8 Years? Kevin Love's Instagram Post Will Make You Wonder Where The Time Went
On Tuesday, five-time NBA All-Star Kevin Love made a post to Instagram that should have a lot of NBA fans nostalgic.
Love posted a photo of when he was first traded to the Cleveland Cavaliers exactly eight years ago (August 23, 2014).
Love captioned his photo: "Damn, 8 years @cavs!!??"
Prior to the Cavs, the former UCLA star had spent the first six seasons of his pro-career playing in Minnesota for the Timberwolves.
He made the All-Star Game twice, and put up video game numbers, but the Timberwolves were not a good team.
They did not make the NBA Playoffs in any of the six seasons that he was with the franchise.
However, the blockbuster deal that brought him to Cleveland changed the losing to winning very quickly.
The Cavs already had Kyrie Irving, and the had just signed LeBron James, so they were now adding one of the best forwards in basketball.
They made the NBA Finals four times in a row (Irving was traded in the summer of 2017 so he was with them for three of those trips to the NBA Finals), and in 2016 they beat the Golden State Warriors to win the NBA Championship.
From 2015-18, the Cavs and Warriors faced off in the NBA finals four times in a row.
When they beat the Warriors in 2016, some consider that the greatest NBA Finals matchup of all-time.
They had trailed 3-1, but rallied back to win three straight games (including a Game 7 on the road).
James left the Cavs in the summer of 2018, but Love has still remained with the team.
This past season, they had their best season since James left.
Love averaged 13.6 points and 7.2 rebounds per game in a bench role, and the Cavs were the eighth seed in the Eastern Conference with a 44-38 record.
However, they lost in the play-in tournament to the Brooklyn Nets and Atlanta Hawks.
Love has become one of the best players in the history of the organization, and there is a good case to be made that he could one day be in the Basketball Hall of Fame.
