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Kevin Love, the Prankster
Posted: Fri Feb 18, 2011 8:20 pm
by Klomp
MINNEAPOLIS — Seemingly everywhere Kevin Love goes here, he is accorded the reception you'd expect for someone in Sunday's NBA All-Star Game — wide grins and open arms.
Except, on this day, Minnesota Timberwolves teammate Darko Milicic confronts Love with a scowl and a clenched fist.
In the players lounge before a charity event at Target Center, Milicic, a 7-foot center, leaps from a sofa and grabs the 260-pound face of the franchise by the knot in his tie.
The Serbian, in his eighth NBA season, grinds his teeth. He voices his discontent in thickly accented English, then shows Love a fist. Earlier in the day, the likable Love, a happy-go-lucky 22-year-old, wrote "Viva Croatia" on a chalkboard.
It was a practical joke gone awry, but Love quickly defused tensions by apologizing, though Milicic later said there were no hard feelings.
"Remember what I said earlier about being a (jerk) sometimes?" Love says before heading to the fundraiser. "I deserved that."
As the cornerstone of the Timberwolves, Love grapples with balancing his natural tendency to be a prankster, his desire to be a respected leader on the NBA's youngest team and his interest in becoming a household name.
http://www.usatoday.com/sports/basketba ... over_N.htm
Re: Kevin Love, the Prankster
Posted: Fri Feb 18, 2011 8:38 pm
by CoffeeJanitor
Sounds like Darko didn't take it too well. For some reason I always thought he was some kind of prankster.
Re: Kevin Love, the Prankster
Posted: Fri Feb 18, 2011 8:41 pm
by funkatron101
CoffeeJanitor wrote:Sounds like Darko didn't take it too well. For some reason I always thought he was some kind of prankster.
He probably is, but some of them Europeans get crazy with stuff like this. It's weird.
Re: Kevin Love, the Prankster
Posted: Fri Feb 18, 2011 9:00 pm
by Tha Juice
Darko shouldn't be leaping from any sofas with that bad hip of his. However, I would like to see some of that anger from him out on the court.
Re: Kevin Love, the Prankster
Posted: Fri Feb 18, 2011 9:05 pm
by AQuintus
funkatron101 wrote:He probably is, but some of them Europeans get crazy with stuff like this. It's weird.
I'm pretty sure that Croatia and Serbia were at war when Darko was growing up there, so the joke was in very bad taste.
Re: Kevin Love, the Prankster
Posted: Fri Feb 18, 2011 9:19 pm
by funkatron101
AQuintus wrote:funkatron101 wrote:He probably is, but some of them Europeans get crazy with stuff like this. It's weird.
I'm pretty sure that Croatia and Serbia were at war when Darko was growing up there, so the joke was in very bad taste.
Sure.
I'm not going to pretend to know what growing up in that country was at the time, but I would think a "Man, not cool." would suffice.
I wasn't there, and maybe it is being played off bigger than it actually was, but it sounded like a pretty tense moment.
Re: Kevin Love, the Prankster
Posted: Fri Feb 18, 2011 9:20 pm
by B Calrissian
Darko is awesome.
Love, the chubby funster.
Re: Kevin Love, the Prankster
Posted: Fri Feb 18, 2011 9:23 pm
by B Calrissian
Tha Juice wrote:Darko shouldn't be leaping from any sofas with that bad hip of his. However, I would like to see some of that anger from him out on the court.
Good point. A couch worked over Greg Oden if I remember right.
Re: Kevin Love, the Prankster
Posted: Fri Feb 18, 2011 9:26 pm
by Grits n Gravy
this made me LOL initally, i really hope this doesn't affect the two on the court...i always thought that these two got on pretty well and had a pretty good chemistry.
Re: Kevin Love, the Prankster
Posted: Fri Feb 18, 2011 10:26 pm
by Devilzsidewalk
i dont get the reference did something happen re: croatia
Re: Kevin Love, the Prankster
Posted: Fri Feb 18, 2011 10:30 pm
by C.lupus
Devilzsidewalk wrote:i dont get the reference did something happen re: croatia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Croatian_W ... dependence
Re: Kevin Love, the Prankster
Posted: Fri Feb 18, 2011 10:32 pm
by Devilzsidewalk
wasnt that a long time ago
Re: Kevin Love, the Prankster
Posted: Fri Feb 18, 2011 10:34 pm
by jack612
Serbs and Croats just hate each other.
