Former Bulls All-Star Bob Love passes away at age 81

According to Jason Hall of Q104.3 New York Radio on Tuesday, former Chicago Bulls power forward Bob Love of Bastrop, Louisiana passed away on Monday at the age of 81. The cause of death was cancer.

Love played nine of his 11 National Basketball Association seasons from 1968 to 1976 with the Chicago Bulls. He was also with the Cincinnati Royals from 1966 to 1968, the Milwaukee Bucks during the 1968 to 1969 season, and played for the New York Nets and Seattle SuperSonics in addition to the Bulls in his final season of 1976-77.

In 789 NBA regular season games, Love averaged 17.6 points per game, 5.9 rebounds per game, and 1.4 assists per game. He had a field goal percentage of .429 and a free throw percentage of .805.

Love was a NBA All-Star for three straight seasons from 1970 to 1973. In this time he was the face of the Bulls franchise. Love led the Bulls with 25.2 points per game in 1970-71, 25.8 points per game in 1971-72, and 23.1 points per game in 1972-73.

In the postseason, Love also also had success. He averaged 26.7 points per game in seven postseason contests during the 1971 NBA Playoffs to lead all players. However, the Bulls lost in seven games to the Los Angeles Lakers in the Western Conference semifinals. Something else that was fascinating from that Bulls/Lakers playoff series of 1971 was the amount of time Love was on the basketball court. In an amazing display of endurance, Love averaged 47.1 minutes per game.

Love attended Southern University and A&M College in Baton Rouge, Louisiana before being drafted in the fourth round, 36th overall, in the 1965 NBA Draft. In Cincinnati, he was a teammate of triple double specialist Oscar Robertson.

What also made Love so special as well is the fact he could should the basketball with his left hand and right hand. He had the distinctive nickname of Butterbean, as that was his favourite vegetable growing up as a child.

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