A formal petition to credit Kevin Love for an assist on LeBron’s missed dunk

In Game 4 of the Cavaliers-Celtics Eastern Conference Finals, Kevin Love collected a defensive board, and with Al Horford draped all over him, delivered a pin-point laser to LeBron James streaking down the court.

He did not receive an assist on the play.

Sure, LeBron did miss the dunk. I get it. But that pass was amazing.

What really is an assist, anyway?

Noted reference website Wikipedia.com has the answer.

In basketball, an assist is attributed to a player who passes the ball to a teammate in a way that leads to a score by field goal, meaning that he or she was "assisting" in the basket. There is some judgment involved in deciding whether a passer should be credited with an assist. An assist can be scored for the passer even if the player who receives the pass makes a basket after dribbling the ball. However, the original definition of an assist did not include such situations, so the comparison of assist statistics across eras is a complex matter.

A complex matter indeed, Wikipedia.

I posit, in this petition, that the NBA revisit Cavaliers All-Star forward Kevin Love’s official box score that featured a strong final stat line of 17 points, 17 rebounds and five assists and nudge the assist total up to six.

Nobody will get mad if you do it. Hell, nobody (except these devoted petitioners) will even notice. I’ll even scrub the video archive so the play cuts off once LeBron catches the pass in transition. It’ll be perfect. A pass such as this shouldn’t be wasted.

No doubt, the people want this. Upon sharing Love’s final stat line, a torrential downpour of support for Love’s labours lost (Editor’s Note: I’m sorry.) were shared.

Love has developed a penchant for outlet passes like this in the past, typically firing from his hip to a streaking LeBron, or earlier in his career, Corey Brewer, for some reason. It’s his signature skill, and as Mr. O’Donnell notes above, we missed his signature highlight.

An aside: this blog is also considering further legal action against Mr. James due to his theft of joy, but is willing to take into account Mr. James’ long-running record of being amazing at basketball alongside his provision of the city’s first title in over 50 years as evidence in favor of his case.

It would be easy for the NBA to turn a blind eye to this petition comprised of signees that represent their most loyal viewership. But why say no when it feels so good to say yes?

Give Kevin his assist. Restore the joy that was robbed.

If you’d like to sign this petition, you can do so here:

(Note: This is a real petition created on a random petition-building website. I guess I’ll send it somewhere if it gets 1,000 signatures. I don’t know where. There’s no way it gets 1,000 signatures, so I guess I don’t have to worry about it.)