SALT LAKE CITY — Kevin Love recalls walking down Main Street in Park City with the late Jazz legend Mark Eaton, taking in the surrounding peaks.
Eaton looked up toward the nearby ski slopes and said, “We gotta get you out there to ski.”
That, of course, wasn’t an option — Love’s NBA contract forbade such risky activities. Still, he tried to imagine Eaton — the 7-foot-4 shot-blocking giant — gliding down a mountain on skis. That wasn’t too easy.
“I’m like, ‘What does it look like when you get on skis?!'” Love said with a laugh.
The moment stuck with him — one small part of a long personal history with Utah, where he’s now set to write the next chapter of his NBA career.
During his years in Minnesota, Love often spent summers around Deer Valley, even briefly toying with the idea of buying a place at the resort. When he was traded to Cleveland, he struck up a friendship with then-Cavs performance director Alex Moore, who had just left his post as strength and conditioning coordinator for the U.S. Ski & Snowboard Team.
“We just had this common thread of Park City,” Love said. “We ended up spending time here in Salt Lake City, in Southern Utah, as well.”
Between 2015 and 2018, the two spent about a month each offseason training and exploring. They worked out in Park City, hiked Bryce Canyon, and explored the Southern Utah slot canyons.
“It’s just so much different — you almost feel like you’re on Mars, the aesthetics, the scenery,” Love said. “So I know this area is very beautiful.”
Utah isn’t just a getaway for Love anymore, it’s home — at least for this next chapter.
At 37, Love is in the twilight of a Hall-of-Fame-worthy career. He’s a five-time All-Star, NBA champion, and Olympic gold medalist. So when he was traded to the Jazz as part of the deal that sent John Collins to the LA Clippers, many assumed he would negotiate a buyout and move on rather than join a rebuilding team.
But after conversations with head coach Will Hardy and president of basketball operations Austin Ainge, Love saw an opportunity. He’s a player who knows what it takes to win — and that can be invaluable for a young team.
“People have said to me, ‘Well, what if you go and it doesn’t work out?'” Love said. “But what if it does, right? Whatever that looks like — what if it does?”
Love knows what success looks like at the highest levels. But in Utah, it won’t be about stuffing the stat sheet; it will be about passing down lessons earned over a long, sometimes turbulent NBA journey — especially the hard ones.
When former Jazz point guard Ricky Rubio retired, Love knew he had to apologize. He looked back on their time together on the Wolves and faced regret. He was immature. He was selfish. He wasn’t the teammate that Rubio deserved.
“I remember telling him one of my biggest regrets is that I wish I was a better teammate — for him, and for other guys too, but really for him,” Love said. “I didn’t have the presence of mind back then to understand what it meant to be a great teammate. And he was someone who radiated goodness, who built guys up.”
Love is hoping to do the same now. He wants to be a mentor for a young Jazz locker room that grew up watching him play — including rookie Ace Bailey, 19, nearly half Love’s age.
“I feel like I can fit in with anybody, from my eight-month-old daughter, two-year-old daughter, to you name the demographic,” he said. “I mean, they might call me ‘Unc’ or ‘OG’ or that sort of thing. But I welcome it.”
And the young players are welcoming the guidance. Rookie big man Kyle Filipowski said Love was one of his favorite players growing up. He even earned the nickname “K-Love” in fourth grade for his shooting touch.
“It’s kind of just like a full-circle moment for me in my life,” Filipowski said. “It’s just really surreal to have the opportunity now to learn from him and work with him every day.”
It’s not the only full-circle connection for Love in Utah.
Years ago, he pulled Lauri Markkanen aside early in the Finnish forward’s career to tell him how much he admired his game. Later, the two trained on the same basket during workouts in Cleveland.
“Just kind of picked his brain,” Markkanen said. “And I’m excited to have him back, get to hang out with more.”
Love has ties all over the Jazz organization. He’s played with fan favorites like Rubio, Markkanen, Jordan Clarkson, Donovan Mitchell, Joe Ingles, Andrei Kirilenko, and Collin Sexton. And he’s long been the subject of Jazz trade rumors — or at least fans’ hopeful proposals.
Heck, he even has a long-ago connection with his new head coach.
“Kevin won’t remember this,” Hardy said, “but I played against him once in an AAU game when he was on the SoCal All-Stars.”
Hardy was right — Love didn’t remember it. But he did remember the result.
“I know one thing’s for certain,” he quipped. “They lost.”
It appears Love still has that competitive fire that took him to the game’s highest peaks. And that’s what the Jazz are counting on.
Love’s best basketball days are behind him, but his leadership and experience could be just as valuable to a young Jazz team.
He still thinks he has something to offer. The skiing can wait.
The Key Takeaways for this article were generated with the assistance of large language models and reviewed by our editorial team. The article, itself, is solely human-written.