Recently, while celebrating Cleveland’s first home win of the young season, Kevin Love and Kyrie Irving were filmed engaging in a celebration that clearly – let’s be adults here – ended in them miming taking a hit off of a jazz cigarette:
Laughably, in a very Cleveland Cavaliers-like response, the Cavs issued a statement about the celebration that was out and out nonsense:
"To clarify, they are quickly sharpening the end of an imaginary mustache at the end of their exchange with each other. It has nothing to do with smoking a joint as some blogs (and even some mainstream folks now) are suggesting/reporting."
Sure. Because Kevin Love (born in 1988) and Kyrie Irving (born in 1992) totally grew up on Snidely Whiplash cartoons. Makes complete and total sense.
About as much sense as, say, Kevin Love turning down a maximum deal and the chance to work into his prime with Irving and LeBron James as teammates on a fully stocked Cavs team in order to become a Los Angeles Laker next year. Around the same time as Kevin and Kyrie’s joint maneuver, Sam Smith wrote this:
“[…] one of the biggest issues for the Cavs is that both LeBron James and Kevin Love own opt outs after this season. LeBron James basically cannot afford to go anywhere after his return to Cleveland. But watch out for Love. Indications are he will seriously consider the opt out and has his eyes on a return to Los Angeles, where he attended college and where the Lakers long have had him on their free agent wish list.”
It should be noted that LeBron James was on the Lakers “wish list” last summer, as was Carmelo Anthony. Dwight Howard was also on the same wish list a year prior. I would like to own a fully restored 1972 Triumph TR6. We all have wish lists.
The Lakers will have enough cap space next summer to sign Kevin Love to as much money as possible under NBA salary laws. Love’s girlfriend lives in Los Angeles, and his father used to play for the Lakers. Apologies to Cleveland, but as someone who has vacationed in both Cleveland (seriously; and in March to boot) and Los Angeles, there are perks to living in El Lay.
Love, though, was quick to tie in the Sam Smith rumors with the Cavaliers’ wonked-out response to the handshake silliness:
“Whatever we were doing with our hands was about as true as me going to the Lakers,” Love said Friday. “Going to the Lakers, I don’t know where someone got that.”
(Love did then lose a little bit of credibility, and we’re not endorsing the use of illegal drugs in acknowledging as much, by saying this:
“I don’t know why it was so hard for people to realize we were actually curling our mustache. I guess because I had my fingers in the wrong place,” he said. “But looking at the tape, film don’t lie. It does look like we’re doing something bad, but that’s not the case.”
Come on, Kevin.
Sam Smith is a Basketball Hall of Famer for good reason, but for two decades he’s made a point to drum up trade and free-agent scenarios in order to keep himself and his readers amused. A veteran NBA writer we hold in high regard, who shall remain nameless, once (lovingly) referred to him as “the Pete Vecsey of the Midwest,” and that was on an AOL IM conversation from 15 years ago. Imagine how things have grown since then.
Such as the proposed “Kobe Bryant for Bradley Beal” trade that Smith came up with in the same column, which would kind of blow the “Kevin Love wants to play with Kobe on the Lakers” ideal out of the realm of the possible. Also out of the realm of the possible are the salary-cap rules that Smith threw out the window in order to create the “Kobe for Bradley” deal, but no matter – this is the guy that’s just a few years removed from suggesting that teams could sign and trade free agents on draft night.
When Kobe Bryant retires, the Lakers will once again turn into a destination team, and there is always the chance that Kevin Love could sign up with the 72 and Sunnies once his next maximum contract with LeBron and the Cavaliers expires. His game figures to age well, and the Lakers would still love to have him. There’s also the chance that, for whatever horrible reason, this current Cavaliers combination won’t work out. It’s an incredibly slim chance – this group looks like a dynasty in the making – but anything can happen in this league.
There’s no chance that Kevin Love has made up his mind about joining the Los Angeles Lakers next July, though.
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