Re: Kevin Love, the Prankster
Posted: Fri Feb 18, 2011 10:46 pm
by teven_1
hopefully this doesn't lead to bad chemistry. No need to get into the politics of why Darko was mad, yeah you could see why, but it doesn't mean he should have flipped like he did. Seems Darko still has little control over his temper.
Why do we call Darko soft exactly? He has many flaws but he aint soft, if anything he's too fiery and dosen't know how to use his anger constructively.
which is why I found this article so weird:
http://www.startribune.com/sports/wolves/116446239.html
Re: Kevin Love, the Prankster
Posted: Fri Feb 18, 2011 10:47 pm
by teven_1
Also I guess when it came to signing big men it was between Darko (shaking his fist at Kevin Love) and Cousins (punching Kevin Love after a loss)
Re: Kevin Love, the Prankster
Posted: Fri Feb 18, 2011 11:48 pm
by re49gb_2gho32fp
If there is any one player one could expect to pull a big-time provocation like this (which is exactly what it is), that has to be Kevin Love. This is nothing to kid around with really. This is the tantamount of 'saying go terrorists' to a us citizen (just wanted to paint a enemies type comparison). Exceptionally distasteful. You know that Darko likely has some mental issues + hes a major patriot, then this is so wrong on so many levels and given the context he flat out deserved to be punched. Love knew this, but decided to do it anyway, because, hey, hes an allstar and media personality, who the eff is that scrub? Ill tease him a little bit and annoy the crap out of him. It doesnt really need to be say, but there are other ways to try to 'entertain'.
During a postgame interview from insidenba a few months back he smiled/loled when they were talking about Kahns moves/statements during the summer before they even reached the exact question. This is a teammate were talking about, a teammate.
Im sorry, but that guys ego is massive. beasley for example, while being a funny guy liking to joke around, would never do this kind of thing.
teven_1 wrote: No need to get into the politics of why Darko was mad, yeah you could see why, but it doesn't mean he should have flipped like he did. Seems Darko still has little control over his temper.
Or maybe its just Love exhibiting his regular d-bagness off-court/in practice around the t-wolves players? I dont know which and dont rule out either option. You tell me.
I do know one thing though, Milicic surely would've preferred to play alongside a hardnosed frontcourt mate instead of a stat priority guy.
Re: Kevin Love, the Prankster
Posted: Fri Feb 18, 2011 11:52 pm
by horaceworthy
funkatron101 wrote:I'm not going to pretend to know what growing up in that country was at the time, but I would think a "Man, not cool." would suffice.
I wasn't there, and maybe it is being played off bigger than it actually was, but it sounded like a pretty tense moment.
I can't pretend to know either, but I've read in articles that Darko had to do things like take a boat to practice because the bridge to the facility had been bombed, or practice through air raid sirens and such. Viva Croatia probably touches a nerve.
Comes off more to me as Love trying to be too clever for his own good, and coming off as a bit of a d-bag in the process. I myself have had many similar bouts with the foot-in-the-mouth flu.
Re: Kevin Love, the Prankster
Posted: Sat Feb 19, 2011 12:11 am
by Devilzsidewalk
I used to think I was too clever for my own good after a few well placed pranks ended up w/ people in tears, then I just realized that they haven't gone through humor-puberty yet. I'm funny, **** them and their sensitive emotions.
Re: Kevin Love, the Prankster
Posted: Sat Feb 19, 2011 12:57 am
by teven_1
At the end of the day, from what I read, Love apologized, accepted fault for it and hopefully they can move on.
Right or wrong (lets not get into issue of identity, nationality or sovereignty right now, it can get hairy) it's something that touched a nerve with Darko for various reasons. We don't know if Love expected that kind of reaction from him. I'm going to go with he didn't.
Love seems pretty respectful of the 2 Serbians on the team whenever I hear him on a podcast, always discussing their toughness, so I think it was just a misunderstanding (at least from the article).
Re: Kevin Love, the Prankster
Posted: Sat Feb 19, 2011 1:06 am
by Devilzsidewalk
i still don't understand the joke, I figured Croatia must've beaten serbia in a soccer game recently or something