At this point, you kind of have to feel at least a little bit bad for Kevin Love, don’t you? Yes, the guy is in year one of a five-year, $113 million contract with the Cavaliers. Yes, he’s on the best team in the NBA’s Eastern Conference and in the midst of another deep postseason run. And yes, he has the privilege of playing alongside superstars LeBron James and Kyrie Irving. But it’s definitely coming at a cost.
People love to hate Love. Maybe it’s because LeBron went out of his way to essentially force the Cavaliers to trade No. 1 overall draft pick Andrew Wiggins for him back in 2014, or maybe it’s because Love has never really lived up to the hype he generated when he first arrived in Cleveland. But for whatever reason, Love is now subjected to insane amounts of hate on social media during almost every nationally-televised Cavs game. Even he acknowledged it during an interview with ESPN.com on Saturday following a loss in Game 4 of the 2016 NBA Finals.
“Why do you think?” he said when ESPN’s Dave McMenamin asked him why he thinks he's routinely criticized by fans. “You’re part of it. I’m not saying you’re who does it, but you are there with the people that do…I don’t know how to answer it, because I have a couple bad games last series [against Toronto], tough games, and have to come back and do whatever I needed to do to help the team. Still, it’s just never enough.”
It continued on Monday night during Game 5 of the Finals when this Vine appeared to capture LeBron James yelling at Love while Love reached for a high-five from his teammate:
Predictably, the Internet went in on Love immediately:
And if you check Twitter now, there are still people going in on him nearly 12 hours after the game ended:
Just one problem: LeBron didn’t actually yell at Love for asking him for a high-five. Instead, Love put his hand up to show LeBron what he was trying to do on a play and LeBron barked back at him for not boxing out or for not rotating properly or for not doing one of the other things that routinely happen on a pro basketball court. As The Big Lead first first pointed out early Tuesday morning, you can see what actually happened by watching the entire play unfold in this video instead of just watching the Vine that is circulating:
It's not the first time LeBron has yelled at Love for making a mistake:
And unless Love leaves Cleveland in the offseason—which is definitely a possibility—it probably won't be the last time. But LeBron did not yell at him for trying to high-five him, despite what social media and the scores of Love haters might try to tell you.
That’s not to say Love doesn’t deserve some criticism right now. In fact, he probably deserves a lot of criticism. While LeBron and Kyrie combined to put up 82 points during Game 5, Love put up…two. Additionally, he has just 35 points as a whole through four games in the series (he missed Game 3 after suffering a concussion in Game 2). And if you’ve watched the Cavs at any point during the Finals, then you know that Love hasn’t been a part of many memorable moments for the team.
So if you’re going to criticize him, criticize him for one of those things. But don't do it over a Vine that only tells half the story.
