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Warriors Part Owner Mark Stevens Pushed Kyle Lowry; Banned for Rest of Finals
June 6, 2019
Mark Stevens, who owns a minority stake in the Golden State Warriors, was confirmed as the person who pushed Toronto Raptors point guard Kyle Lowry during Game 3 of the 2019 NBA Finals at Oracle Arena in Oakland on Wednesday.
Ina Fried of Axios first reported the update and noted the "league and team are investigating" the incident.
ESPN's Tim Bontemps later provided a Warriors statement, which noted Stevens won't be allowed to attend any of the remaining games in the Finals:
Stevens plans to make a public apology and will donate to the Raptors guard's Lowry Love Foundation, according to Arash Madani of SportsNet, who added he has yet to reach out to Lowry and apologize.
Los Angeles Lakers superstar LeBron James responded to the punishment on Twitter.
"OK cool, but still ain't enough!" he wrote. "They did exactly what they had to do. Get in front of it before anyone else and plus there's only four games left (two max in Golden State)."
Lowry dove into the front row attempting to save a loose ball when he was shoved by the individual identified as Stevens, who was sitting a few seats down from where the guard entered the stands. He was ejected for making contact with the Raptors star.
"The fans have a place; we love our fans," Lowry told ESPN's Scott Van Pelt. "But fans like that shouldn't be allowed to be in there, because it's not right. I can't do nothing to protect myself. But the league does a good job, and hopefully they ban him from all NBA games forever."
Lowry told Michael Wagaman of the Associated Press the fan "repeatedly cursed at him." Bruce Arthur of the Toronto Star reported the phrase used was "Go f--k yourself."
Stevens is listed by Forbes as the 962nd-richest person in the world with an estimated net worth of $2.3 billion.
He built most of his wealth as a partner in Sequoia Capital, which counted Google, PayPal and LinkedIn among its successful investments, before starting his own firm—S-Cubed Capital—per Forbes.
Stevens joined the Warriors' ownership group in August 2013.
"This is an incredible opportunity for me," he said at the time. "Under the guidance of Joe Lacob and Peter Guber, the Warriors have established themselves as a top-flight organization in a very short time. The future of this team and franchise is unbelievably promising and I'm looking forward to contributing my part to help us achieve our goals."
Golden State trails Toronto 2-1 in the Finals after a 123-109 loss Wednesday night. Game 4 is scheduled for Friday night at Oracle Arena.