I was listening to the BS Report today with Bill Simmons as he was interviewing Minnesota Timberwolves forward Kevin Love and heard something very interesting. The two were discussing various Timberwolves related issues which of course led to Simmons asking Love about the loss of Al Jefferson, or "Big Al" according to Love, last season. Love began answering the question by bringing up the instant losing streak that occurred after that happened and how hard it was for him to deal with personally.
Simmons of course seemed taken aback by this a little but then quickly pointed out that Love had been a winner throughout his entire playing career. Love went on to explain that from the time he was 13 years old he had always been on winning basketball teams and thus did not know how to deal with losing very well.
That statement by Love interested me greatly as I never really thought about losing from the perspective of a perpetual winner. I was determined to see if Love was actually as successful as he had claimed. Turns out he is.
In the 2 years that he started for the Lake Oswego High School varsity basketball team the team went a combined 47-10 winning the state championship in 2006 and coming 2nd in 2005. Love also played in summer leagues as a high schooler and in 2006 he led the Southern California All-Stars to a record of 45-0. That is a combined record of 92-10 as a high school player.
The winning would not stop there however as Love went on to play at UCLA where more victories came his way. During the 2007-2008 season Love led the Bruins to a record of 35-4 and an appearance in the Final Four where they were eventually defeated by the Memphis Tigers.
Adding all of victories up that gives him a record of 127-14. Unreal.
At this point Love and defeat are not on a first name basis as the two have hardly met. Unfortunately for Kevin Love he will be drafted by the Memphis Grizzlies and traded to the Minnesota Timberwolves where his long run of success would finally end.
At the end of the 2008-2009 season the Minnesota Timberwolves will have lost 58 games. That means that in one season Kevin love will have lost 4 times as many games as he had lost in his entire organized basketball career. That is something that I don't think anyone can be prepared to deal with.
I used the example of Kevin Love only because he was on the BS Report. There are countless cases of players having success throughout their entire playing career and then going to a garbage team.
Kevin Durant won multiple High School national championships and had a 31-7 record as a college player but lost 62 games with the Seattle SuperSonics in his first season in the NBA.
Matthew Stafford was 28-2 as a starter in high school and 30-9 as a starter in college but was drafted by a team that in one NFL season lost more games than Stafford ever has.
Now both Love and Durant have found personal success at the professional level and Stafford may as well but as almost any athlete will tell you it's not the personal achievements that matter. The only thing that matters is winning.
In his interview with Simmons Love spoke of how during the Timberwolves longest losing streak, 12 games, everyone gets angry and depressed and after the games "everyone has their heads down and the locker room is just really quiet." These are some of the ways in which athletes dealing with losing. It is something that most people, I assume, are just not prepared for.
I would imagine that going into the NBA one of the last things Kevin Love thought about was trying to deal with being on a bad team and losing lots of games. He may have understood that the team wouldn't be a championship contender but in no way can you mentally prepare yourself for losing 12 games in a row. Not when you have never lost more than 3 games in a row in your entire life.
Just one of those little things about sports that an observer would never really stop and think about.
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