Kevin Love, the Prankster

[cpfsf]

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.

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.

You made a point that hit close to home with an example of someone praising terrorists, but Love still was still exercising his free speech even if it was offensive. I'm not going to run Fred Phelps over with my car just because he loves stories of soldiers dying. Matt Stone and Trey Parker don't deserve to be beaten because they drew Mohammad. Heck, I'd have a broken hand if I punched every person that told me Rubio was a bust. Love's actions were dumb, but Darko's reaction was stupider.

[Yes We Kahn]

You made a point that hit close to home with an example of someone praising terrorists, but Love still was still exercising his free speech even if it was offensive. I'm not going to run Fred Phelps over with my car just because he loves stories of soldiers dying. Matt Stone and Trey Parker don't deserve to be beaten because they drew Mohammad. Heck, I'd have a broken hand if I punched every person that told me Rubio was a bust. Love's actions were dumb, but Darko's reaction was stupider.

Its a little different when your teammate ignorantly makes light of a situation that caused your family to lose almost everything, your country to be nearly destroyed, and you to go most of your childhood without your father. Love's actions were stupid (he probably thought it was like a Packer/Viking rivalry) and Darko's were justified. Its not like he punched him out. He just made sure that Kevin knew that he had crossed a line that he never will again.

[Breakdown777]

This sucks, plain and simple. Something like this can really mess up chemistry. If it was a big deal, I'm sure Darko won't forget it....and we are talking about Darko here, so we know it could have lingering effects. I hope it's under the bridge as much as it can be, and it doesn't effect the team.

Also, I really want to know what Darko said. We all know he can get pretty vulgar. I wonder if eating 1st born children was mentioned.

[cpfsf]

You made a point that hit close to home with an example of someone praising terrorists, but Love still was still exercising his free speech even if it was offensive. I'm not going to run Fred Phelps over with my car just because he loves stories of soldiers dying. Matt Stone and Trey Parker don't deserve to be beaten because they drew Mohammad. Heck, I'd have a broken hand if I punched every person that told me Rubio was a bust. Love's actions were dumb, but Darko's reaction was stupider.

Its a little different when your teammate ignorantly makes light of a situation that caused your family to lose almost everything, your country to be nearly destroyed, and you to go most of your childhood without your father.

Protesting funerals of deceased soldiers and ripping on peoples faith really isn't that much different.

Love's actions were stupid (he probably thought it was like a Packer/Viking rivalry) and Darko's were justified. Its not like he punched him out. He just made sure that Kevin knew that he had crossed a line that he never will again.

Apologize, or I will shoot you in the face. It's nice of someone to not shoot, but it's not necessarily the most appropriate response. I'm not trying to make Love into some martyr here, but I still think grabbing someones tie and getting into the I'm going to beat the living **** out of you stance wasn't the way to settle this dilemma.

[Richard Miller]

Darko is maybe big enough to look like some sort of an uncle there, but in reality he's just 25 and the last proper education he got was probably elementary school. That's certainly not the type of person I would choose to poke with nationalistic jokes.
Of course, I don't think Love could think of any of that, but you shouldn't joke with things that you don't really know anything about, else the reaction might surprise you a bit
I'm not trying to say Darko did right (no way), but that it was hardly a surprise.

[UK-Wolf]

For all we know Darko could've lost family in that war, it was a really distasteful 'joke' but expected from a young lad like Love. We all know what happened between Vlade Divac and Drazen Petrovic. The Baltic wars was one of the most bitter wars in the last 50 years and the scars these people carry are still very much alive today, whole towns in eastern Europe are still reeling from the effects of that terrible, terrible war. We could've only wished Josip Broz Tito was immortal, then it'd have never happened.

All in all, I really don't blame Darko for his reaction, Love had no choice but to apologise seeing as Darko would've annahilated him. I just hope this doesn't have a really bad after-taste as it could really kill morale.

[re49gb_2gho32fp]

Interesting, looked up Minnys next opponents who appear to be the bucks. And what do you know, a certain prominent player with balcan roots is playing there..(e.g. croatian nationalistic tattoo's all over his back).

Hopefully Milicic starts giving a lick for rebounds and not allowing love comfortably grab all the defensive ones from now on and becomes more aggressive for several games. After that he can go back to his usual soft self again, which i have no doubt he will disprove me in. But hey, at least he'll display the IMPRESSION that he can be a decent player.
The enigma around this kid is much unmatched. Good riddance.

[C.lupus]

Anyone who is a prankster has crossed the line at least once in their life. Love crossed the line here and Darko let him know in no uncertain terms. I'm sure Love felt bad about and they have patched things up by now. The team seems to have good chemistry and I don't think something like this would change that permanently. If Love really felt that way about Croatia, then it would most likely be a different story.

[Klomp]

Anyone who is a prankster has crossed the line at least once in their life. Love crossed the line here and Darko let him know in no uncertain terms. I'm sure Love felt bad about and they have patched things up by now. The team seems to have good chemistry and I don't think something like this would change that permanently. If Love really felt that way about Croatia, then it would most likely be a different story.

Completely agree

[CoffeeJanitor]

Now, after reading about the croatian-serbia deal, this just confirms to me how much of a douche Love is. Way to be a leader, buddy!

And I also remember several interviews where Love laughed when the interviewer mentioned Darko/Kahn's moves. Obviously having a douche be the best player on your team isn't as bad as having a thug, but it still bugs me when I see this stuff.

[Ledeni]

I dont really know much about the prank or what happend after that.

