Cleveland Cavaliers President of Basketball Operations Koby Altman spoke on now-Miami Heat forward Kevin Love during a media session on Friday.
“We’re happy for Kevin,” said Koby Altman, via Right Down Euclid Editor-in-Chief Evan Dammarell. “Any conversation about Kevin Love will be about when he returns and retires when we put his jersey in the rafters.
“It was a difficult decision for us and him but it was best for both parties.”
Kevin Love left no love behind after he and the team he left a lasting legacy with agreed to a contract buyout in February. His legacy affected not just the Cavs, but the city of Cleveland as a whole.
“He’s much more to the city than a basketball player,” said Bradley Pasqulalone, whose daughter, Madelyn, met Kevin Love after he got them tickets to a Cavs game and gifted her a pair of shoes. “It’s the one player that supersedes the championship. He’s a great basketball player, but what he did here is the real legacy.
“It won’t hang in the rafters, but it’s the kind of thing that lives on.”
Kevin Love made an endorsement of his own to former Cavs guard Kyrie Irving in December, saying his jersey belonged up in the Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse rafters with the likes of Larry Nance, Zydrunas Ilgauskas and Mark Price.
“Without a doubt,” Kevin Love told cleveland.com. “Absolutely. Right away, after his career ends. It’s not even a question to me. He needs to be up there.
“He made the biggest shot in franchise history and one of the most important shots in Finals history when you consider how it all went down. What it meant for the city, what it meant for his legacy, LeBron’s legacy and everything else, including that Golden State team that became a dynasty and was historically great.”