Kevin Love Loses Beard, Out For Remainder Of NBA Season

The amount of facial hair on Kevin Love’s face is directly proportional to the amount of time he spends on the court. The Minnesota Timberwolves recently announced that their 6? 10? forward would be sitting out for the rest of the year. Coincidentally, Love also unveiled a clean-shaven appearance, which makes the NBA star look less like a mountain man and more like an 18-year-old kid.

Love suffered a concussion earlier this month when he was hit by an elbow from JaVala McGee. (If you want to check out another violent elbow you can read about Metta World Peace’s dirty hit here). The Timberwolves cleared Love to play on Sunday but Coach Rick Adelman said that he would be keeping Love on the bench for the rest of the year.

Adelman said that head injuries are tricky and he didn’t want to risk putting Love, who is the league’s fourth-leading scorer and second-leading rebounder, in any danger. Guard Luke Ridnour will also sit out the rest of the year. Ridnour is still recovering from a sprained ankle.

Adelman said:

“Everybody talked about it and the decision was made. It’s just best for both of them not to push it… We’ll just go with the guys we have and hope we can get a couple of wins.”

As for the beard, Yahoo reports that the star Forward has been playing with facial hair ever since he entered the NBA. Last year he played with a pencil mustache and this year he went with a scraggly mountain man look. Love looks like he’ll be spending the off-season clean shaven, but maybe he’s working on something new (curly mustache?…) for the 2012 London Olympics.