"The four-year contract extension Timberwolves All-Star forward Kevin Love signed in the locker room before Wednesday's victory at Dallas will bring him the option to become an unrestricted free agent three summers from now. The deal guarantees him $61 million, riches enough to buy his parents all they want and save a little something for himself, too.

But the first day of the rest of his career was notable as much for what it seemed to lack than all that it brought.

It lacked joy.

Love had just received the rich payday for which he has worked his entire life, and his expressions and words suggested he begrudgingly accepted Timberwolves owner Glen Taylor's money.

He wanted a five-year, $78 million-plus extension -- and perhaps the chosen "designated player" status that goes with it -- the franchise can award to a young player only once under a new labor agreement that will run for at least these next six seasons.

The team held steadfast in saving an extra $17 million-plus and that privileged designation for somebody sometime in the future by offering a four-year deal to a player who TNT analyst Charles Barkley calls "the greatest power forward in the world," who earned an All-Star Game invitation before his 23rd birthday and should get another before his 24th.

It's a strategy intended to give the Wolves flexibility to add -- or keep -- talented players around Love, even at the risk of alienating their best player, whom teammate J.J. Barea calls "everything for this franchise."

To be sure, it's obscene in this economy to suggest $61 million is demeaning.

But professional sports has absolutely nothing to do with the real world, and those who know Love well insist the Wolves' stance angered him, although not enough to keep him from accepting an offer that will set him and his family up for life far beyond the multi-million dollar rookie contract he signed in 2008.

When asked if he can put the emotions of such a negotiation easily behind him, Love said, "I have to, I have to. You have to put it all behind you and just look forward from here on out because what's happened in the past is in the past and I live in the present.""