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In a joint Instagram post Wednesday between James, Smith, Thompson and Frye, the caption read: "The group chat finally linked up." Another joint post between Jefferson, Love, Thompson and Frye included a video of Thompson delivering drinks to the group on the course, captioned: "We all have roles."
NBA on ESPN: "I'm hearing that [LeBron's] likely coming back [to the Lakers]. ... Kevin Love could likely be joining the Lakers too." @MarcJSpears gives some insight on what could be next for LeBron 🏀
Kevin Love: "I came in and thought I'll probably be the third guy, but I'm still going to be able to put up my fair share of numbers and play my game. With those two, one guy who's a freight train in LeBron James, another who is a magician with the basketball, the thing that I had to do in order for that team to thrive was space the floor."
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So at the time, there was no player more feared than Curry. And unfortunately for the Cavs, no player on their roster was less equipped to defend him one-on-one than Love. He actually doesn't remember how he managed to stay in front of the Warriors' superstar; it only matters that he did. "I tell people all the time, one, I blacked out," Love said in a talk with his fellow 2016 champion, Richard Jefferson. "You know how many times we actually went over this play? We were switching one through five. Here comes the pin-down action. Switch over on Draymond. Switch on Steph. Then watch. Steph gives up the ball. I'm supposed to deny," he added.
HoopsHype: Just another playoff record ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Just another playoff record ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
— HoopsHype (@hoopshypeofficial.bsky.social) 2026-06-03T22:45:49.957Z
“When I came into the league (Wolves coach) Randy Wittman was like, ‘I just don’t see you shooting 3s right now,” Love said. “Maybe at some point you’ll step out and take a couple, but that’s not why we brought you here.’ It wasn’t really until Kurt Rambis, my third year, really pushed me into shooting 3s and kind of saw where the game was evolving and leading to.” “And for me, it started off by being trail 3s. I eventually got into the pick-and-pop. And that’s where, like, outside of Dirk, I would like to think I was one of those first guys that ended up stretching the floor in a major way.
Kevin Love on winning 2012 Olympics: I just got to spend the time with Kobe Bryant, like sipping champagne. But I look at that and I look at this photo and I think, naturally, I think most guys would gravitate towards Kobe in the middle. So those those pictures are extremely special in that relationship forged with him. That was as you can imagine one of the best moments of my life there.
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How do you think about that? Does it scare you? How do you prepare for something like that? Kevin Love: It definitely scares me. I’ve had to come to grips with athletic mortality more so now, in the last probably two years, than I have in the last twenty. Everything, I feel like, brought me here for a reason and brought us here for a reason, for the greater good, for people to understand that they are enough and that they’re part of a larger community and something bigger than themselves. But for me, having the Kevin Love Fund, having that panic attack back in 2017, and then starting the Kevin Love Fund in 2018, that has given me purpose and a legacy piece outside of basketball, to know I’ll go to that when I’m done. And then also finding balance within several different interests, mediums, or hobbies that I have outside of basketball, so that when I lose my identity as a basketball player, in terms of putting a jersey on — I might work in a front office someday, or I might work with an organization in some capacity — but I won’t entirely lose that sense of identity just because I’m not playing anymore.
Kevin Love: When I had the panic attack, my teammates didn’t know what the hell was going on. Then I had another one against Oklahoma City, and nobody knew what was going on, so my teammates turned against me. I didn’t want to share anything because I thought my livelihood would be taken away from me. I thought that it would compromise my entire career, and people wouldn’t trust me. The organization wouldn’t trust me. I’d be looked at as someone who was weak in this professional sports setting. So, it was like I talk about that negative feedback loop.
Kevin Love: I always talk about trying to achieve my way out of depression, to achieve my way out of feeling these dark spells that I’d have for weeks and even months, primarily throughout my teens and my twenties. I felt like achieving something else, getting another accolade, or reaching a different height would cure me, or I wouldn’t be depressed anymore. My anxiety would go away, and then all of that would go away. Then my brain would go back to the same level that it was at prior. And it just moved away so fast. I thought, “Okay, push it to the side. What’s next? What’s next? What’s next?” And when that happens, that anxiety heightens, or your depression reestablishes itself from dormancy. Then you’re left with the same brain that you’ve always had, and you haven’t done any of the work.
Kevin Love: I was one of those dark-room, stare-at-the-ceiling-or-the-wall type of guys. In a lot of ways, that was me trying to say, “All right, if I am going to step outside, if I am going to face these 20,000-plus people arenas and be able to give all my energy to this and nothing else, then I need to just sit in a dark room in my bed and make sure that I eat, make sure that I fuel, make sure that I get my treatments, but just be in this dark room by myself with thoughts that were extremely unhealthy.” So when the game is taken away from you, and you’re not on the road with the team, and you’re by yourself, you have no creative outlet. You have no physical outlet. You just don’t have anywhere to turn. Your mind starts playing tricks on you, especially when you don’t have anywhere to be vulnerable. You don’t feel like you have anybody to reach out to, and you start having suicidal thoughts and suicidal ideations. You just can’t control it. Then it’s just this negative feedback loop from hell that you don’t have the tools to know how to face.
