Kevin Love says OKC players recruited him pretty hard in LA

If you paid any attention to the Twitter accounts of Kevin Love, Kevin Durant, James Harden or Russell Westbrook during All-Star Weekend, you noticed a theme. They were always together.

Westbrook of course is already good friends with Love, having played with him at UCLA. But it was obvious that Love bonded well with the Thunder guys, as he was pretty much with them everywhere. They sat together, arrived together, ate together and in general, were all best friends the entire weekend. It got a lot of people talking and thinking, especially after the comment Love made after the World Championships.

And via David Aldridge’s column for NBA.com, Love says Thunder players recruited him pretty good in Los Angeles:

Love, who’ll be a restricted free agent in ’12 if he doesn’t sign an extension with Minnesota (OKC’s Westbrook is in a similar situation) got recruiting pitches from everyone during All-Star Weekend in Los Angeles.

“A lot of it was (about) OKC,” Love said. “A lot of it was a few other teams that just need that one more guy. And a lot of it was circulating around the Lakers, ’cause we were out there as well. There was a lot of pressure and a lot of questions were circulating, and I almost felt like, ‘Damn, I have to take a step back and, not assess the situation, but kind of look at things from a broad horizon.’

“As far as right now, I love the city of Minneapolis. I like Minnesota as a state. I love the people here. Our team is very young. We have a lot of stuff going for us when you look past the win column. I think I just have to look at that come contract time.”

Tampering? Eh, in this world of the NBA, it’s hard to see how tampering even exists anymore. Players talk, they joke, they text. You can’t really stop this sort of thing unless you just cut off all communication between players on opposing teams.

More than likely, it’s nothing more than a dream for it to happen. With Westbrook’s extension coming and the Thunder committing to Kendrick Perkins long-term, then Serge Ibaka and James Harden’s situations, plus the new CBA that could roll back salaries and create a hard cap, it’s hard to see how the Thunder could possibly have room for Love.

Still, it’s pretty fun to think about. For both sides too.