The NBA crew on TNT, led by Shaquille O’Neal, ripped into Kevin Love on Saturday night as they waited for the start of the Western Conference Finals game between the Houston Rockets and Golden State Warriors.
If you haven’t heard, Love was ruled out of Game 7 in the Eastern Conference Finals series by the Cleveland Cavaliers, who are set to play in Boston Sunday. The reason Love was ruled out is that he’s suffering from concussion symptoms after taking a vicious shot to the head in a collision with Jayson Tatum in Game 6 (watch here).
Just so we’re clear, Love is being ruled out because of brain trauma. Trauma that has been linked to a pretty nasty disease, known as CTE (Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy).
Now that we’ve cleared up why Love isn’t able to play, here’s video of O’Neal, Kenny Smith and Charles Barkley ripping into Love for “missing” Game 7.
Glad we all decided to start taking brain injuries seriously pic.twitter.com/xcpDNaO64b
— Deadspin (@Deadspin) May 27, 2018
I get that this trio of former NBA stars is from the old school. But my goodness, guys. This is just ridiculous.
Love has now suffered two concussions in the past two months, which makes four in his NBA career. That’s nothing to mess around with. Not only that, but the NBA and its teams has a legal and moral responsibility to the players to protect them from further injury when concussions occur. That’s why there is a concussion protocol to begin with.
But by all means, belittle the man for getting his brain scrambled in front of the nation Friday night.