Love Will Tear Us Apart

[Klomp]

http://www.gq.com/sports/profiles/20101 ... rt-gq-blog

The funniest thing about that night: early on I was getting heckled by a Minnesota fan. The guy was screaming at me: "Run back on defense! If this is how you're gonna play, we're gonna trade you!" The whole first half I kept hearing him, and that kind of enraged me inside a little bit, so I came out and had that big second half. After the game, I kept looking his way and shaking my head, flexing at him, like, "What do you say now?"

But it gets even funnier. After I left the arena, I went out to grab a drink with a couple of my buddies at this place called the Loon Café—and who's the first person I see when I walk into the bar? The same guy. The heckler. And I'm just like, "No. Way." So he comes up to me and says, "Listen, Mr. Love, I'd just like to apologize." (This is a grown man, by the way.) And I just kept saying, "You're the guy! You're the guy! You were heckling me the whole way! Did you see me at the end of the game?" He goes, "Yes. And I just wanna take back everything I said. We really believe in you. Do you mind taking a picture with us and signing a few autographs?" So I'm thinking, first of all, you wanted to trade me. You wanted me out of Minnesota. And now you want an autograph and a picture? But the guy was actually really friendly, and his friends were great. So we had fun with it. But it was just funny how quickly perceptions can change. I guess he decided to give me another chance after that second half.

The rest of that weekend was crazy. I think the final count was 114 text messages. Plus all the phone calls and emails. I heard from people I hadn't talked to in three or four years. High school buddies I haven't talked to since graduation. High school teachers. My high school basketball coach called to say he was glad he didn't let me play football when I had the chance. And I also talked to a few guys from around the league—Al Jefferson, Tyson Chandler, Russell Westbrook. The big guys especially showed me the love, because they're battling inside every night and they know how hard it is to have a game like that.

I want to end on a subject that's also been big news in the NBA so far this season, and that I've neglected to address so far: the infamous Awkward Handshake between me and Wes Johnson. (If you haven't seen it, here's a link to the video.) Let's just say I'm amazed at the phenomenon this has become. Now, I had already seen the footage of it on ESPN. But a couple days ago, a pal sent me an email and told me I had to check out the video on YouTube. So I looked and the video had 1.2 million views. I was like, "WHAT?" One point two million? Really? Like, really? For an awkward handshake? There's hundreds and hundreds of comments, too. But you know what? I love it. It was really funny. If you go Timberwolves.com, our PR guys posted a spoof video about it earlier this week, and it's really, really good. Make sure you go check that out. I promise you'll laugh.

[hijacktheparade]

I'm glad he went with the badass blog title.

[eToasT]

the loon cafe is a pretty cool place

[shangrila]

I love that he mentions the handshake video. That video is possibly even more awesome then Beas' game winner and Love's 30-30 combined.

[southern wolf]

I like the blog title. It's interesting that he had a chat with Big Al after his 30-30 game.

[B Calrissian]

Haha the first paragraph was great. A fair weather mn sports fan?? I am shocked.

[mandurugo]

Haha the first paragraph was great. A fair weather mn sports fan?? I am shocked.

That's not unique to Minnesota...

[shrink]

I found it interesting that he got texts from Tyson Chandler and Russell Westbrook. I guess that he was included as "one of us stars" now that he was on Team USA .. despite Love's limited minutes. That's good to see. I doubt Christian Laettner was so accepted on the Dream Team -- probably had to carry everyone's bags.

Hey Kev? How about tossing out the idea of reuniting with those guys in Minnesota?

[Worm Guts]

Westbrook went to college with Love, so that's not surprising. Alot the guys on that team were his age and he probably has known them since before high school. Laettner was a college guy on a team full of pros so it was a much different situation.

[horaceworthy]

I found it interesting that he got texts from Tyson Chandler and Russell Westbrook. I guess that he was included as "one of us stars" now that he was on Team USA .. despite Love's limited minutes. That's good to see. I doubt Christian Laettner was so accepted on the Dream Team -- probably had to carry everyone's bags.

Hey Kev? How about tossing out the idea of reuniting with those guys in Minnesota?

Like WG said, Westbrook and Love played together at USA, and Love played for Chandler's old AAU team, the SoCal All-Stars headed up by Pat Barrett, who makes heavy use of his alums as recruiting tools.

[shrink]

I found it interesting that he got texts from Tyson Chandler and Russell Westbrook. I guess that he was included as "one of us stars" now that he was on Team USA .. despite Love's limited minutes. That's good to see. I doubt Christian Laettner was so accepted on the Dream Team -- probably had to carry everyone's bags.

Hey Kev? How about tossing out the idea of reuniting with those guys in Minnesota?

Like WG said, Westbrook and Love played together at USA, and Love played for Chandler's old AAU team, the SoCal All-Stars headed up by Pat Barrett, who makes heavy use of his alums as recruiting tools.

Thanks! Its insight like this that makes coming to RealGM a delight. We all bring different fields of knowledge, and the AAU thing was something I hadn't even considered!