On Saturday night, Minnesota Timberwolves’ likely All-Star forward Kevin Love, frustrated with being the recipient of a few too many shots that sure must’ve felt like fouls, lost control of himself for a moment. Unfortunately for Houston’s Luis Scola, this temporary loss of judgement on Love’s part resulted in his face getting stepped on in a play that, yeah, sure looked like it could have been avoided had cooler heads prevailed.
You’ve likely heard the news and seen the video by now, as the NBA dropped the news of Love’s two-game suspension last night. Clearly Love got lost in the moment and let his frustrations get the best of him. The stomp itself, well, it doesn’t look good on him nor accidental.
However, for as out of character as Kevin Love’s actions on Saturday were, his attempts at cleaning the situation up with his in-person post-game apology to Scola, to his subsequent official and unofficial statements, are pretty much what we’d expect from a guy we wouldn’t expect to see stomping guys on the floor in the first place.
Love doesn’t want to be seen as a dirty player; he’s concerned about how he’s viewed in and around the NBA community, and he wants to make it up to all of us. He’s not brazenly brushing the incident off altogether, or hiding behind one press release and giving reason to think he’s simply apologizing because David Stern made a strong suggestion or two. His concern seems real, making the stomp feel both stranger and out of character at the same time. Its almost like he is trying to figure out what happened along with the rest of us.
All told, if one had to predict how Love would respond to a suspension under these circumstances, it would probably be pretty close to this. It seems difficult to imagine that many around the league will come to think of him as a ‘dirty’ player now, and as time goes on this incident could likely be filed under the “He’s Just A Highly Emotional Player Who Lost His Cool” category (provided it doesn’t become a behavioral pattern of course).
Love’s apologies are profuse enough to let the situation fade away upon his return from the two-game ban. It was a stupid, dangerous, and irresponsible thing to do, but for now, from what we knew of Love before the stomp and what we’re seeing in its wake, it appears his apology is sincere. The whole thing feels more like a reflection on his need for in-game control of emotions rather than some urge to purposely injure another player.
Scola is thankfully okay, and Love will return later this week to continue his ascension as one of the league’s best young forwards on one of the more exciting teams going right now. Time for a return to regular business, and the hope we don’t need to speak of something like this again.
Griffin Gotta contributes to The Hoop Doctors and is a co-managing editor of Straight Outta Vancouver. The story arcs and infinite weirdness of the NBA are addictions he deals with every day. Email him at griffingotta at gmail dot com.
