Former Utah Jazz forward Kevin Love appeared on The School of Greatness podcast recently, where he touched on his complex relationship with his parents. Kevin had gone nearly nine years without speaking to Stan and Karen Love, and shared his reasons for it.
“It was really around the 2016 playoffs and Finals,” Kevin said. “… Family dynamics, they’re layered, they’re multifaceted, and they’re tough. I mean, even my dad’s side of the family, it’s well documented, with the Loves and even the Wilsons, that within the frame of rock and roll and what Brian Wilson and what Mike Love, my uncle, have spoken about at length, but also in their memoirs and autobiography.
“There’s a lot of trauma there,” Kevin continued. “There’s a lot of emotional depth there, and even the Wilsons themselves have taken it to different levels and the Loves. My uncle has done an incredible job in navigating rock and roll and that space. But he’s been doing TM and transcendental meditation for, I don’t know, 60 years.
“He’s one of the OGs in that and done really great,” Kevin added. “… I think my dad caught a lot of that as well, and there were times where the household, there was full of landmines, and you don’t know if it’s going to be screaming or something physical was going to happen. It was just landmines, slammed doors, screaming, all that stuff.”
Now, even in an extended family, an NBA star is usually the biggest name by far, but that’s not the case with Kevin. Stan was also an NBA player, and his younger brother Mike was one of the co-founders of The Beach Boys, the famous rock band, along with their cousins Brian, Dennis, and Carl Wilson.
Brian dealt with mental health issues, and Stan was employed as his caretaker at one point in the 1970s. While their relationship was fine, the same couldn’t be said about the rest of the family. In 1982, Stan was placed on six months’ probation for a home invasion and assault on Dennis. He blamed him for Brian’s drug addiction.
Then, in the early 1990s, Stan petitioned a Santa Monica court to be named Brian’s conservator in an attempt to wrestle control of his life back from Eugene Landy, a controversial therapist. He was unsuccessful, but following a 1991 settlement, Landy was prohibited from having contact with the music star.
As if all this wasn’t enough drama, Mike sued Brian in 1992 over long-neglected royalties and songwriting credits. Talk about chaos. All of the drama appears to have infiltrated Stan’s personal life as well, and Kevin explained when he decided to cut his parents out of his life.
“I think it was from my end needing to take a look at myself and understand that I needed to grow, too,” Kevin stated. “And sometimes if things aren’t set, or excuse me, adding up, you need to start subtracting… A lot of times I say less friends, less bulls***.
“And in the case, it happened to be my family,” Kevin continued. “But on the other side of that, it led to so many great moments in me finding myself and being comfortable in my own skin and going through that process where, at the end of my father’s life, which was last April, it was a beautiful moment… So many things can be possible and true at the same time.
“I didn’t get what I needed, but I also had a great childhood and got what I needed as well, which was amazing,” Kevin added. “My dad, he would have had a 77th birthday on April 9th. My mom and I, my brother and sister, all chose to celebrate him. And there was reconciliation, and there was forgiveness at the end of it. And he was the guy I looked at as my hero growing up, and he was the one who handed me the basketball. But was he perfect? Was I have a perfect son? Was our relationship perfect? No, and I needed that time in order to find myself,”
Stan passed away on April 27, 2025, due to a degenerative illness. Honoring him on April 9, 2026, on what would have been his 77th birthday, was a wonderful gesture. While Kevin had his issues with Stan, he is ultimately grateful for all he did for him. The 37-year-old once shared that his psycho father was the one who helped him get to the NBA.
