Billionaire Warriors owner Mark Stevens is Lowry shover
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A hot-headed billionaire who is part-owner of the Golden State Warriors is the culprit behind the Kyle Lowry shove.
He is Mark Stevens: a Silicon Valley venture capitalist.
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Billionaire Warriors owner Mark Stevens is Lowry shover Back to video
Longtime NBA watchers were shocked by Stevens’ — who is believed to be 59 or 60 — behaviour.
The Raptors were leading the Warriors 96-86 in Game 3 of the NBA finals at the 10:30 point in the fourth quarter.
Video replays showed other fans moving out of Lowry’s way.
But not the bull-headed billionaire who shoved the Raptors star and appeared to reach over several seats to do his dirty work.
Lowry was infuriated and let the refs know what the interloper was up to. Stevens was ejected from the game.
“There’s no place for that,” Lowry told reporters following the game.
“You know, he had no reason to touch me. He had no reason to reach over two seats and then say some vulgar language to me. There’s no place for people like that in our league and, you know, hopefully, he never comes back to an NBA game.”
Stevens became part owner of the Warriors in 2013.
Previously, he was a partner with venture capital firm Sequoia Capital and now works as a managing partner of S-Cubed Capital, Axios reports.
“Fans like that shouldn’t be allowed to be in there, because it’s not right. I can’t do nothing to protect myself,” Lowry later told ESPN.
“But the league does a good job, and hopefully, they ban him from all NBA games forever.”
The Warriors said in a statement to Axios that Stevens will not attend any of the remaining games of the NBA Finals.
“Mr. Stevens’ behaviour last night did not reflect the high standards that we hope to exemplify as an organization,” the statement said.
“We’re extremely disappointed in his actions and, along with Mr. Stevens, offer our sincere apology to Kyle Lowry and the Toronto Raptors organization for this unfortunate misconduct.”
Late Thursday afternoon, the NBA levied a one-year ban against Stevens from attending any NBA game or Golden State Warriors events, and handed him a $500,000 fine.
An online petition calling for harsher penalties against Stevens has also been created.
“A team representative must be held to the highest possible standard and the conduct of Golden State Warriors investor Mark Stevens last night was beyond unacceptable and has no place in our league,” the NBA’s Mike Bass said in a statement.
Toronto went on to win 123-109 to take a 2-1 lead in the best-of-seven series.
Lowry scored 23 points and added nine assists and four rebounds in the victory.
Game 4 of the series will be Friday night, in Oakland.
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