20 Second Timeout

Remembering Bob "Butterbean" Love, Stalwart Forward for the 1970s Chicago Bulls

In an era when the accomplishments of even some of the elite basketball players of the past are derided--if not forgotten--it is very important to pay tribute to players who helped build the NBA into the multi-billion dollar business that it is today. Long before Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen led the Chicago Bulls to six NBA titles in an eight year span in the 1990s, Bob Love--who passed away yesterday at the age of 81--was the leading scorer for Chicago Bulls teams that put pro basketball on the map in the Windy City. 

Bob Love and Chet Walker were the starting forwards for Chicago squads that made six straight playoff appearances, a run of excellence that began just three years after the franchise was founded. The Bulls reached the Western Conference Finals in 1974 and 1975 only to fall first to the powerful Milwaukee Bucks led by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and then to the soon to be NBA champion Golden State Warriors led by Rick Barry. Prior to that, the Bulls lost in the playoffs three years in a row to an L.A. Lakers team featuring Pantheon members Wilt Chamberlain and Jerry West. Dick Motta, who later guided the Washington Bullets to the 1978 NBA championship, coached the Bulls from 1968-76, and the backcourt was manned by Norm Van Lier and Jerry Sloan, a great rebounding guard and defensive player who became a Hall of Fame coach.

In a 2015 20 Second Timeout article, I selected Love as one of the four best players in the Bulls' franchise history: "Love was the best player for some strong Chicago teams in the early 1970s, a top notch scorer who was also an excellent defensive player. As a Bull, Love made the All-NBA Second Team twice (1971, 1972) and the All-Defensive Second Team three times (1972, 1974-75). Love holds the franchise single season record for minutes played (3482) and he ranks third on the franchise's career scoring list behind Jordan and Pippen."

Love was a workhouse who averaged at least 37 mpg for seven straight seasons while playing in all 82 games three times, playing in 81 games once, and playing in 79 game once. He averaged at least 43.3 mpg in seven of his eight playoff series, and he was productive during those postseason minutes (22.9 ppg, 7.5 rpg). Love ranks fourth in ABA-NBA history in playoff mpg (43.9). In that era, there was no "load management"; players just figured out how to manage the work load.

Love was raised by his grandmother Ella Hunter during a difficult childhood in Louisiana. He is one of several NBA All-Stars who developed his game at a historically Black college, a group that includes Earl Monroe, Willis Reed, Dick Barnett, and Bob Dandridge. Love played sparingly for two seasons with the Cincinnati Royals and then spent just 14 games with the Milwaukee Bucks before finding his NBA home in Chicago in 1968. He averaged at least 19.9 ppg in each of his first six seasons with the Bulls.

A back injury ended Love's playing career in 1977. He briefly fell on hard times after leaving the NBA, and he took a job cleaning tables and washing dishes at Nordstrom. While working at Nordstrom, Love, who was nicknamed "Butterbean" as a child because of his love for butter beans, overcame a serious stuttering problem that caused him to shun interviews during his NBA career. He not only became Nordstrom's manager for health and sanitation, but he became an accomplished public speaker. Last year during a podcast interview, Love described his life after playing pro basketball as "a story of overcoming, of never playing the victim."

Sam Smith, who covered the Chicago Bulls for the Chicago Tribune before becoming a writer for Bulls.com, knows as much about the Bulls as anyone, and he penned a must-read tribute to Love, focusing not only on Love's playing career but also on his inner strength and his determined resolve to better himself after retiring from the NBA: "He'd often reflect in later years if he was going to be a dishwasher, he'd be an all-star dishwasher like he was in college and the NBA. John Nordstrom noticed the hard working former NBA star and arranged for speech therapy. Having failed in programs before, Bob was reluctant. But with a nudge from Nordstrom, Bob found a patient partner, learned the mechanics of speech, practiced, and tried to figure out how it all happened. He said as a kid he used to mimic a relative who stuttered."

Love's perseverance and work ethic should always be remembered.

Labels: Bob Love, Chet Walker, Chicago Bulls, Dick Motta, Jerry Sloan, Norm Van Lier

posted by David Friedman @ 3:23 AM

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