NBA Slams Warriors Part-Owner with Major Punishment over Finals Pushing Incident
Despite being undermanned with Kevin Durant and Klay Thompson injured, the Golden Warriors showed lots of fight in Game 3 before coming up short to the Toronto Raptors.
But it wasn’t just the Warriors players who showed their fight, as one of their minority owners got into it with Kyle Lowry after he dove for a loose ball.
Mark Stevens, an executive board member of the team, according to the Warriors’ media guide, pushed and cursed at Lowry in the fourth quarter Wednesday at Oracle Arena.
Kyle Lowry was shaking his head after a courtside fan pushed him when he fell into the crowd. pic.twitter.com/5SwQv3hdnN
— NBA on ESPN (@ESPNNBA) June 6, 2019
Stevens ended up being ejected from the game shortly thereafter, but the punishment didn’t stop there.
On Thursday, the NBA hit him with a $500,000 fine and banned him from all team activities through the 2019-20 postseason.
Earlier this season, a Dallas Mavericks fan who heckled Patrick Beverley of the Los Angeles Clippers was banned for the remainder of the season, but someone who is officially a part of the team like Stevens is held to a higher standard.
Thus, he will miss out on all of next season, which includes the Warriors’ opening of their new arena, the Chase Center, in San Francisco.
“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 league said in a statement. “As the review of this matter continues, Mr. Stevens will not be permitted to attend NBA games.”
Stevens issued an apology Thursday in which he accepted the NBA’s punishment and said he had tried reaching out to Lowry and the Raptors to apologize.
A statement from Mark Stevens: pic.twitter.com/zrfXE6zOPO
— Kerith Burke (@KerithBurke) June 7, 2019
NBA Commissioner Adam Silver, who banned former Clippers owner Donald Sterling for life just three months into his job as commissioner after Sterling’s racist comments were made public, was asked why Stevens also didn’t get a lifetime ban.
“It’s not a science in terms of making these decisions,” Silver said Thursday at an NBA Cares event. “I think ultimately we felt that given how contrite Mr. Stevens was, the fact that he was extraordinarily apologetic, the fact that he had no blemishes on his prior involvement with the NBA or the Warriors, that a one-year ban seemed appropriate together with the fine.”
NBA Commissioner Adam Silver explains why Warriors investor Mark Stevens was given a one-year ban instead of a life-time ban pic.twitter.com/54dxMMObCc
— Mark Medina (@MarkG_Medina) June 6, 2019
Lowry said Thursday that he had not yet heard anything from Stevens.
“I don’t think there is any reason,” he said of Stevens’ actions, according to ESPN. “For me personally, I don’t know him. I don’t care to know him. He showed his true colors at the time. A guy like that shouldn’t be a part of our league. Being honest with you. That’s my personal opinion.”
According to Forbes, Stevens’ net worth is $2.3 billion, which makes the $500,000 fine 0.00022 percent of his net worth.
As Shannon Sharpe of FS1’s Undisputed pointed out for comparison, a .00022 percent fine of someone with a net worth of $100,000 would be $22.
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