On June 26, 2008, Kevin Love will be seated in the NBA Draft’s greenroom in Madison Square Garden waiting patiently for commissioner David Stern to call his name. The UCLA freshman phenom will likely be a lottery pick in this year’s draft, as his game possesses a laundry list of desirable qualities. His high basketball IQ, adept post-up skills and outstanding footwork more than make up for his lack of speed and leaping ability.

He proved all season at Westwood that he can score and rebound as well as anyone in the draft, but the most alluring selling point to the Oregon native’s game is one that will not show in a box score. The most lethal instrument in Love’s repertoire is a skill that evokes memories of yesteryear and links him to a remarkable lineage of passing big men. This skill is the outlet pass, and Love’s mastery of it is stunning.

It is a basic truth that the easiest way to score in basketball is via the fast break, whereby running teams can collect easy, uncontested lay-ins. The best way to trigger such running is to have a dominant, game changing transition game where as few players touch the ball as possible. Here the rare commodity of a commanding rebounder with tremendous court vision is indispensable as they can effectively initiate the break with a strong outlet pass and remove the delay caused by over-dribbling.

As Bruins fans came to see this season, Love embodies all of the above. While still in the air, before hitting the floor, Love would turn his peripheral focus toward the sideline to locate a streaking teammate, and without hesitation he launched the ball down the court, paving the way for Darren Collison and Russell Westbrook’s personal highlight reels and many easy baskets. The straightforward nature of this kind of execution can make it seem effortless, though it is anything but; the elementariness of the outlet masks how rarely its charm is realized.

The annals of the game’s history feature few accounts of post players that exhibited such excellence in passing technique and execution. What each had in common was court vision and a heightened basketball intelligence that allowed them to make the game easier for themselves and teammates alike.

The chief example of such excellence was Bill Russell. Although the holder of 11 rings defended, rebounded and blocked like no one before him or since, it was his passing ability that keyed Red Auerbach’s big green running machine. It can be said with confidence that Russell’s ability to initiate the break (sometimes even by directing blocked shots into the hands of teammates) helped the Celtics score with ease and raise all those banners in Beantown.

The tradition of Boston bigs creating transition opportunities continued with Dave Cowens, whose superb outlet passing secured him two championships and a plaque in Springfield. Wayne Embry built a career on his willingness to accelerate the fast break, as did Connie Hawkins, who could thread the needle with one handed outlets that let his team cover the length of the court in mere seconds.

Wes Unseld, a man whose game Love is most often compared with, was arguably the greatest initiator of the fast break ever. He ignited fast breaks with crisp, accurate passes that spoke to his technical mastery of Naismith’s game.

But perhaps the most obvious and pronounced comparison to Love exists with another former Bruin, the immortal Big Red-Head, Bill Walton. Long before he was making proclamations about big men “throwing it down” and the “history of Western civilization,” Walton was the greatest passing big man that ever lived. His court vision and passing ability were unparalleled, enough to garner him three College Player of the Year awards and an NBA MVP. His supremacy and deftness in passing and his unselfishness were the backbone of Jack Ramsay’s immortal 1977 champion Trail Blazer squad. It is indeed a tragedy that Walton’s career was hampered so heavily by injuries, as it robbed fans everywhere the beauty and excellence of transition execution. This considered, it should come as no surprise that Love has said to have sought out Walton’s advice on multiple occasions this season, recognizing that it was his commitment to the outlet led to 88 straight victories at UCLA. That is certainly a history worth trying to replicate.

Every basketball coach, at every level of play, would sell their first-born child to have a big man that possessed the same level of basketball comprehension and intuition that Kevin Love has. He is the rare big man that makes his teammates better and his passion for the game is seemingly contagious. A first-team All-American as well as both Pac-10 freshman and player of the year, Love does not have Derrick Rose’s athleticism, O.J. Mayo’s marketability, or Michael Beasley’s scoring touch, but what separates him from the rest of the incoming rookie class is that incredible ability to start the break himself by hitting a leaking guard perfectly in stride. It is what makes his play unique and what makes his teammates better.

Most importantly, it is what makes his teams victorious.

Photo Credit: ICON SMI

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