50 Greatest NBA/ABA Players Not In the Hall Of Fame
By Phil Watson
Copyright 1970 NBAE (Photo by Dick Raphael/NBAE via Getty Images)
Bob Love entered the NBA as just another fourth-round pick, taken by the Cincinnati Royals out of Southern University in the 1965 NBA Draft.
His entry into the NBA was delayed a year, as Love opted to play the 1965-66 season with the Trenton Colonials of the Eastern Professional Basketball League, a forerunner to the old Continental Basketball Association.
Coming to Cincinnati in 1966, Love was a reserve forward for two years with the Royals before he was selected by the Milwaukee Bucks in their expansion draft prior to the 1968-69 season.
His tenure in Milwaukee was short-lived. Love was traded in November 1968 along with Bob Weiss to the Chicago Bulls for Flynn Robinson.
For the better part of nine seasons, Bob Love was the go-to guy for the Bulls, earning two All-NBA nods as well as being chosen All-Defensive three times.
He began his career as a reserve and ended it as one, but his work for Chicago in between was very solid.
In 592 games with the Bulls, Love averaged 21.3 points and 6.8 rebounds in 37.3 minutes per game and was a 43.0 percent career shooter from the floor and made 81.6 percent at the line.
His career numbers are 17.6 points and 5.9 rebounds in 31.8 minutes per game over 789 career appearances, shooting 42.9 percent overall and 80.5 percent at the line.
Love was a career 22.9 point per game scorer in 47 playoff games, including an epic Western Conference semifinal series against the Los Angeles Lakers in 1971 during which he averaged 26.7 points in 47.1 minutes per game in a seven-game loss.