LOS ANGELES — Kevin Love was in attendance for All-Star Weekend, even though his broken hand necessitated his removal from anything more physical than the public workout at the Verizon Up Arena on Saturday. After that workout, he fielded some questions from the media, and obviously pro wrestling was the first thing on our minds.
After all, Love endeared himself to wrestling fans the world over in 2016, when the first thing he did after the Cavaliers won the NBA Finals was to put on an AUSTIN 3:16 shirt and wear “Stone Cold” Steve Austin’s smoking skull championship belt in the locker room (complete with Stone Cold beer salute, of course). The homage earned a swig o’ beer from the Bionic Redneck himself.
That was just a portion of the pro wrestling fandom on full display during the Cavs’ run-up to the title, of course. The turning point for the team (in the mind of many fans) was when LeBron James wore an Undertaker shirt at practice after the Cavs went down 3-1 in the series. Everyone knows what happened from there, of course, and LeBron sealed the pro wrestling trolling by wearing an Ultimate Warrior shirt after returning to Cleveland after vanquishing the Golden State Warriors. (And of course, there was Kyrie Irving’s Undertaker-inspired shirt when all was said and done, as well.)
James is well-known as a longtime WWE fan, and in the past he’s even gifted his entire team with replica WWE Championships, so we had to ask Love: just who is the biggest wrestling fan on the Cavs? He thought for a moment, and then he offered himself up as the biggest mark in the locker room.
“I mean, I’d probably say me,” he finally said in response to the question.
He admitted there were a great many WWE fans in the locker room, of course, and that that pro wrestling mentality was a key part of their 2016 championship run. “Bron, as well. Swish [J.R. Smith]. Channing [Frye] was a big wrestling guy. 2016, that was a big thing during that playoff run. We wanted that to be a part of our team, and that was part of our identity, was that [wrestler mentality].”
As for his favorite Superstar of all time, he hedged a bit, but we probably already knew the answer to that one. “I wasn’t biased or specific towards any one guy, but Stone Cold, that was my guy,” Love said.
So would he ever follow in the footsteps of other athletes like Rob Gronkowski and consider moving into a pro wrestling career after finally hanging it up as an NBA player? He was very, very quick with a response to that one.
“No. [laughs] No. I would love to go to an event, maybe Raw, where they bring back some of the icons, but no. I couldn’t see that for me.”
That’s too bad. It seems WWE will have to find their next 6’10 Superstar somewhere else.
