It's hard to find a guy in sports that's great on and off the playing surface. So many athletes are full of themselves, and it shows in the way they act in the media.
With that said, I think I found a new guy to start cheering for. You may not have heard of him because he plays for the last-place team in the Western Conference. His name is Kevin Love, and there isn't anything about his game that's not to love.
The Minnesota Timberwolves hit the mother lode when they traded for Love on draft day in 2008, but it took them a while to realize it. Earlier this season, the All-Star power forward was coming off the bench and barely playing.
Love has recorded 20 or more rebounds in 12 games this season. Early in November, Love had his breakout game against the New York Knicks, when he became just the 19th player in NBA history to have a 30-30 game. He scored 31 points and grabbed 31 rebounds. His rebounding effort in that game set a team record, and Kevin Garnett played for the T'Wolves for 12 seasons.
Love is currently averaging 20.9 points and 15.8 rebounds per game this season and just tied the NBA record with his 51st-straight game with a double-double. If the season ended today, Love would become the first NBA player to average more than 20 points and 15 rebounds per game in a season since Moses Malone did it in the 1982-83 season for the Philadelphia 76ers.
So yeah, Kevin Love is a pretty sick basketball player, but what makes him so likeable is his personality and the way he goes after it every night in spite of playing for a terrible team.
I caught a little bit of the Monday matchup between Minnesota and the Dallas Mavericks, and Love was up to his usual antics, making the other team look really bad offensively. But what caught my eye was a play that meant nothing to the game but probably everything to a group of five fans in the front row.
After diving out of bounds to try and save a loose ball, Love went diving into the group of fans and knocking most of them out of their chairs. Instead of just collecting himself and getting right back on the court, he helped everyone up and checked to see if they were OK. He then made a point to shake hands with each one of them before a standing ovation at the Target Center.
Minnesota loves Kevin Love. He's become the poster boy for the city and I think he's a perfect role model in a league that suffers from a bad reputation as far as thugs and gangsters running around within it. Don't get me wrong – I don't share those thoughts. The NBA does a lot of charity work and has some of the best people I've seen in professional sports, but that doesn't change the common misconceptions.
Love is a genuine guy and someone who conducts himself well off the court, and he is someone to get behind. Living in Buffalo, it's tough to find teams to root for in the league, but I think I may have found my new squad.
Hopefully, Love avoids the temptation to jet out of town like some other big names have in recent years. If he stays, he's sure to break records and turn the T'Wolves into perennial contenders in the West.
E-mail: sports@ubspectrum.com
