t even look at him. He can’t even look at him in the eye. So there’s some real conflict there between the two. He’s not relating to LeBron, that’s for sure. There’s a problem there. A serious problem.”

On LeBron James stepping around Kevin Love last November:


“Okay this is a game—yeah, that’s not acceptable. He stepped over him! He basically steps over him! LeBron is walking with one foot in front of the other and then he looks back at him briefly. He’s obviously turned off by him. He’s disgusted.”

On their handshake before a 116-78 Game 5 playoff victory against the Raptors in May:

“You know what’s interesting? Right at the end, as soon as it’s over they don’t look at each other. They look away. So that routine may be for show—they don’t retain that connection with each other. They seem to be in sync when they’re doing the handshake, but not so much afterwards. Usually there’d be some sort of acknowledgement.

“I don’t know if [LeBron’s] so crazy about that guy. Here’s another thing—LeBron James doesn’t smile. The other guys are smiling when they do it with him, that handshake. LeBron is kind of breathing and looking away. He’s looking down, he’s not connecting with him. He may be going through the motions but he’s not connecting with him.”

On LeBron James' comments about Kevin Love after the same Game 5:

“His face changes color. When he talks about Love he’s got a fake smile. His face gets all red and pink—he’s blushing when he’s talking about him. There’s some passive-aggression going on there.”

On these photos, taken during this year's Eastern Conference Finals:

“We look at him and we see Kevin’s wrong, once again. [LeBron’s] showing hostile behavior to him. And that never really happens on a team. And you see Love’s right arm holding himself. He’s pulling up on his pants for comfort. Holding onto himself literally. LeBron faces him with his face but not with his body in their confrontations, which shows the level of anger.

“Love puts his hands out to talk to LeBron and he’s very stiff and nervous around him, and LeBron has a very aggressive position where he’s taking up more room and showing, you know, he’s obviously in charge. It’s more of an aggressive position. Whereas number 0—is that his number? Zero? That’s not a very lucky number, is it? This is a clashing moment. Having his hand out, it says a lot.”

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