Awards pile up for Kevin Love

By Bill Stewart

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

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Love wound up being voted to The Oregonian’s second-team all-state squad that season, but he probably deserved to be on the first team. It hardly mattered, though. The next year, he wound up being voted the state’s player of the year even though he played only half of his team’s games that season because of a slow rehab following minor knee surgery.

And he was named player of the year again as a junior, the year Lake Oswego won its only state championship. Without Love, the Lakers would have been hard-pressed to win that title.

The Lakers made it to the title game again this season, making it the third straight year that the Lakers advanced that far with Love leading the way. The Lakers fell short in that game against South Medford but the championship trophy was about the only thing Love failed to bring home this year.

“Our accomplishments as a team were great,” Love said. “We did make it to three championship games in a row. And I was lucky enough to win one of them.”

He finished the year with another player of the year award and he broke the state’s 50-year-old career scoring record. Even while being double-teamed and sometimes triple-teamed, Love still managed to score 33.6 points per game this season while averaging 17 rebounds, four assists and three blocked shots.

Even before he amassed those incredible numbers, Love had college basketball coaches (many of them famous) lining up at his door, waiting to offer him a scholarship. His father’s alma mater was never really in the running, much to the chagrin of Ducks fans everywhere.

Instead, he picked UCLA, calling it a chance to return to his roots (he was born in Santa Monica, Calif.). Love figured it was his best chance to win a national title, which has long been one of his goals.

The big question now is how long will Love stay at UCLA? Will he leave after his freshman year and bolt for the NBA, allowing him a chance to realize possibly the biggest dream of his lifetime?

“Oh, wow. That depends,” he said. “I’ve got to work as hard as I can this summer and during the season to be the best player I can be. When it’s all said and done next year, I’m going to have to step back and really assess my options.

“But it’s going to be tough, because I love (UCLA coach) Ben Howland and I love what he’s done with the program … And all of the players are so great. It would be tough to leave there.”

Would winning a national title his first year at UCLA hasten Love’s move to the NBA?

“Oh, that would be really tough to say,” he said. “Maybe we would come back and win another one, but who’s to say.”

One thing is for certain, though. Love will definitely miss all of his friends, teachers, coaches and family members when he leaves Lake Oswego. Virtually everyone he has been close to during the last four years was in attendance when he received his award on Tuesday, and Love thanked every one of them for helping getting him to where he is now.

Then, after making his acceptance speech, Love grabbed a cooler full of Gatorade that was sitting on the stage and handed it out to all of his Lake Oswego teammates.

It was his last big assist as a high school player.

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