The resurgence of Kevin Love and why winning matters

by Matt

I wrote this a few weeks ago, it just never seemed right to share it until now. That's what happens when you put up flame emoji's worth of points in a quarter. Praise be to Lord Kev and without further adieu.

Winning cures everything. A few stories come to mind here, it happened a short time ago (in a galaxy not so far away, sorry Luke) and embodies a good point. I enjoy the game of NBA 2K, like every other basketball loving fan I believe it is the single greatest piece of bullshit put on a disc and wrapped in a case. Yes, it's absolutely ridiculous some of the things that go on when you turn on 2K and settle in for the night. Nothing makes you want to hurl your controller like watching your A+ ranked 3-point shooter go 1/7 from 3 on wide open looks (thanks Steph). But when you trust him, trust the artificial player not the numbers, you watch as he gets you that go ahead bucket that seals the win and all that earlier bullshit doesn't matter anymore. You no longer give two shits about the fact he missed every, god, damn, wide, open, shot. You only care that he made one. It relaxes you, it makes you keep playing with a smile on your face. Winning, cures, everything.

Kevin Love has had a horrendous last 2 years of basketball, personally it's been great (have you seen his girlfriend, she defines a 10). He was the subject of numerous trade rumours, even by his own players. Recall the meeting last season when Blatt was fired, the Cavs were called to a meeting and they all thought it was to say Kevin Love had been traded. Of course he wasn't but what did this say about their team at the time. They all thought it was coming, publically and that's no locker room you want to be in. I wouldn't want to be Kev in that situation, I'd rather be on the fringe of a roster, at least you have people wanting you to succeed rather than speculating who may be taking your place. The speculation was so high that it really showed in his game. He was less aggressive, his rebounding (awesome) took a backseat to Thompsons and his post-game fell off a cliff (a large ass cliff). This was all the more cemented in the 2015 playoffs when he went down in the first round and the team proceeded to clean up the East all the way to the finals where the LeBron’s ran out of gas. The story throughout wasn't 'imagine if they had Kevin Love', it was 'amazing rebounding by Thompson' and 'if only they had Kyrie healthy' against the warriors. There was no mention of Kevin Love.

This season is different, Kev is so much more aggressive to start the season, he is getting to the line more (Austin Carr informs me that he is getting there 8 times a game, the most since the 'sota days, thanks Austin), his rebounding and effort is a lot more pronounced (I’m watching him go at it again and again after his own miss) with a smile on his face. Right now he is putting up 15 (at count) on the hornets in the first quarter alone! He looks like the player the Cavs wanted all along. You can see the change in him on the court, everything looks different, it just feels to me like belongs out there now.

I'm going to pin point this moment back to last season’s finals. He sits out game 3 and the Cavs absolutely stomp the warriors. Jefferson looks like everything the Cavs needed and everything Love is not. Of course, it doesn't help that he was abused in the first 2 games (both blowouts) and then the Cavs win the second he doesn't play. There were calls for his head, to send him to the bench and to be honest they were valid. If the team plays better with you when you're not playing, then should you really be playing? He was portrayed in the media as if he didn't even play defence at all, he did, he wasn't great but the effort was there. He was never going to be as good as Draymond Green but he wasn't out there hobbling around like Dirk either. What went unsaid was how being exploited by some of the best players in the league (not to mention on the league’s best team) on offense repeatedly isn't going to be boosting your votes for DPOY.

Now at this point, if the Cavs lose the series, he is gone. He has to be traded because his career in Cleveland won't recover if they lost. The blame game will be played and Kev will be squarely at the front of it. He will be gone, picked off for spare parts and sent off somewhere else (New York for Melo?). Instead, he steps it up, he plays well, Draymond gets suspended, the Cavs gain momentum and all of a sudden it's 1 minute left and Steph Curry has the ball.

I've been cheering for Kev for a while now, I don't know why, ask Ben and I don't think he knows why either. We both have an irrational love for Kevin Love. I also love LeBron (after his days on South Beach), so I was cheering for a Cavs win here in game 7. In fact, I was up at 3:30am (I’m on London time) before work to watch the second half. Anyway, so Kev was switched onto Curry and the first thing I thought was 'aww fuck' and rightfully so, may I add how Curry has absolutely abused most big men the whole seasons. Turning some of the NBAs best into long ass dancing with the stars contestants. He crossed Chris Paul into the shadow realm for god sakes. 

So Kev is on him on the perimeter, there's a minute left, it's do or die. Steph goes left, Kev goes with them, he pulls right, Kev gets back there. I've never seen the bastard move so well, footwork so fancy he may as well be on dance dance revolution. You know the rest, he sat with Curry the whole time, played it as perfect as you could. Curry missed, the Cavs won and they made history. More importantly though, Kev made history.

He made history for the one thing that he was scrutinised for all series, the one thing everyone was calling for his head for. The thing everyone said he couldn't do. They talk about the block (Bron), the shot (Kyrie) and the stop (Kev). Those three moments are immortalised forever, the miracle of how that championship was won came down to 3 plays by their 3 best players. Kev and LeBron were the first two to embrace, although to be fair LeBron would have embraced anyone at that point. We all know what happened after that, Kev walked around with a WWE championship belt strapped over one shoulder, he wore it everywhere, it became a symbol of his championship. He wore it to the Cavs rally along with a huge shitty grin on his face. You couldn't wipe it off his face and you couldn't take his belt. He knew what he had done for his team, he knew that they couldn't have done it without him and now he knows that he isn't going anywhere. He is playing with so much more confidence, so much more poise, poise of an NBA champion. He has his belt and nobody can every really say anything about his defence anymore. He will just bring up that video of the stop on his phone and just stand there looking all smug as he watches himself lock down the MVP.

Right now, it's mid-way through the 3rd quarter and Kev has just provided two offensive rebounds, diving around to hurl the ball to teammates who proceeded to brick two threes. Later on I'll watch him be the loudest to cheer as Channing Frye buries a couple of 3's to steal the game in crunch time. The headlines won't be about how Kev didn't play crunch time in the 4th (Kyrie didn't play either for that matter). It'll be 'Cavs defeat Hornets' and probably something about LeBron. What a change that is from last year.

Winning cures everything.