Los Angeles Clippers owner Steve Ballmer is doing his part in the fight against coronavirus. According to Ohm Youngmisuk of ESPN, Ballmer, and his wife Connie donated $25 million to coronavirus relief as well as vaccine research. The money will go to the Seattle and southeast Michigan area along with the L.A. community. And $10 million will go to the University of Washington Medicine’s Emergency Response fund which will help speed up testing for a vaccine.
Steve + Connie Ballmer, through the Ballmer Group, have pledged more than $25M to help Seattle, SE Michigan, LA w/ COVID-19 crisis. That includes $10M to Univ. of Washington Medicine’s Emergency Response Fund to speed up testing for COVID-19 vaccine, according to Ballmer Group.
— Ohm Youngmisuk (@NotoriousOHM) March 27, 2020
“Testing is the most immediate priority right now as we try to reduce community spread of COVID-19,” said Dr. Paul Ramsey, UW Medicine’s chief executive per the Los Angeles Times. “Private philanthropy, like Connie and Steve Ballmer’s extraordinary gift, is critical to expanding testing at the speed and scale required to save lives. We are incredibly grateful for their leadership during this crisis.”
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Ballmer would love to get the NBA season going as soon as possible. The league was suspended on March 11 when Utah Jazz player Rudy Gobert tested positive for coronavirus. In an interview with Bloomberg, Ballmer claimed his team will lose at least $10 million.
“It’ll be eight digits,” he said. “Now you’ve got to start with what we were either going to make or lose before the season started, but net, it’ll certainly be an eight-digit loss for us.”
With the country put on hold, many people are at home which means they can’t work. Ballmer talked about how he’s doing to help his employees who work at the Staples Center, which is home to the Clippers.
“We’re being diligent about continuing to pay our employees,” he said. “We’re trying to take care of our smaller vendors. We had a T-shirt vendor we had $100,000 committed to for playoff T-shirts. I think it’s important that we pay that money, put it down now, and see what can happen over time since we are in a better position.”
The NBA season could resume play in either mid-June or July.
