Kevin Love Has No Apologies After Ripping David Kahn, Timberwolves
By Josh Hill
Kevin Love got himself in hot water on Tuesday when he blasted the Minnesota Timberwolves and specifically team president David Kahn for ruining the team and not giving Love a five year maximum contract. As usual, the press asked him if he was sorry for what he said and naturally, Love stood by his words.
A day after basically saying he doesn’t feel loved in Minnesota and that the Wolves are run by idiot man-children, Love wasn’t about to issue a full on apology, and opted for the back handed one instead.
“I’m not going to fall back and say I didn’t mean the things that I said,” Love said. “I do believe this is the closest-knit team that we have, the coaching staff has been great and we have a chance to make something very special this year and for years to come.”
For those that don’t know the specifics, Yahoo! Sports NBA guru Adrian Wojnarowski had a sit down with the Timberwolves All-Star in which Love said he was sick of losing in Minnesota. Love noted that in his career so far, he has yet to play in a playoff game and has barely come close to getting that chance. Love said that had better change dramatically in the next two years or he’s going to walk.
And by change dramatically, he meant the Wolves play in the NBA Finals or he’s out.
Love was trying to motivate management to actually make moves and stick by them, as he was quoted as saying he didn’t like the constant roster turnover in Minnesota.
But the overall theme of Love’s beef with the Wolves is that he didn’t get Minnesota’s five year max contract. Each NBA franchise is allowed on maximum contract in the lifecycle of the newly christened CBA — one and only one. Many, including Love, believe that Minnesota is saving their max deal for Ricky Rubio.
Love did apologize for making it sound like he didn’t think Rubio shouldn’t get paid.
“I never have a problem with anybody getting paid,” Love said. “If there’s one other guy to pay on this team it’s Ricky Rubio. I’ve kind of been enamored with him since he got here. He’s a pass-first point guard, a guy I haven’t really played with before.”
Love said that he’s to going to pick favorites, but proceeded to pick Rubio as his favorite teammate. He also made it clear he loves fans in Minnesota and wants to spend his entire career with the Wolves. But he also made it abundantly clear that David Kahn better get on board with Kevin Love’s direction for the team, or Love is going to consider getting on a new ride.
“I meant what I said, I told David there’s nothing to apologize about,” Love told reporters. “The only thing I was sorry about is that I did it in public, and if there’s a learning experience from that, it’s not to do that again.”