Is Bob Love the most underrated legend in NBA history? Let’s hear your take!

His legacy with the Chicago Bulls is almost as old as the team itself. Growing up in a rural, segregated Louisiana, Butterbean seldom spoke in huddles or gave interviews during his 11 seasons in the NBA. Fleeing away from home, sharing a two-bedroom shanty with 16 children and grandchildren, it required his maternal grandmother Ella Hunter to provide shelter for a weeping eight-year-old Bob. Throwing an ax handle on the door when his step-father dropped in to bring the young buck back home, grandma retorted, “Get away from here. The boy lives here now.” 

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Using a bent coat hanger as a hoop and a rolled-up sock, filled with grass and paper, as a ball, Robert Earl Love would pretend to be Bob Pettit in his make-shift basketball court. Love made it to the NBA but remained an enigma for the most part. “The reporters had deadlines — they couldn’t hang around all night for me to spit something out,” he shared 25 years after his retirement. His stuttering was severe — “a lot of blank time, lack of eye contact,” therapist Susan Hamilton Burleigh would say. 

Shortly after his retirement, Bob returned home one night to discover his wife, nearly all his furniture, joint bank account, and rings gone… He returned to an empty house with a note left on the floor: “I don’t want to be married to a stutterer and a cripple.” Bob Love was officially broke. Retired with a career-high NBA salary of $105,000 a year, Love resorted to $4.5 per hour wages working as a dishwasher and a busboy in a restaurant in a Nordstrom’s department store in Seattle. John Nordstrom, the cafeteria executive, floated the idea of a promotion with the condition that he commit himself to speech therapy, which the company was ready to pay for. The result?

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The Bulls hired him as a director of community affairs which entailed preparing for 300 to 400 speeches a year, in schools, churches, hospitals, and community centers. In 2002, he was running for political office to represent an area on the southwest side of Chicago. Unfortunately, Bob passed away on Monday. “We mourn the passing of Bob Love, who passed away today in Chicago at the age of 81 after a long battle with cancer,” the Bulls’ official Instagram account posted.

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Dwyane Wade, who grew up in Chicago, mourned the loss of a Windy City icon. The Flash wrote, “Rest peacefully, legend,” on his IG stories, sharing a post honoring Love’s legacy—something that goes beyond basketball.

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Bob was the only one out of the 13 siblings to attend college. He had landed a football scholarship with Southern University in Baton Rouge but later switched to basketball, which paved his way into the NBA.

NBA’s Chicago Bulls and MLB’s Chicago White Sox owner paid his respects to Bob Love

Chicago Bulls owner, Jerry Reinsdorf, was the one who called him after hearing about his work as an honorable member of the community. “Jerry Reinsdorf said that he’d been reading good things about me, that he wanted me to come to the Bulls. I had always wanted to get back into sports, so I couldn’t turn it down,” Love recalled in 2002.

He was the second player in the Bulls franchise to have his jersey retired. He was also part of the team’s inaugural Ring of Honor class. His unique ability to shoot efficiently with both his left and right hands is still remembered as one of the most iconic features of any player in league history. Love, who is remembered for his kindness and has inspired countless kids and athletes from Chicago, was honored by the Bulls.

“I am deeply saddened by the loss of Bob Love, a true Chicago Bulls legend and beloved human being. Bob is one of the original Bulls greats. During his nine seasons with the Bulls, Bob became a cornerstone of the franchise, and his tenacious defense set high standards for competition and toughness.

“Toughness was not only a trademark of Bob’s play on the court, but also apparent in his resiliency throughout his basketball career. His impact on the Bulls and the countless lives he touched through his work in the community will keep him in our memories forever,” Reinsdorf said after Love’s passing.

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The former NBA player averaged 21.3 points and 6.8 rebounds in 592 games (444 starts) during his time with the Bulls from 1968 to 1976. He played during an era that was dominated by scorers like Pete Maravich and Jerry West. However, Bob Love showed his dominance as a two-way player. “I always could score, but they wanted me to play defense. I wanted to stay on the squad, so I did what they wanted. I learned to play both ends of the floor, and I think that made me a better player. I always had to guard the best scorer on the other team,” he shared in 1994.

That same year, he became the second player in the team’s history to have his jersey number retired.

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Love is survived by his wife Emily Collier, whom he married in 2004. He has five sons and two daughters from his first marriage to Betty Smith; and four sons from other relationships. He is also survived by three brothers, two sisters, one stepchild, 18 grandchildren and six great-grandchildren.