Former Los Angeles Laker Stan Love has died at the age of 76 years old.

His son, Miami Heat player Kevin Love, announced his father’s death after missing the playoff game against the Cleveland Cavaliers on Saturday. Initially, he had said he missed the game for “personal reasons,” People magazine reported.

He later explained that his father had died, writing on Instagram, “Dad, you fought for a long time. The hardest stretch being these past 6 months. The most painful to witness being these last few weeks. And even at the end as you continued to deteriorate — I still saw you as a Giant. My Protector. My first Hero.”

Stan Love had been drafted by the then Baltimore Bullets, now the Washington Wizards, as the 9th overall pick in the 1971 NBA Draft. After his years with the Bullets, he played for the Lakers. He played a handful of games for San Antonio in the American Basketball Association, the Los Angeles Times reported.

Stan Love came from the family that bought us most of the Beach Boys, his brother Mike Love and his cousins Brian, Dennis and Carl Wilson. The final member of the group was friend Al Jardine.

Once he was done playing pro basketball, Stan Love was, as the Los Angeles Times described, “a human shield” for Brian Wilson in the 1970s and 80s. Brian Wilson suffered from mental illness and substance abuse.

“Those were chaotic years,” Stan Love told the Portland Tribune decades later. “It was 24 hours a day of worrying, trying to keep the creeps away. Fame and money in rock-and-roll — it’s all a very dangerous area to live in.”

At one point, Stan Love and former Oregon football player Rocky Pamplin appeared as police officers at the home of Dennis Wilson, Brian Wilson’s brother who was giving Brian Wilson cocaine. Stan Love and Pamplin beat up Dennis Wilson.

Stan Love was eventually fined $750 and given six months’ probation, and was put on a mutual restraining order.

Mike Love posted a tribute to his brother, saying that he was “although he’d battled significant health issues for so long, I never thought I’d lose him. I really thought we would be here together; reality is not what I thought or hoped for.”

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