Stan Love — a former NBA player, Oregon Ducks legend and brother of a Beach Boys frontman — has died. He was 76.
Love’s son, 18-year NBA veteran and Lake Oswego alum Kevin Love, posted a lengthy, heartfelt message to Instagram on Sunday announcing his father’s passing. A cause of death was not immediately released.
“You have undoubtedly been my greatest teacher,” Kevin wrote. “A role often served by a Father figure. You taught me admirable qualities like respect & kindness. Humor & wit. Ambition & work ethic. Grit & aggressive will. The insight that failure brings. And that time is our most precious commodity.”
Born in 1949 in Los Angeles to father Milton — a union sheet metal worker — and mother Emily “Glee” Wilson, Love was one of six children. Love’s brother, Mike, inherited their mother’s passion for the arts and sang throughout his childhood, eventually becoming one of the founding members of the Beach Boys.
“Although he’d battled significant health issues for so long, I never thought I’d lose him,” Mike wrote on Instagram. “I really thought we would be here together; reality is not what I thought or hoped for. My big younger brother, you called me the superstar, but to me you are the superstar!!”
If music echoed through the family’s homes in Baldwin Hills and Inglewood, so too did the heavy footfalls of budding athletes. Love grew to 6-9 and earned a scholarship to play basketball at the University of Oregon, where he sported a luxurious handlebar mustache and fully embraced the 1970s basketball star aesthetic.
Love would go on to set several scoring records at Oregon, a lanky forward who finished as the only player in Ducks history to score more than 20 points per game in two different seasons. He left as Oregon’s all-time leading scorer, before the three-point shot was implemented and future players passed him on the list.
FILE – Stan Love (34) of the Los Angeles Lakers gets Steve Mix’s arm out of the way as he gets a jump shot off in the first half of NBA game with the 76ers, on Jan. 9, 1975 in Philadelphia. (AP Photo/Rusty Kennedy, File) APAP
Love was drafted by the Baltimore Bullets with the No. 9 pick in the 1971 NBA Draft, spending four seasons in the NBA with the Bullets, Los Angeles Lakers and San Antonio Spurs.
After one season playing professionally in France, Love retired from basketball and moved back to the Los Angeles area. He toured the world with the Beach Boys and served as the band’s bodyguard at times, looking after cousin Brian Wilson as Wilson battled drug addiction.
Love entered the Oregon athletics hall of fame in 1994 — eight years after settling with wife Karen in Lake Oswego, where son Kevin would become a five-star recruit in basketball and one of the greatest prep athletes in Oregon history. The decision for Kevin to attend UCLA was met with ire by some Ducks fans, especially when UCLA traveled to Eugene during Kevin’s lone collegiate season.
11 March 2006: OSAA Class 4A boys high school championship game at McArthur Court in Eugene, Ore. Lake Oswego Lakers vs. South Medford Panthers. Stan Love kisses his son, Kevin Love after Lake Oswego’s victory in the state championship game. LC- The OregonianLC- The Oregonian
Intensely personal signs, chants and death threats directed at Kevin, his father and their extended family — including mocking Wilson’s struggles with addiction — led to Love’s relationship with his alma mater souring significantly.
But in January, Kevin would honor his father’s legacy at Oregon by wearing his varsity jacket on the walk into Moda Center for the Miami Heat’s game against the Trail Blazers.
Kevin wrote in the Instagram post announcing his father’s passing that he “fought for a long time,” with debilitating health problems intensifying over the last six months and especially in recent weeks. Love died surrounded by his family, inspiring Kevin — an outspoken mental health advocate — to reflect on their relationship.
“Over the years my Dad and I had our differences,” Kevin wrote. “I mourn the times I felt angry and isolated – my heart weighs heavy knowing we lost that time and can’t get it back. But our division led to me finding myself. I was running from something but that time away provided the wisdoms of forgiveness and reconciliation. And an unwavering sense that he loved me through it all, in every moment.”
— Ryan Clarke covers college sports for The Oregonian/OregonLive. Reach him at [email protected] or on Twitter/X: @RyanTClarke. Find him on Bluesky: @ryantclarke.bsky.social.
