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.
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