OAKLAND, CALIF.—Kyle Lowry could have lost control, but he didn’t. The Toronto Raptors point guard had just sold out to chase a ball into the stands, flying with the emotional abandon that Lowry has to live by to survive. Lowry didn’t know the man in the front row who had shoved him and was telling him to go f-- himself was a billionaire minority owner of the Golden State Warriors. All Lowry knew was that someone had put their hands on him, and that, furious, he had to keep from doing the same.
Some moments feel even bigger than they are, and a day later, that flashpoint was just one of the fires burning in what might be Golden State’s crumbling empire.