Good In Sports

It's been the hot topic over the last few days. The sports world has basically shut down because of the Coronavirus. Teams and leagues have shut down operations for the time being, until it is safe to resume play. Makes total sense, we don't want to run the risk of players, officials, media. fans or anybody else for that matter getting sick. There are some who are really effected by the cancellation of games, and that's the part time workers in the arena.

You know the ones I mean. The event night staff at the concession stands, the ticket tackers, the security people. All of them are losing that source of income, for who knows how long, because of this. Now not everybody has done this, but there are some teams and players in the NBA that have stepped up to help out. It all started in Dallas, as shortly after the NBA suspended play on Wednesday, Mavericks owner Marc Cuban said that he would set up a payment plan for his stadium's hourly workers.

And he's not the only one. Per CBS Sports, others have joined in as well:
-Atlanta Hawks Team owner Tony Ressler told Hawks CEO Steve Koonin two weeks before the league decided to go on a hiatus that "if we shut down, we have to take care of our part-time employees," as reported by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution's Sarah K. Spencer

-Brooklyn Nets, in response to guard Spencer Dinwiddie tweeting about taking care of non-salaried arena workers, team owner Joe Tsai responded by saying the franchise is putting a plan in place to help out Barclays Center staff

-Cleveland Cavaliers: Kevin Love became the first player in the league to donate money to event staff at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse when he announced on social media that he would give $100,000 to those workers. The Cavaliers followed their star forward and announced on Twitter that they would be taking care of all hourly staff.

-Detroit Pistons Blake Griffin will be donating $100,000 to the workers inside Little Caesars Arena in Detroit, per The Detroit News' Rod Beard

Golden State Warriors ownership, players and coaches will contribute $1 million to a disaster relief fund for Chase Center employees, the team announced. "The men and women who work our games at Chase Center are critical in providing an incredible game-night experience for our fans," Warriors guard Steph Curry said. "As players, we wanted to do something along with our ownership and coaches to help ease the pain during this time."

-Indiana Pacers: Pacers owner Herb Simon has given financial aid to the the part-time workers at Bankers Life Fieldhouse, per Bob Kravitz of The Athletic.

-Houston Rockets team CEO Tad Brown said that the franchise is getting a plan together to take care of all hourly workers at Toyota Center, per The Houston Chronicle's Johnathan Feigen

-Los Angeles Clippers and Lakers, both tenants of the Staples Center, along with the Kings of the NHL, are finalizing a deal that will work to compensate the hundreds of part-time and contract workers that typically staff Staples Center for NBA and NHL games, per Kyle Goon of the O.C. Register. The Lakers and Clippers have also told game-night employees that they will continue to compensate them through the NBA hiatus. This includes employees such as team statisticians, announcers and dance teams

-Miami Heat: The Heat are among the NBA teams in the process of figuring out how to financially assist the arena workers who will lose income because of the league's coronavirus shutdown, according to Tim Reynolds of the Associated Press

-Milwaukee Bucks MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo took to Twitter to announce that he will be donating $100,000 to workers at Fiserv Forum, saying "it's bigger than basketball." Memphis Grizzlies: The Grizzlies will be compensating all game night employees for any games missed through the end of the year, according to Geoff Calkins of The Daily Memphian

-New Orleans Pelicans top overall pick in the 2019 NBA Draft, Zion Williamson, announced on his Instagram that he's pledging to cover the salaries of all workers at Smoothie King Center for the next 30 days. In the post, Williamson said, "this is a small way for me to express my support and appreciation for these wonderful people who have been so great to me and my teammates."

-Philadelphia 76ers hourly workers at Wells Fargo Center will be compensated during the NBA's hiatus, per NBC Sports Philadelphia's John Clark

That is beyond awesome that teams and players are going out of their way like that to help out. Nobody in any of this wanted to step away and shut down operations the way things have. But this is a situation that is beyond anybodies control. Teams and players saw this as a way to step up and help out in any way they could with what they have. This was an awesome move and hats off to everybody involved for doing this.

-Washington Wizards team owner Ted Leonsis reportedly told Capital One Arena workers that they will be paid through March 31 for any Wizards or Capitals games they were scheduled to work, per The Athletic's Tarik El-Bashir

-Former NBA player Jeremy Lin announced that he was donating $150,000 to UNICEF to help fight the coronavirus. Lin also donated the same amount to the China Foundation.