Kevin Love’s Concussion Requires Caution for Cavs

Kevin Love left Game 2 of the NBA Finals with a concussion and is now in the leagues protocol. Now, it is up to the Cleveland Cavaliers to take extreme care dealing with Love’s injury.

This is an important time for the NBA and the Cavs.

The 2-0 series deficit in the finals to the Golden State Warriors isn’t the reason however. While that is an issue that needs to be ironed out, the situation with Love’s concussion must be placed in a separate category than the game of basketball.

The elbow to the back of head that Love copped from Harrison Barnes wasn’t anything vicious. It was a basketball play, as Barnes was going up for the rebound and accidently connected with Love’s head in the process.

The seriousness of the incident was evident at its scene, as Love went down grasping at his head immediately. He stayed down for the entire possession, but he remained in the game after a timeout. Heck, Love went on to hit a three-pointer before the end of the half.

Out of the locker room, Love was back on the court. The initial fear of a concussion seemed to be removed, although, just three minutes into the second half, the seriousness of Love’s condition was discovered, as he looked lost and disorientated.

Whether Love should have returned to the game or not is a debate that is tough to have. The Cavaliers insist that he didn’t show any concussion-like symptoms from the time of the elbow to Love eventually subbing himself out in the second half.

“I didn’t even know what happened, but at halftime he showed no symptoms,” Tyronn Lue said, via Jason Lloyd of the Akron Beacon Journal. “He didn’t talk about it. Then when we came back out in the third quarter, I could see in a timeout he looked kind of woozy. And then he went back on the floor for a second, and then we had to get him off the floor.”

Cleveland’s word must be taken here. If Love did show concussion symptoms and was kept in the game, that becomes a serious duty of care issue but that doesn’t seem to be the case.

The issue now though, becomes how the Cavaliers deal with Love’s concussion.

There is a NBA championship on the line and Love is a key cog to the Cavs machine, but no accomplishment trumps a player’s health, especially when it involves concussions.

Concussion’s have lingering affects long after the incident occurred and years after the athletes playing days. We have seen the numerous court cases against the NFL from former players about having diseases later in life caused by concussions in their playing days. Sporting leagues across the world have seen numerous talented individuals careers ended early due to concussions.

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Now, I’m not saying Love’s concussion is as serious as some of the NFL guys or anyone else. But, a concussion is a concussion, and despite where it lays on the seriousness scale, Love’s injury needs to be treated with serious caution.

In fact, all concussions need to be treated the same. They all aren’t created equally, but they all need to be treated equally. If that means Love can’t board the plane back to Cleveland for Games 3 and 4, so be it. The positives pale in comparison to the negatives that could come out of the Cavs rolling the dice and playing a concussed, or semi-concussed Love.

To be fair, the NBA has taken big steps forward in their concussion treatment strategy. According to a report from In Street Clothes, the average missed time for a player due to concussion was 8.9 days last season. If that’s how long it takes for Love to recover, than that’s what Cleveland needs to deal with, and their medical staff need to take the upmost care in ensuring Love returns when he is well and truly over his concussion.