During the fourth quarter of Wednesday’s Game 3 of the NBA Finals, Kyle Lowry went diving into the stands as he attempted to save a loose ball.
The Raptors guard made hard contact with fans seated in the first row at Oracle Arena. Yet, a fan off to the side ended up pushing Lowry despite not having any part in the collision. Lowry understandably took exception to the fan making contact with him and exchanged words.
The person in question was ejected, and on Thursday, he was identified as Warriors minority investor Mark Stevens.
If it was up to Lowry, Stevens would no longer be allowed to attend an NBA game. Lowry joined SportsCenter with Scott Van Pelt to break down the incident, saying that Stevens (though he didn’t appear to know who the fan was) directed vulgar language his way in addition to making contact with him.
Lowry said:
“Well, if you watch it, he reached over and put his hands on me for no reason. But then he said some vulgar words to me and repeated them. In our league, there’s no place for that. Honestly, I hope he’s never allowed to come to an NBA game because he shouldn’t have done that. There’s no place for that. Luckily, they threw him out. I talked to the league security already and explained myself. The fans have a place. We love our fans. But fans like that, they shouldn’t be allowed to be in there because it’s not right.”
On Thursday, the Warriors confirmed that the fan in question was indeed Mark Stevens, but they stopped short of banning the fan permanently from Warriors games.
In a statement, the team said that Stevens would not attend any of the remaining NBA Finals games.
Given how the NBA raised issue with Drake’s harmless antics from his courtside seats, you’d hope to see more action taken after the team’s review of the incident.
Like Lowry said, there’s no place for it.
Update: The NBA announced that it banned Stevens from attending NBA games, pending a league review.
