Kevin Love

• 1. High School Dominance

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  Kevin Love grew up in Lake Oswego, Oregon, where he played basketball from his earliest days. As a child, he practiced bounce passes with a cardboard box and studied tapes of Wes Unseld. His father Stan, a former NBA big man who was an adept shooter, had his son develop outside shooting and ballhandling skills. In his sophomore season at Lake Oswego High School, Love averaged 25.3 points, 15.4 rebounds, and 3.7 assists per game. The Lakers reached the 2005 state championship game but lost to Jesuit High School. That summer, Nike removed him from its Portland Elite Legends AAU team after he chose to participate in the Reebok ABCD Camp against other top recruits. He went on to play for the Southern California All-Stars, helping the team compile a 46, 0 record while garnering three MVP awards. In his junior year, he averaged 28 points, 16.1 rebounds, and 3.5 assists as Lake Oswego returned to the state championship game, winning behind Love's 24 points and 9 rebounds. In his senior season, he averaged 33.9 points, 17.0 rebounds, and 4 assists per game. Lake Oswego made their third straight trip to the state championship game, losing in a rematch to South Medford High School despite 37 points from Love. At the conclusion of the season, Love was named the Gatorade National Male Athlete of the Year. He finished his high school career as the all-time leading scorer in Oregon boys' basketball history with 2,628 points.

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• 2. Draft And Minnesota Rise

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  In July 2006, Love verbally committed to play college basketball at UCLA. Before the 2007, 08 season, he received permission from Walt Hazzard to wear number 42 for the Bruins even though the school had retired the number for Hazzard in 1996. After arriving at UCLA, Love regularly sought out retired Bruins legends Bill Walton and John Wooden for advice. His decision to play for UCLA brought anger from fans of Oregon, where it was expected Love would play. Prior to a game at Oregon, Ducks fans obtained Love's cell phone number and left obscene messages as well as death threats. The fans also subjected Love's family to obscenities and threw garbage at them during the game. In the 2008 Pacific-10 Conference men's basketball tournament, the Bruins defeated the USC Trojans featuring O. J. Mayo in the semi-finals. Love guided UCLA to the regular season Pac-10 conference championship, the conference tournament championship, and a No. 1 seed in the 2008 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament. He helped the Bruins reach the Final Four before they lost to the Memphis Tigers. At the end of the 2007, 08 regular season, Love was named consensus first-team All-American, Pac-10 Player of the Year, All-Pac-10, and Pac-10 Freshman of the Year. He led the Bruins with 17.5 points per game, 10.6 rebounds per game, and 23 double-doubles. On the 17th of April 2008, Love announced his intention to leave UCLA to enter the 2008 NBA draft. He was taken fifth overall by the Memphis Grizzlies immediately after his teammate Russell Westbrook was selected by the Seattle SuperSonics. Following the draft, Love was traded along with Mike Miller, Brian Cardinal, and Jason Collins to the Minnesota Timberwolves for the third overall pick O. J. Mayo, Antoine Walker, Marko Jarić, and Greg Buckner.

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• 3. Championship And Comeback

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  On the 23rd of August 2014, the Timberwolves traded Love to the Cleveland Cavaliers in a three-team trade. The Timberwolves received Andrew Wiggins and Anthony Bennett from Cleveland, while Thaddeus Young came from Philadelphia. On the 9th of July 2015, Love re-signed with the Cavaliers on a five-year, $110 million contract. In the first round of the playoffs, the Cavaliers faced the eighth-seeded Detroit Pistons. In Game 1 on April 17, Love recorded playoff career highs with 28 points and 13 rebounds. The win advanced them through to the Eastern Conference Finals where they faced the Toronto Raptors. They defeated the Raptors 4, 2 to reach the NBA Finals against the defending champion Golden State Warriors. After recording 17 points and 13 rebounds in a Game 1 loss, a concussion suffered in Game 2 forced him to miss Game 3. His return in Game 4 saw him come off the bench to score 11 points, but with a 108, 97 loss, the Cavaliers fell behind 3, 1 in the series. Game 5 saw Love return to the starting line-up, but despite playing 33 minutes, he managed just two points as the Cavaliers forced a Game 6 with a 112, 97 win. Game 6 also saw Love struggle, but the Cavaliers managed a 115, 101 win to force a Game 7. With the series tied 3, 3, Love managed 9 points and 14 rebounds in Game 7 to help the Cavaliers win the series 4, 3. They became the first team to rally from a 3, 1 finals deficit, beating the Warriors 93, 89 in Game 7 to end a 52-year major sports championship drought in Cleveland.

