The 2016 NBA Finals have strangely turned away from basketball itself. Instead, the focus has been turned on Draymond Green being suspended for an accumulation of flagrant fouls in the postseason after seemingly hitting LeBron James in the groin. After the suspension was made official by the NBA, the focus then shifted to LeBron’s actions immediately before Green’s groin tap, namely stepping over the Warriors forward.
In the hours since the Warriors’ crucial game four win, everyone and their mother has had an opinion about whether or not Green intended to hit James and whether or not LeBron deserved to be hit after stepping over Draymond instead of around him.
Well, count Cavaliers forward Kevin Love among those offering an opinion, and it’s not exactly coming to the defense of his teammate:
Kevin Love on stepover moves: "You don't see it too much, but, yeah, I think it is looked at as a form of disrespect."
— Diamond Leung (@diamond83) June 13, 2016
Well, this is an odd statement to make. Certainly, Love is not wrong. The stepover is seen as the ultimate form of disrespect to athletes and Allen Iverson’s over current Cavs coach Tyronn Lue is immortalized in basketball lore for that reason. In fact, the NBA saw LeBron’s stepover as deserving of a retroactive technical for a “physical taunt.”
But saying this publicly while your team is in the midst of a series that it needs to fight desperately to stay in seems strange. At this point, the Cavs need their entire team sticking up for each other in order to have a chance of coming back from down 3-1. Meanwhile, Love is indirectly saying that LeBron had it coming to him.
I don’t know whether this will be a big deal in the Cavaliers locker room, especially considering there is a more than solid chance that Kevin Love would be traded if the Cavs lose again. But if I were LeBron, I would be fuming about the lack of support from one of the key cogs on the team. To me, it appears like Love is ready to leave Cleveland.