Joke wasnt really tastefull and Darko overreact I think because his familly roots is from place in Bosnia called Sipovo (he goes there every year), witch is now in Serb Republic in Bosnia but during the war in Bosnia was completely destroyed by croatian forces. I think thats why Darko got offended.

Did Love or Milicic talk to the press about that incident/prank... or at least coach or teammates...

Hope this doesnt ruin team chemistry. And that they start to play more aggressive now.

[Iommi]

Apologize, or I will shoot you in the face. It's nice of someone to not shoot, but it's not necessarily the most appropriate response.

why did you change 'punch you in the face' to 'shoot you in the face'? Making the action more violent completely changes the context and ruins the point you were trying to make.

People like Kevin Love (who I like both as player and person) need to meet that 'wrong person' who isn't going to listen to their garbage before they learn respect. I don't think Kevin meant anything by the insult, but the fact that it didn't even occur to him that Darko might get legitimately upset is supremely thoughtless and absolutely needed to be checked. I thought Darko handled it aggressively, but still in an acceptable range of aggressiveness.

[teven_1]

I think it's a non issue ultimately.

[cpfsf]

Apologize, or I will shoot you in the face. It's nice of someone to not shoot, but it's not necessarily the most appropriate response.

why did you change 'punch you in the face' to 'shoot you in the face'? Making the action more violent completely changes the context and ruins the point you were trying to make.

People like Kevin Love (who I like both as player and person) need to meet that 'wrong person' who isn't going to listen to their garbage before they learn respect. I don't think Kevin meant anything by the insult, but the fact that it didn't even occur to him that Darko might get legitimately upset is supremely thoughtless and absolutely needed to be checked. I thought Darko handled it aggressively, but still in an acceptable range of aggressiveness.

I was using an example (like I did with Phelps and South Park) to highlight my argument that a call to violence wasn't necessary. On that topic, clearly you are unaware that Milicic's victims call his fists assault rifles.

Neither are really the victims and both acted like fools. If Milicic were to punch Love, I wouldn't shed a tear for Love in the same way that I wouldn't cry if someone beat the tar out of Bernie Madoff.

My view is that Love didn't deserve that type of reaction for his "joke", but he was definitely asking for it. Now it's over with and it's time to move on.

[Yes We Kahn]

My view is that Love didn't deserve that type of reaction for his "joke", but he was definitely asking for it.

I understand what you are saying, but I definitely don't.

[cpfsf]

My view is that Love didn't deserve that type of reaction for his "joke", but he was definitely asking for it.

I understand what you are saying, but I definitely don't.

I guess an example is that I don't think one deserves to have a stray pit pull bite their fingers off if they "playfully" poke it in the nose.

[pumunga]

Oh my, what a fool, how in the world did he think he'd get a laugh out of this? Not much of a 'prank' by writing something on a chalkboard, he shoulda put his shoes in jello (Jim Halpert represent). How would you feel if he wrote 'VIVA BIN LADEN' , as for ruining chemistry Darko will get injured in the 1st so not to much of a concern

[younggunsmn]

I blame the public school system. I know Love was a little kid when the worst of the most recent conflict was going on, but come on man.

Given the world Darko grew up in, I can't say his reaction was over the top. When he saw a comment written, obviously personally directed at him, he has to assume the writer is either completely ignorant or trying deliberately to provoke him. He did not punch him, but he let him know that he was touching a particularly sensitive nerve. It's not like Cousins losing his temper like a toddler and clocking a teammate for not passing him the ball. I would be scared **** if I saw a 7 foot 270+ pound man jump over a couch and shake his fist though.

As Americans we are much, much slower to confrontation than many other parts of the world. Everything is much more PC here and people will hide from conflict and squash their emotions (or will be forced to by our overly litigous society).

For example, there was a guy at a place I once worked, who happened to be muslim, who wore a New England Patriots jersey with the word "coward" on the back about once a week. He was obviously trying to make some kind of pollitical statement (but apparently unaware of the irony of calling the people of a country whose 1st amendment protects his right to call us cowards, cowards). Or maybe he was making an ironic statement about how people who hide behind the 1st amendment are cowards.

If we had confronted him about it, I would have been the bad guy and subject to disciplinary action. That is the society we have chosen to live in, but it's far from how most of the rest of the world operates.

Darko seeming to know it was Love right away tells me that Love must write his little "jokes" on the board quite a bit. Hopefully it is just a part of his youth, he's still just a college-age kid. I can't imagine what KG would have done had he offended him in a similiar manner. There would have probably been more than one punch thrown.

The one GQ article was a bit douchy, ripping on everyone's physical appearances. These guys work together, but it's not like they are friends who've grown up together, he's known most of these guys for less than a year, most in a situation where they're young guys, far from home.

I like that he tries to have fun, he just needs to put a little more thought into his jokes. It's sometimes hard to joke across a language barrier too. Awkward handshake with Wes at the FT line? Funny Stuff. Viva Croatia? Not so much.

[Den Masters]

Kevin Love really is lucky or else he would've had a black eye coming into the all-star game. That wouldn't look good for Love.


The joke is distasteful. Only people who don't know about Serbia-Croatia problems wouldn't think that the joke is bad. Serbia was in a lot of mess especially back in the days.


Milicic's reaction to the joke was pretty bad. If he didn't care about repurcussions, Love would have been knocked out right then. But who can blame Milicic? The dude had a rough life because of the stuff that's going on in his country.


With that said though, Love's joke was stupid and Milicic's reaction was stupid as well. But for Milicic to lose it like that, Love must've been pranking him a lot for that to happen.