The courtside incident in Game 3 of the NBA Finals between Toronto Raptors guard Kyle Lowry and Warriors minority owner Mark Stevens led to questions about player safety during games.
Lowry dove out of bounds to save a loose ball and fell amongst the fans. As the Raptors guard got up and found his footing, Stevens pushed him and made derogatory comments, Lowry said, according to ESPN.
Golden State Warriors forward Draymond Green gave props to Lowry for how he handled the situation and also noted that players in the league are vulnerable to fans on the sidelines:
Any time you’re in a situation where you can do no right, like in defending yourself, you’re vulnerable. So if a fan says whatever they want to you and then you say something back, you’re fined. If Kyle was to then hit back, a lot more than a fine would have then happened to Kyle.
Green and other members of the Warriors think a team’s ownership group should be held to a higher standard, the same way players in the league are:
When you’re speaking of players, we are held to a different standard. Coaches are held to — anybody in the NBA circle, you’re held to a different standard. So I think it’s no different when you start talking of anybody in any ownership group in the league. You’re held to a different standard. You can say it’s unfair or not, like whatever your opinion is on it, whether you’re one way or the other, that’s just the reality of it. We’re all held to a different standard, and that’s not going to change.
The NBA handed Stevens a one-year ban from attending Warriors games and participating in team activities and he was fined $500,000.
Warriors coach Steve Kerr agreed Stevens’ behavior was inappropriate and he would personally apologize to Lowry and the Raptors on behalf of Golden State.
In March, Oklahoma City Thunder guard Russell Westbrook was racially taunted by a fan in a game against the Jazz in Utah. That fan received a lifetime ban from Vivint Smart Home Arena. Westbrook did yell back at the fan and was fined $25,000 for retaliating.
It’s true what Green says: If players protect themselves physically or verbally against fans, it comes at a cost. But events in the last few months seem to show that the league is interested in holding everyone in the arena to a high standard of appropriateness, with player safety as the top priority.
