Christian Petersen/Getty Images
Kevin Love has yet to re-discover his All-NBA form with the Cleveland Cavaliers.
- Kevin Love acknowledged in a recent interview that he tends to get most of the blame when the Cleveland Cavaliers struggle, while LeBron James gets most of the credit when the Cavaliers do well.
- Still, Love says he is okay with this and that he hopes fans will appreciate that he was a part of a title-winning team in Cleveland after his career is over.
Kevin Love has been something of an NBA lightning rod since joining LeBron James in Cleveland via trade, never managing to replicate his All-NBA caliber seasons in Minnesota and emerging as an easy target for criticism on a team featuring the best basketball player in the world and championship-or-bust expectations.
Well, in some recent candid comments to reporters, Love acknowledged the criticism and said that playing alongside LeBron makes it easy for his contributions on the basketball court to go overlooked.
"I know that you know when we have success I might not get the credit and when we do lose or have a bad string of games that I might get the blame but that comes with the territory," Love said. "And at the end of the day hopefully at the end of my career, they'll look and say 'Wow Kevin did a lot in Cleveland and you know did a lot for this city and brought a championship here' and hopefully multiple championships."
Love had no harsh words for LeBron, however.
"LeBron should get a lot of the praise," he said. "I mean look what he's been able to do, he's been so unbelievable in this run and throughout his entire career."
Love did say that playing alongside LeBron has taught him some things, mainly "what it means to sacrifice."
He has sacrificed a good deal to be a part of a contending team in Cleveland, going from being the focal point of the Minnesota Timberwolves offense to a second or even third option behind LeBron and, at one point, Kyrie Irving in Cleveland. Still, he did win a championship in 2016, and also got a rare defensive highlight in the process when he famously got a defensive stop on Stephen Curry, so it is fair to say things have worked out for Love.
You can see his full comments below.