Awards pile up for Kevin Love

By Bill Stewart

The Lake Oswego Review, Apr 12, 2007, Updated Oct 30, 2009 (1 Reader comment)

Vern Uyetake / The Lake Oswego Review

Lake Oswego’s Kevin Love received Gatorade’s player of the year award Tuesday. He’s shown here receiving the award from a Gatorade representative during a ceremony held at Lake Oswego High School. It capped an incredible run for Love, who made a virtual clean sweep of the nation’s top awards.

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What do Kevin Love, Greg Oden, Dwight Howard, LeBron James, Kobe Bryant, Stephon Marbury, Chris Webber and Alonzo Mourning all have in common?

That’s easy. They were all named Gatorade’s national prep basketball player of the year. Love received that award during a ceremony held Tuesday at Lake Oswego High School.

It capped an incredible run for the Lakers’ 6-foot-10 center, who made a clean sweep of virtually all the top national awards this year. In addition to the Gatorade award, Love also won player of the year honors from McDonald’s, Parade Magazine and the Naismith award from the Atlanta Tipoff Club.

Tuesday’s award ceremony capped a three-and-a-half week road trip of award banquets and all-star basketball games.

“Someone said my dad (Stan Love) must have a broom out in the car for all of the awards that I’ve swept,” Love joked after receiving the Gatorade trophy.

The Laker center always dreamed of becoming a star on a national level but winning a trophy case full of awards wasn’t exactly part of the plan.

“It feels great,” he said. “But I couldn’t imagine this when I was going into my first practice as a freshman.

“But it’s truly humbling. And I have great company — LeBron James, Dwight Howard and Greg Oden … It just feels great to have that kind of company.”

It probably helped that Love was a product of good genes. As most people know, his father was a star center at the University of Oregon and was a first-round draft pick of the Washington Bullets. Stan played a big role in helping develop Kevin into the player he is now.

“Since day one, when he put the ball in my hands when I was in the stroller, I’ve always been shooting baskets,” Kevin said. “And I was always hitting 70 percent, just like I do now.

“He’s been great,” Kevin added about his father. “He’s not only been my biggest inspiration in my basketball life, but in my life in general. He’s just been the best and I look up to him more than anything.”

The younger Love was an instant success, starting with the first game of his freshman season. In that game, Love did everything against a visiting Canby team. He scored on an assortment of inside moves, hit a few long shots, then added some blocked shots and a couple of behind-the-back passes. He then finished his opening night with a thundering one-handed dunk on a fast break. Members of the student body immediately began chanting “He’s just a freshman.”

Indeed he was, but he was not ordinary freshman.

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