MINNEAPOLIS ? Kevin Love is staying with the Minnesota Timberwolves.
Love and the team agreed to a four-year contract extension worth between $60 million and $62 million, a deal that includes an early termination option for Love in the final year.
The All-Star power forward and the team faced an 11 p.m. Wednesday deadline to sign an extension. If not, Love would have become a restricted free agent this summer.
Love will make the maximum amount of salary for the four years, but he did not get the five-year deal for which he was hoping. The new collective bargaining agreement allows for franchises to give one player on the roster a five-year deal that would have been worth roughly $80 million for Love this time around.
Love said Timberwolves owner Glen Taylor and president of basketball operations David Kahn did not want to offer the five-year deal to the All-Star power forward.
"Did I want the five years? Of course," Love said on a conference call from Dallas, where the Timberwolves were scheduled to play the Mavericks on Wednesday night. "It was something I felt strongly about, but at the end of the day, a four-year deal is still great."
Oklahoma City gave Russell Westbrook a five-year deal and Chicago signed MVP Derrick Rose to a five-year deal as well.
"They're in totally different positions," Love said, pointing out that the Thunder and Bulls are both considered championship contenders while the Wolves haven't been to the playoffs since 2004.
As the clock ticked down, Love said the situation was weighing on him and he wondered if the deal would get done.
"I was willing to make a commitment for five years. They thought otherwise," he said. "I'm glad this is out of the way. It was drawn out until 8 a.m., 9 a.m. this morning."
Love ranks fifth in the league with 24.9 points per game, second with 13.9 rebounds and first with 39.4 minutes played. He has emerged as the face of the franchise and is a key building block for the team and new coach Rick Adelman.
The new collective bargaining agreement allows the Timberwolves to offer Love more money than any other team.
Love is in his fourth season in the NBA. The son of a former NBA player and nephew of a Beach Boys icon, Love was a high school star in Oregon, an All-American in his only season at UCLA and last year led the NBA in rebounding. He became the first player in more than two decades to have 30 rebounds and 30 points in the same game and became an All-Star in just his third season as a pro.
The four-year deal gives the Timberwolves some flexibility going forward and keeps that maximum offer available for point guard Ricky Rubio, No. 2 overall pick Derrick Williams or another player down the road.
"It's good to have our centerpiece," Williams said. "We need a guy like him to put up 25 and 10 every night. ... I had a feeling he would stay with the fan base he's built."
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Freelance writer Amit Kaluskar in Dallas contributed to this report.
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Follow Jon Krawczynski on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/APkrawczynski
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