Ex-Laker Stan Love, dad of Kevin Love and brother of Mike Love, dies at 76

Raised in a supremely creative Southern California family immersed in pop music, Stan Love took a different path to fame, playing four years in the NBA — including two with the Lakers — after starring at Inglewood Morningside High and the University of Oregon.

When his playing career ended, the 6-foot-9, 215-pound Love remained close to his family. His brother, Mike Love, was a founding member of the Beach Boys, and Stan Love eventually became an essential adjunct to the band, serving as a human shield for his cousin, Brian Wilson, throughout the turbulent late 1970s and early ‘80s.

“Those were chaotic years,” Love told the Portland Tribune in 2019. “It was 24 hours a day of worrying, trying to keep the creeps away. Fame and money in rock-and-roll — it’s all a very dangerous area to live in.”

Love eventually settled in Lake Oswego, Ore., after marrying Karen Love in 1986. They had a daughter, Emily, and two sons, Collin and Kevin, who followed his father into the NBA.

Kevin Love, a five-time All-Star in his 17th season, announced his father’s death Sunday on social media. Stan Love was 76. His cause of death was not mentioned.

“Dad, you fought for a long time,” Love wrote on Instagram. “The hardest stretch being these past 6 months. The most painful to witness being these last few weeks. And even at the end as you continued to deteriorate — I still saw you as a Giant. My Protector. My first Hero.

“The words we continuously heard from you in your last chapter were how blessed you’ve been to have such a loving family. And in return how much you’ve loved your wife and kids. Your only wish was to be at home surrounded by your family when you took your dying breath.

“That breath came. And now it’s time to rest.”

Stan Love was drafted ninth overall in the 1971 NBA draft by the Baltimore Bullets and averaged 6.8 points and four rebounds in 226 games in four seasons with the Bullets and Lakers. He also played 12 games for San Antonio in the American Basketball Assn.

As a three-year starter at Oregon, Love was a twice named first-team All-Pac-8 Conference and posted career averages of 21.1 points and 10.4 rebounds. He scored 30 or more points in a game 12 times, the most in program history. He was inducted into the Oregon Hall of Fame in 1994.

Love shifted gears after his NBA career, in 1977 becoming a full-time protector and caretaker of Wilson, the creative genius behind the Beach Boys music but whose prodigious talent had been compromised by mental illness and substance abuse. Love toured with the band for five years.

Love told the Portland Tribune that during that time, Brian’s brother and Beach Boys drummer, Dennis Wilson, was supplying Brian with cocaine. At one point, Love decided to put an end to it. He and former Oregon football player Rocky Pamplin posed as police officers, broke into Dennis’ Bel Air home and beat him up.

Love was fined $750, placed on six months probation and a mutual restraining order was issued.

“Do you think [Dennis] got the message?” Love said in 2019. “Brian is a very fragile individual with a lot of mental challenges. For someone to give him access to cocaine — that pissed me off. People get what they deserve.”

Brian Wilson, 82, was put under a conservatorship in May, 2024, three months after the death of wife Melinda Wilson, who was his primary caregiver. Mike Love, 84, remains the band’s front man.

“Mike has been unbelievable to hold down that brand and keep them on tour for all these years,” Love said. “The demographics are anybody from teenagers to 80-year-olds. They’ve put together a great body of work.”

The Loves grew up in Baldwin Hills, and Stan was the fourth of six children to Milt and Glee Love. Milt was a union sheet metal worker and Glee enjoyed playing piano and singing. Their cousins, the Wilsons, lived in nearby Hawthorne, and founded the Beach Boys in 1961. Brian, Carl and Dennis Wilson, and rhythm guitar player Al Jardine were teenagers, and Mike Love was in his early 20s.

“In our living room when I was growing up were a cello, a harp, a Steinway piano and other instruments,” Stan said. “We’d get together and sing. My mother pushed the arts. I watched opera at Hollywood Bowl at age 12. I like music, and I can carry a tune, but I don’t play any instruments.”

Love certainly could play basketball, and he passed along that skill to Kevin, a former UCLA star who remained close to his father throughout his life.

“Dad, I’m so proud to be your son,” Kevin Love posted Sunday on Instagram. “My only hope is that you’re proud of me. It was all I ever wanted. Thank you for everything.”