‘Heard it all’: Cavs’ Kevin Love unimpressed by criticism of his Olympic selection | Sports

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With Kevin Love facing social media criticism of his selection, US Olympic coach Gregg Popovich has become his ardent champion.

Cavaliers’ five-star forward Love was limited to 25 games in 2020-21 due to a calf injury. At 32, he averaged 12.2 points per game, the second lowest in his 13 NBA seasons, and his 7.4 rebounds were a career low.

Love won a gold medal with the United States team at the 2012 Olympics in London. And while Popovich said on Tuesday, “We’re going to be working here for the next four or five weeks,” Popovich believes using Love to spread the word will prove vital to Americans’ chances.

“He’s been there before… and his skills are such that he can bounce back, he can come out as five men and shoot the 3, and that really gives us another tool that we can use,” said Popovich on Zoom as a 12-day training camp open in Las Vegas. “We all know he hasn’t had a great year, but he worked diligently to prepare his body for it, he really wanted to do it and we need his skills.

“We thought he was a perfect person to play against people like [France’s Rudy] Gobert to get them out of the alley. Because you know there aren’t three defensive seconds and the lanes are crowded. So expanding the field is very important and depending on what happens it could be very valuable. “

In the 2012 Olympics, Love averaged 11.6 points and led the US team with 7.6 rebounds. He scored nine points with nine rebounds in the gold medal game against Spain.

But that was there are several injuries and several surgeries. Love has missed 161 of 383 games since the Cavs won the 2016 NBA title.

Cavs general manager Koby Altman called it an “important offseason” for Love as the season closed and said after the June 22 NBA lottery playing for Team USA should be a great way for Love to step up. prepare. Popovich agreed.

“We’re going to… demand a lot. It’s definitely going to put him back into the rhythm he needs to keep playing,” Popovich said. “I think that’s one of the main reasons he wanted to do this, so that he could go back to who he was. We need his experience and his skills. We play with a lot of teams that have slightly older people. It’s a harder, more physical game out there, and it fits very well. “

Love said he has always had a successful season after his experiences with USA Basketball, dating back to his senior year of high school in 2007 and playing in the USA-World game at the FedEx Forum in Memphis. But he responded to this invitation with “a categorical yes” because he has something to prove.

“Just that I can still be the player I was before I had some serious injuries,” Love said Tuesday. “It’s the best I have felt in a long time. Right after the end of the season I didn’t really take any time off … I continued to get in shape without knowing if the call was going to go. happen. But when it happened I felt it was a great opportunity to show what I’m capable of and add value to this team. “

The Cavs won’t be the only interested observers. With two years and $ 60 million left on his contract, Love could be traded, though his age and injury history are against it.

Starting with the Olympics, Love can begin the transition to the next phase of his career, a “final act” as one interrogator described it.

“I think I understand at the start of my 14th season that probably being that No. 1 guy, playing 35 minutes, getting 20 touches per game is probably in my rearview mirror,” Love said. “But in the way I can affect a team and feel what I feel now, I know I can do it at a very high level.

“I’m not trying to put a cap or a limit at all. I believe if I’m asked to have to pivot in my career for a team to win, I’m more than willing to do it.”

Love mentioned fellow Cavs Jarrett Allen, Isaac Okoro, Collin Sexton and USA Select member Darius Garland training against the Olympians in Las Vegas, and called them “the new young stars of our squad”.

As Love discussed the future of the Cavs, there was a bit of business foreshadowing.

“I feel like in this team or whatever team I find myself in, an American team, it’s definitely something that I can continue to progress in the right way for really anyone. “Love said. “It doesn’t matter who… I play with it over there on the floor, I’m going to bring my basketball style and do whatever it takes to win.”

The most outspoken critic of Love’s Olympic selection was ESPN’s Jalen Rose, who said last month in his “Jalen & Jacoby” podcast that Love was part of the squad purely because of the “symbol”. Rose accused USA Basketball of not wanting to send an all-black team to Tokyo after doing so for the Rio 2016 Games. Rose later apologized on Instagram, but said he was entitled to her opinion and that ‘he only apologized for the game.

Comments like that could fuel Love as the U.S. team prepares for its first Olympic preliminary round on July 25 against France.

“Listen, I have been [the] strange man since 2014-15, that’s nothing new to me, ”Love said, referring to his debut season after the Minnesota Timberwolves traded him to the Cavs. “In a way, I understand it because I came out of a season where I didn’t play so many games and wasn’t at the top of my game. Very loud about it, saying I was not where I wanted to be, mainly for my team, for my coaching staff and for the Cavs in general.

“Just being around these guys helps me elevate my mindset and my game significantly. But it does. [criticism] don’t really bother me. I’m 13 now, I’ve heard practically everything. All I can do is go over there and keep playing and let it all fall into place and break my ass and see what I can do for this team. “

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