The Oklahoma City Thunder are taking care of their own.
The organization announced a plan to financially compensate hourly workers while the league is in the midst of an indefinite shutdown.
Without providing specific details, Oklahoma City said that “part of the plan includes providing financial assistance to the part-time staff who work directly for the Thunder each game night” that could potentially miss the remaining seven home games OKC still has left on the schedule.
They also plan to “provide financial assistance to the additional part-time employees who work and are paid by ASM Global”, the company that is contracted to operate Chesapeake Energy Arena, for those seven remaining home games as well.
The move comes as other teams and players are stepping up to help arena employees during a time when it’s unknown when the next workday will be.
On March 13, Pelicans’ rookie, Zion Williamson, pledged to cover the salaries of those employees that work at the Smoothie King Center. Giannis Antetokounmpo and Kevin Love have made similar contributions to their respective teams.
The NBA has been on hiatus since March 12 after Rudy Gobert became the first player in the league to test positive for the coronavirus.
Since that time, 14 players across seven teams have received a positive diagnosis.
Oklahoma City announced on Wednesday that the players and staff that had been tested for the coronavirus all received negative test results.
