Kevin Love is an American five-time all-star basketball player currently playing in the National Basketball Association for the Cleveland Cavaliers.
Having previously played for the Minnesota Timberwolves, Love, known for his three-point shooting and hard rebound, is the record holder of the longest series of consecutive games with double-digit scores in points and rebounds.
Love was part of the Cleveland Cavalier team that won an NBA championship in 2016. At the 2010 FIBA World Championships and the 2012 Summer Olympics, he also won gold medals with the US men’s national team. Read on to learn more about his early beginnings and his private life.
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Biography
Kevin Love was born on September 7, 1988, in Santa Monica, California, as Kevin Wesley Love to Karen and Stan Love. However, he grew up in Lake Oswego, Oregon, where he played basketball as a child because his father was a professional basketball player.
Love attended Lake Oswego High School and played for her basketball team known as the Lakers. In the second year, Love became an instrumental player for his team, scoring an average of 25 points and 15 setbacks per game to lead his team to the 2005 state championship game they had lost. The following year, he averaged 28 points and 16 rebounds per game to get his team back into the championship game they won this time.
For the third time in a row in Love’s senior year, Lake Oswego Lakers made it into the state championship game behind their star player’s 33 points and 17 rebounds per game average. Love lost the game despite 37 points but was comforted by being named Gatorade National Male Athlete of the Year at the end of the season. He finished his high school career as the leading scorer in Oregon boys’ basketball history before going to California to play college basketball at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA).
Kevin Love’s decision to pass on his father’s alma mater, the University of Oregon, was met with great hostility when he received obscene messages and death threats on his cell phone. However, he was unwavering when he led UCLA to the season’s regular Pac-10 conference championship, where it became the number one seed in the 2008 NCAA Men’s Division I basketball tournament.
UCLA Bruins reached the last four of the tournament before losing to the Memphis Tigers. However, Love was voted Consensus First Team All-American, Pac-10 Player of the Year, All-Pac-10 and Pac-10 Freshman of the Year thanks to his average of 17.5 points and 10.6 rebounds per game.
After a successful freshman year, Love qualified for the NBA design and gave up his college career. He was selected with the fifth overall selection by the Memphis Grizzlies in the 2008 NBA Draft but was subsequently traded at Draft Night against the Minnesota Timberwolves in an eight-player deal, in which O. J. Mayo, the third overall selection in the draft, also went the other way.
Kevin Love had a slow start in life in the NBA as his team suffered a loss. However, things increased after the head coach was changed halfway through the season, with Love playing particularly well and almost scoring a double. He finished the season as the league’s ninth-best rebounder with a total of 29 double-doubles, a Timberwolves franchise newcomer record.
The following campaign, Love, beat Dwight Howard and Marcus Camby to be the best rebounder in the NBA as his game rose to new heights and competed for an all-star appearance. In 2011, Love had his first All-Star appearance when he also became the face of the Timberwolves franchise. However, he was frustrated by his team’s constant exclusion from the playoffs.
In 2014, after LeBron James returned to the Cleveland Cavaliers, he was traded. This year he reached the playoffs for the first time in his career but had suffered an end-of-season injury against Boston Celtics in the first quarter of Match 4 in the first round. The Cavs reached the final but lost to the Golden State Warriors.
Kevin Love has since made three trips to the NBA finals and only won one. He is currently on his fourth attempt to win his second NBA Championship with Cleveland.
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Kevin Love’s Family – Who is his Dad?
Kevin Love’s father, Stan, is a former basketball player who had a four-year professional career and played for the Baltimore Bullets, now Washington Wizards, after being selected for the NBA Draft with the 9th pick in 1971. The other teams he played in are the Los Angeles Lakers and the San Antonio Spurs.
After finishing his NBA career, Stan Love became a full-time bodyguard, coach, and assistant to his cousin Brian Wilson, founder of the American rock band The Beach Boys.
Love has two siblings; an older brother named Colin and a younger sister named Emily.
Is Kevin Love Married to a Wife or has a Girlfriend?
Kevin Love was never married. He has had some serious relationships in the past, especially with Elise Novak, a former UCLA cheerleader. The relationship lasted six long years before both parties decided to end it.
Love is currently in a serious relationship with the Sports Illustrated swimsuit model Kate Bock.
