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Cavs switched White House jersey presentation plans without telling Love

Alex Wong / Getty Images News / Getty

There was a change in plans Thursday for the Cleveland Cavaliers' visit to the White House when forward Kevin Love presented President Barack Obama with a team jersey.

Love was worried he was going to "slip up" on his words during the presentation, but before that, the logistics of the presentation caught him off guard, according to cleveland.com's Chris Fedor.

Originally, LeBron James had mentioned that J.R. Smith could give Obama his personal Fresh Brewed Tees shirt with tattoos on it - the shirts depict Smith's heavily inked upper body - and Love would present the jersey. Things didn't quite happen like that, because the T-shirt plan was axed without Love's knowledge.

"I never knew they weren't going to let Swish do the shirts. When I heard my name called and Bron was like, ‘Kev go hand him the jersey,' I was like, ‘What about Swish?' It was fun," Love said, according to ESPN's Dave McMenamin.

"I didn't know I was going to have to say a few words and go up there, but that was one of those once-in-a-lifetime opportunities that I got. Got down there as quick as I could, handed him the jersey and made for a great photo op. It was a cool, organic moment."

To Love's credit, he didn't slip up when speaking to the president, just experienced a moment of not knowing what the heck was going on in front of the entire nation.

Smith later said “It wasn’t the right time or place" for the gift, according to Jason Lloyd of the Akron Beacon Journal.

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