Cleveland Cavaliers: Kevin Love is mental security blanket for teammates

We’ve emphasized how the Cleveland Cavaliers are going to need Kevin Love’s impact on the floor, but off the floor he might have a bigger impact now.

As you probably know by now, Kevin Love was LeBron James‘ teammate on the Cleveland Cavaliers for the last four seasons. Cleveland won the Eastern Conference four times with the two as key contributors, and given their success, it’s hard to imagine that these kinds of athletes could have simple day-to-day issues, too.

Love has been a symbol of hope for so many people now after he’s opening discussed his mental health complications throughout the course of 2018. Near the end of the regular season, Love wrote an article about those said mental health complications that was called “Everyone Is Going Through Something,” which was featured in the Players Tribune.

That opened the eyes of many and it took a lot of courage for Love to share that, but he did, and he’s ran with it. LeBron recently touched on how he and Love’s relationship is one that is really close at this point, and that Love is as strong as they come for what he’s done, per ESPN’s Dave McMenamin (h/t Cleveland.com’s Chris Fedor).

"“Kevin Love was one of my favorite guys; one of my brothers,” James said, according to ESPN’s Dave McMenamin. “When he acknowledged that (he has suffered panic attacks), I just told him how strong he was — not only for himself, but for other people that are going through the same issues. Not only just athletes, but a lot of kids that look up to him and maybe going through it don’t know how to express things, so I think it’s a pretty cool thing.”"

LeBron would then go on to express how he hasn’t gone through those same problems Love has, but it’s clear that James and Love will always now be very close. Fedor had this to add with Love’s contribution toward spreading mental health awareness at UCLA and how Love and James are now really close, given their experiences.

"“Earlier on Wednesday, Love kicked off World Mental Health Day by donating a yearlong Headspace subscription to all UCLA student-athletes and coaches.Love reiterated how important it is to train the mind as well as the body and wanted his old school and athletic community to have the tools.James and Love were teammates for four years, with James reaching out to Love in the summer of 2014 shortly after James announced his decision to return to Cleveland. While the relationship was rocky at times and Love had some tough nights, the two have clearly formed a tight bond — even with James in Los Angeles.”"

Clearly, Love has not the smoothest sailing since being traded to the Cleveland Cavaliers in 2014 from the Minnesota Timberwolves. He’s now stronger than ever mentally, though, with his ability to accept who is, what his flaws are and that’s he not just an athlete, but a human.

It’s understandable for him to have some problems here and there. He came into a pressure-cooker of a situation, and there were some trials and tribulations. Taking that into account, what James said about Love was no small deal.

With all Love has gone through since coming to Cleveland, in regards to the injury bug, having to sacrifice individually and change his game, and while seemingly often being in trade rumors, he’s been through it all.

That kind of experience is something young players such as Cedi Osman, Rodney Hood (who had his share of postseason issues), Jordan Clarkson (who had a really rough postseason as well) and many others, including other veterans, can benefit from learning about. He is not only a guy who averaged 17.6 points and 9.3 rebounds last year; he’s someone (just like Channing Frye) Cleveland can lean on to help players get the most out of themselves mentally.

If they can do that, there’s a much better chance the physical stuff will take care of itself and the Cavs can legitimately be a near-postseason team, if not make it.