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• 4. Injuries And Role Shift

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  On the 17th of October 2012, it was reported that Love would miss six to eight weeks after breaking the third and fourth metacarpals on his right hand during a morning workout. He surprised fans by returning to the Wolves on November 21, just five weeks after sustaining the injury. On the 3rd of January 2013, Love refractured his shooting hand in a game against the Denver Nuggets. It was announced that his injury would require surgery and he was expected to miss an additional eight to ten weeks of playing time. In the aftermath of LeBron James' departure in free agency to the Los Angeles Lakers, the Cavaliers aggressively pushed to secure Love for the long term. On the 24th of July 2018, Love signed a four-year, $120 million extension with the Cavaliers. He appeared in the first four games of the regular season before being sidelined with an injured left foot. On November 2, Love had surgery to rectify a painful big toe injury on his left foot. The injury had bothered him since the preseason opener and affected his ability to walk. He returned to action on the 8th of February 2019, after missing 50 games. In 2021, 22, Love became a reserve for the first time since early in his career. Against the Atlanta Hawks on the 31st of December 2021, he had 35 points on 10-for-18 shooting, including a 7-for-14 on 3-pointers, for his highest-scoring game in over four seasons. He was the runner-up for the NBA Sixth Man of the Year Award after averaging 13.6 points, 7.2 rebounds, and 2.2 assists. On the 18th of February 2023, Love and the Cavaliers officially agreed to a contract buyout.

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• 5. Mental Health Advocacy

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  In March 2018, Love revealed that he had been seeing a therapist for several months following a panic attack during a game in November 2017. In a first-person article in The Players' Tribune entitled "Everyone Is Going Through Something," Love wrote: "Mental health is an invisible thing, but it touches all of us at some point or another." It continued: "I want to remind you that you're not weird or different for sharing what you're going through." In August 2018, Love continued his advocacy for mental health awareness, discussing his family's history of depression along with his own struggles with anxiety, rage, and dark times where he would hide in his room and not talk to anyone. He committed to forming a foundation focusing on mental health, particularly for young boys, adding that he believes he's found his life's work. In 2018, he established the Kevin Love Fund to provide tools and help for people to improve their physical and emotional well-being, with the goal of assisting more than 1 billion people over the next five years. Early beneficiaries included two programs to empower high school students to make healthy choices and the UCLA Athletics Department. On the 12th of March 2020, Love's fund gave $100,000 to support staff of Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse who were unable to work during the 2020 coronavirus pandemic.

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• 6. International Success

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  Love was a member of the United States national team that won the gold medal at the 2010 FIBA World Championship. Love made the 2012 Olympic team on the 7th of July 2012. The team finished undefeated, winning the gold medal over runners-up Spain. Mired in unresolved trade talks between Minnesota and other NBA teams, Love withdrew himself from the 2014 FIBA Basketball World Cup team. He was also selected for the 2020 Olympic team in Tokyo but withdrew after the third exhibition game, stating that he was not fully recovered from the right calf injury that sidelined him for much of the 2020, 21 season. In 2010, Love became the first among NBA players to join the Hoops for St. Jude charity program benefitting the St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. In 2018, he established the Kevin Love Fund to provide tools and help for people to improve their physical and emotional well-being. On the 22nd of June 2020, he announced that his fund was pledging $500,000, matched by the UCLA Centennial Term Chair Match, to establish the Kevin Love Fund Chair in UCLA's psychology department.

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