Cavs' Love accepts blame for conduct during inbounds play

Cleveland Cavaliers forward Kevin Love (0) looks on as he sits on the bench in the final seconds of a loss to the New Orleans Pelicans at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse. David Richard-USA TODAY Sports

Cavaliers' Kevin Love accepts blame for conduct during inbounds play

By Zac Wassink | Last updated 4/28/21

Cleveland Cavaliers forward and one-time champion Kevin Love went viral in the third quarter of Monday's 112-96 loss to the Toronto Raptors when he casually tapped the basketball back into play on an inbounds pass and then displayed zero effort as Toronto drained a three-point shot on the subsequent possession.

Per Tom Withers of the Associated Press, Love spoke with reporters for roughly 13 minutes about the incident on Wednesday without taking any questions and accepted all blame for the moment he and the Cavaliers would likely prefer to forget.

"I f’d up. Everybody knows that," Love said during his comments. "My intent wasn’t to disrespect the game, my intent wasn’t even for the damn ball to go inbounds. It was a moment that I got caught up in."

Cleveland coach J.B. Bickerstaff referred to Love's turnover as a "lapse in judgment" and said the veteran player has since apologized to teammates. Love, meanwhile, admitted his frustrations about, among other things, missing over two months of the season with a right calf strain.

Cleveland holds a 21-40 record and is largely just playing out the remainder of the lost campaign.

"I put myself here," Love added. "It wasn’t about my teammates. It wasn’t about the coaching staff. ... It shouldn’t happen, but at the same time it was a little blown out of proportion."

As Jasmyn Wimbish noted for CBS Sports, two additional seasons and over $60 million remain attached to Love's contract, so he and the Cavs will likely, for better or worse, be stuck with each other for the foreseeable future.

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