The Warriors minority owner who shoved and cursed at Toronto Raptors guard Kyle Lowry during the 2019 NBA Finals will return to his role at the conclusion of the season.
Mark Stevens, who the NBA suspended Stevens for the entirety of the 2019-20 season, will rejoin the team's executive board whenever the current season ends, a Warriors spokesperson confirmed to The Athletic's Tim Kawakami last week. Majority owner Joe Lacob is "especially" assertive that Stevens "had a momentary awful lapse in judgment and has paid the penalty and served the suspension without complaint," according to Kawakami.
Stevens shoved Lowry when the guard dove near Stevens' courtside seat to save a ball heading out of bounds. Lowry told reporters that Stevens used "vulgar language," telling Lowry to "go f--k yourself" multiple times.
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NBA players, on the Warriors and around the league, harshly criticized Stevens.
“Well, the climate we're in now, no one is afraid to really express themselves, whether it be through their beliefs, whatever that is,” former Warriors forward NBC Sports Bay Area's Monte Poole last June. “There are incentives to be brave with who you truly are.”
The league fined Stevens $500,000 and banned him from attending games and team events for a season. Stevens issued an apology in June, stating he "fully" accepted the team's punishment.
“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 and there is no excuse for it."
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Stevens, a source told Kawakami, "has tried to personally apologize to Lowry many times." Lowry told reporters a day after the incident that there was "no place" for Stevens in the NBA.
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NBC News' Dylan Byers reported last June that it was "likely" Stevens would be forced to sell his shares. Iguodala told "The Breakfast Club" he had heard the same thing.
Stevens was "never in line to be kicked out of the ownership group," according to Kawakami.
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