Kevin Love Has “Unfinished Business” In Cleveland

Feb 5, 2015; Cleveland, OH, USA; Cleveland Cavaliers forward Kevin Love (0) celebrates his three-point basket in the first quarter against the Los Angeles Clippers at Quicken Loans Arena. Mandatory Credit: David Richard-USA TODAY Sports

Despite only playing one season at UCLA, Kevin Love will always hold a special place in the heart of Bruin fans. A consensus five-star prospect out of Lake Oswego, OR, Love was the first true superstar UCLA recruited under Ben Howland. 

UCLA Bruins

Love lived up to every bit of the hype, leading the Bruins in 2007-08 to a third-straight Final Four appearance (the less said about Howland’s tactical choices in said Final Four appearance, the better). He moved onto the NBA after that one spectacular season in Westwood and, even while evolving into an NBA superstar, he has continued to vocally support UCLA sports and show his Bruin pride any time he has any opportunity to do so.

Today, Love announced a landmark decision in the direction of his professional basketball career: he was going to remain a member of the Cleveland Cavaliers, signing a 5-year, $110 million deal to compete alongside LeBron James in pursuit of the city of Cleveland’s first professional sports championship since 1964. However, in the minds of many Bruin fans with long memories, Love couldn’t have possibly chosen a worse set of words to make his announcement:

That sounds so familiar… where have we heard that bef… OHHHHHHHHHHHH RIGHT!

Yes, it’s the infamous phrase that USC quarterback Matt Barkley used when he announced his return to USC for his senior season in grandiose fashion. In fact, that press conference was arguably the high point of USC’s 2012 football season, as the preseason #1 Trojans spiraled to an embarrassing 7-6 record, including a loss to UCLA in which Anthony Barr‘s famous sack ended Barkley’s college football career. Media members did not hesitate to fire those words back at Barkley and his Trojans as that season collapsed under the weight of its own hype, with “Unfinished Business” enduring as a succinct way in which Bruins (and all other purveyors of schadenfreude) could have a bit of fun at the expense of Trojans.

With all that in mind: yikes, Kevin. You couldn’t have picked anything else? Was #ChampionshipForCleveland too bland? Did #CantStopWontStop lack a requisite amount of kettlebell?

We are obviously being more than a bit facetious in making light of a meaningless issue of semantics. Nonetheless, we still hope Kevin Love will be lucky enough to dodge the Curse of Unfinished Business.