National Basketball Association

Kevin Love aggravated shoulder celebrating NBA Finals berth

Published Jun. 1, 2015 12:38 p.m. ET

foxsports

By Steve DelVecchio

When it was announced last week that Kevin Love had been cleared to travel with the Cleveland Cavaliers during the NBA Finals, there were some fans who were hopeful that he might suit up against the Golden State Warriors. That was never going to happen, but re-aggravating the injury while celebrating didn’t help.

Over the weekend, Love told reporters that he tweaked his surgically-repaired shoulder when he came on the court after the Cavs won the Eastern Conference Finals.

“I walk out there, the teammate will remain nameless, I go up and give him a big hug [and I said] ‘congratulations’ and he takes his arm and he goes, ‘Ah yeah man, good game’ and just hits me right on the arm,” Love explained lightheartedly, according to Chris Haynes of Northeast Ohio Media Group. “Some of the front office staff who was out there with me kind of had to grab me and said, ‘Are you OK?'”

Love went on to say that he fully expects to be ready for the 2015-2016 season opener and expects to be playing in Cleveland, but he admitted he was in a great deal of pain.

“I had one of those moments where I was like, ‘Oh man, I’m going to have to go back to the locker room. How is that going to look? Will I have to sit down?'” Love said. “So I just tried to take a deep breath, calm myself and got home and iced as quickly as [possible].”

We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again — celebrating can be very dangerous. If you don’t believe it, just ask Georgia State coach Ron Hunter what happened to him before the NCAA Tournament. Fortunately, Love still has plenty of time to recover.

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