The NBA announced on Monday that Kevin Love will have to serve a two-game suspension for stomping on Luis Scola over the weekend. After the incident, Love said he did not think the league needed to look any further into the play. After sleeping on it a bit and likely discussing it with his public relations coach, Love accepted the punishment and expressed some remorse.
“I think (the suspension) was warranted,” Love said Monday according to FoxSportsNorth.com. “As long as Luis and the Houston Rockets are OK with it, then I’m OK with it. But I think it was a learning experience for me. Definitely, it won’t happen again.”
As you can see from the video above, the stomp was clearly intentional. The league had no choice after watching the footage. Love said that he and Scola have talked about it and managed to smooth things over. This was Love’s first ever suspension at any level of basketball, so labeling him a “dirty player” would be unfair.
“If it (results in the dirty player label), then I think for the common fan’s standpoint, I’ll just have to win their respect back and make them like me again,” Love said. “But I have no problem doing that because I know the type of person I am. I feel like … the people that know me know the type of person I am.”
Love was wise to change his tune from Saturday to Monday. As we learned with Ndamukong Suh after his stomping incident in the NFL, playing dumb is only going to harm your reputation. Cameras capture everything that happens during a game from a dozen different angles. If there was intent, it is going to be evident. Everyone loses their temper from time-to-time. Owning up to your mistakes is the best way to protect your image in the eye of the fans.
