Love says he and LeBron used to joke about alleged beef
Kevin Love did not dip his toes into the waters of free agency this summer. He didn't take meetings, or let teams hold out hope while whining and dining him. Instead, he signed a five-year, $113-million contract to stay with the Cleveland Cavaliers on the first day of free agency.
Given the tumultuous first season he'd endured in Cleveland, many had expected him to seek employment elsewhere. Part of that reasoning had to do with a perceived conflict between he and teammate LeBron James, which was stoked when a tweet from James seemingly directed at Love implored him to "stop trying to find a way to fit-out and just fit-in."
There was plenty to keep the fire of speculation burning: Love's passive-aggressive comments about struggling to find himself in the Cavs' offense; James' assertion - in the face of Love's considerable dip in offensive production and continued troubles at the defensive end - that he was suffering a crisis of confidence; Love's admission that he and James were "not best friends"; Love naming Oklahoma City Thunder point guard and former UCLA teammate Russell Westbrook his choice for MVP, and James responding by cheekily naming Love his pick. There was a seemingly unending stream of media fodder about the pair's relationship.
Love, however, now says the whole thing was blown out of proportion, and that he and James used to laugh about the stories being concocted about them in the press.
"At times, we'd joke in the locker room about the stuff they were saying about us," Love told Terry Pluto of the Cleveland Plain Dealer. "Like when I said Russell Westbrook was the MVP. The next day, LeBron came up to me said that he just told them (the media) that I was the MVP."
Love said he had no second thoughts about re-upping with the Cavs, and that it was his plan from the start. He said he was the recipient of one of the first calls James made after returning to Cleveland in the summer of 2014.
"He wanted to know if I wanted to play with him," Love said. "Of course I did."