Before Michael Jordan, the Bulls’ career scoring leader was Bob `Butterbean’ Love. Since retiring from the NBA, Love has overcome a serious speech impediment and now is running for public office
Q. You have gone from being an NBA All-Star with a serious speech impediment to an adept public speaker and political candidate. How does that make you feel?
A. I have worked toward this goal all of my life. I never gave up. I never played the victim in life. I have done this through a lot of hard work and just being a good person.
Q. You led the Bulls in scoring for six straight seasons, but your 11-year career ended in 1977 while you were a member of the Seattle SuperSonics, making $105,000 a year. What was the most humiliating job you had to perform after your NBA playing days?
A. I was a busboy at the Nordstrom’s restaurant in Seattle making $4.45 an hour. You can’t get much lower than that. The most embarrassing thing was that a lot of ex-players from the NBA would come into that restaurant. They couldn’t believe it. I would have to swallow my pride and go over and say hello to them. In all of our lives, we’ve got to do what we’ve got to do.
Q. In your book (“The Bob Love Story: If It’s Gonna Be, It’s up to Me”), you wrote about growing up poor in Louisiana, suffering physical and emotional abuse from your stepfather and eventually running away from home to live with your grandmother. How did that experience strengthen you as an adult?
A. My grandmother was a strong person in my life who made me strong. She was always there for me and she gave me words of wisdom. I grew up poor, but I really didn’t know I was poor. I had to work to get anything I wanted. As a result, as I grew up I never asked anybody for anything. I have always been someone who has had to prove himself over and over and over again.
Q. How did you finally correct your speech problems and what advice do you give to other people who stutter?
A. I would advise them to get professional help. I was at a disadvantage because I grew up in a small town in Louisiana and they really didn’t know anything about speech therapy in those days. But now there is help out there for all those young kids, and the grownups too. But you have to be motivated.
Q. You are running for alderman in February in the 15th Ward against Theodore Thomas, the incumbent. What is your most important goal if you become an alderman?
A. I believe that if you are going to change anything in your life, you must get an education. I speak at a lot of prisons and correctional centers. I walk in there and all I see are young black men. You might see a few whites, a few Hispanics, but most of the people look like me.
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