Mark Stevens, minority owner of the Golden State Warriors, billionaire and venture capitalist, has been banned from the NBA for one year and has been fined $500,000 for shoving Kyle Lowry at Oracle Arena during the NBA Finals.
In the video of the incident, Lowry can be seen diving towards the sidelines after the ball and ultimately crashed into the front row of courtside seats. While Lowry is still down, Stevens can be seen shoving the Raptors’ point guard, at which point Lowry emerges from the crowd visibly angry. He has since apologized.
In addition to owning a minority stake in the Warriors, Stevens is a Silicon Valley billionaire and a managing partner for S-Cubed capital. He holds an MBA from Harvard University and is the founder, along with his wife, of the USC Stevens Institute for Technology Commercialization at the University of Southern California. According to the couple’s biography on the USC website, Stevens is also a director of the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Foundation.
According to Forbes, Stevens’ net worth is over USD$2.3 billion. He spent two years at Hughes Aircraft before joining Sequoia Capital in the late 1980s as an associate, becoming a partner four years later. Sequoia is known for having invested in several tech giants, including Google, PayPal, LinkedIn, and others.
Fortune reports that Stevens joined the Warriors as a board member and part owner in 2013, when former part-owner Vivek Ranadivé had to divest his share of the Warriors after buying a majority interest in the Sacramento Kings.
It’s unclear how large a stake Stevens has in the Warriors, and if the team will allow him to remain part of the organization. The team’s media guide lists Stevens a Silicon Valley billionaire as a member of the six-person executive board.
The NBA issued a statement on Thursday condemning Stevens’ actions during the game and banning from attending NBA games for the duration of the season and next season.
Stevens responded to the criticisms on Thursday evening, apologizing for his actions.
“I take full responsibility for my actions last night at the NBA Finals and am embarrassed by what transpired,” the statement read. “What I did was wrong here and there was no excuse for it. Mr. Lowry deserves better, and I have reached out today in an attempt to directly apologize to him and other members of the Raptors and Warriors organizations.
“I fully accept the punishment administered by the NBA and the warriors,” he wrote.
The Raptors beat the Warriors 123-109. Lowry had 23 points in the game, nine assists and four rebounds.
–With a file from the Associated Press.