Giannis Antetokounmpo Pledges $100,000 to Arena Staff After NBA Suspends Season

With the NBA suspended for at least 30 days, arena staffers are temporarily out of work.

Blake Griffin pledged $100,000 to his home arena's staff on Friday, two days after the NBA suspended its season because of the coronavirus outbreak. 

#Pistons All-Star Blake Griffin is planning to donate $100,000 to help the workers at Little Caesars Arena in Detroit.

— Rod Beard (@detnewsRodBeard) March 13, 2020

Griffin's gesture comes miAntetokounmpo's gesture comes after Cavaliers forward Kevin Love pledged $100,000 to his home arena's hourly employees. Shortly after the NBA suspended play, Marc Cuban announced during an interview with ESPN that he would set up a payment plan for his stadium's hourly workers. 

The NBA suspended the season for at least 30 days on Wednesday after Jazz center Rudy Gobert tested positive for COVID-19, which the World Health Organization declared a pandemic earlier this week. On Thursday, it was announced that Gobert's teammate Donovan Mitchell was also infected. 

This week saw almost every major American sports organization cancel games or suspend operations. The MLB canceled all of spring training and suspended at least the first two weeks of the season. The NHL has suspended play indefinitely. March Madness was canceled. 

There are more than 135,400 confirmed cases of the virus globally across at least 111 countries. In the U.S., at least 1,875 have been diagnosed with COVID-19, with more than 41 dead.