Kevin Wesley Love is an american professional basketball player for the Miami Heats. Love plays the position of the power forward or center in the NBA. Love is the son of former NBA player Stan Love and has carved his own place in the NBA. He was a top recruit coming out of high school and committed to play for the University of California Los Angeles Bruins. In college, he played with Russell Westbrook. His college career was impeccable having been named All-American First Team, Pac-10 Player of the Year and multiple such accolades no to mention that he recorded 23 double doubles in the 2007-08 season. Coming to his career in the NBA, Love was a first round 5th pick who got drafted by the Memphis Grizzlies. Over his time in the NBA, Love has secured the Most Improved Player award, 5 All-Star selections, 2 All-NBA Second Team selections and 1 historic NBA championship with the Cleveland Cavaliers. Furthermore, Love is also a member of the USA basketball team who won gold medals in the 2010 FIBA World Championship and 2012 Summer Olympics.
Kevin Love Injury History
Kevin Love has suffered a number of injuries in his NBA career that have forced him toi miss extended periods of time. In spie of these injuries, Love has always bounced back and performed at a high level.
Broken Hand
In his sophomore year, Love ended up breaking his left hand. This injury was major causing him to miss the first 18 games of the NBA season. This amounts to nearly quarter of the entire season and would have impacted his team to a great extent.
Broken Hand in 2012
Love suffered another fracture to his hand in the 2012-13 season. This time, the fracture was on his right hand and was caused outside the game, during workouts and exercise sessions. This was more serious in terms of the time he was not able to play. Love sat out for 9 weeks of the NBA regular season due to this injury.
Knee Injury
In the 2017-18 season, Love underwent a knee surgery. The injury was non-contact based and was initially reported to be a contusion. However, further observation led specialists to diagnose the injury of requiring a procedure known as arthroscopic surgery. Love was not able to play for two months during this period.
Toe Injury
In the 2018-19 season, Kevin Love underwent surgery on his toe to resolve an injury that had been persistent for an elongated period of time. While the surgery benefited Love, he missed a large part of the season, returning only towards the end of the first quarter of 2019.
Challenges with Mental Health
Aside from physical injuries, Love has also been met with issues with his mental health. He is known to have battled both depression and anxiety as he talks about extensively in Player’s Tribune essay titled “Everyone is Going Through Something.” He mentions that he used to use episodes of depression as motivation to win basketball games. He was also affected by mental health during the years 2013 to 2018 and took to destigmatizing it after facing his struggles. His openness regarding mental health started in 2018 after he revealed that he had experienced a panic attack during a game. He became a symbol for battling mental health and erradicated many stereotypes related to mental health.
FAQs
A. Kevin Love’s shoulder injury caused him to undergo a surgey. The surgey kept Love on the sideline for 4 to 6 months.
A. Kevin Love has won one ring through the course of his NBA career. This championship was won with the Cleveland Cavaliers where the Cavaliers, led by Lebron James made a historic comeback from a 3-1 deficit against the Warriors.
A. Kevin Love has never won the MVP award in his NBA career. However, Love has won the Most Improved Player award.
