Kevin Love, the Cleveland Cavaliers' star power forward, is trying to rewrite the playbook for how boys can learn to become men. It boils down to one thing, really: "Be truthful with myself."
Love's quest to shift the masculinity paradigm started with personal experience. He had long been living with monsters in the closet of his mind. Emotions that made him uncomfortable. Made him hurt. He tried to not let these things bother him. That's what the playbook preached.
Until one day, last November, when he had a panic attack. During a team huddle in the third quarter of the Cavs' home game against the Atlanta Hawks, Love bolted from the court and frantically ran through the labyrinth of the arena to the locker room.