Warriors keep investor from Finals for Lowry push

9:03 am | June 6, 2019 | Go to Source | Author:

12:53 PM ET

ESPN News Services

The Golden State Warriors issued a statement Thursday condemning the action of team investor Mark Stevens for his shove of Toronto Raptors guard Kyle Lowry during Game 3 of the NBA Finals.

“Mr. Stevens’ behavior last night did not reflect the high standards that we hope to exemplify as an organization,” the Warriors said in the statement. “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. There is no place for such interaction between fans — or anyone — and players at an NBA game.”

The Warriors said Stevens, who is listed as a member of the Warriors’ executive board in the team’s media guide, will not attend any of the remaining NBA Finals games and that a review of the incident was ongoing.

Forbes identifies Stevens as a venture capitalist. It’s unclear how large his ownership stake in the Warriors is.

Toronto leads the best-of-seven series 2-1 after the Raptors’ 123-109 victory on Wednesday. The Warriors host Game 4 on Friday (9 p.m. ET, ABC).

Stevens, who was seated courtside Wednesday night, was ejected early in the fourth quarter for shoving Lowry after the guard crashed into a row of seats while trying to save a ball from going out of bounds.

It happened not far from where Warriors owner Joe Lacob was sitting.

Lowry knocked the ball into a referee and landed in the lap of one male fan, who appeared to grab Lowry’s jersey with two hands. A woman who was standing nearby patted Lowry on his back. At the same time, Stevens, who was sitting down, extended his left arm and gave Lowry a hard shove to his left shoulder.

“There’s no place for that,” Lowry told ESPN’s Scott Van Pelt after the game. “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. Hopefully, he never comes back to an NBA game.”

Lowry got up and complained to officials, who ejected Stevens from the game. Lowry told The Associated Press that Stevens repeatedly cursed at him, and Lowry said he had spoken to the NBA about the incident before exiting Oracle Arena.

After the game, before Stevens was identified as the man who pushed him, Lowry said he should be banned “forever” from NBA games.

“The fans have a place; we love our fans,” Lowry said. “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.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.