It's been a harrowing month in New York with the coronavirus continuing to wreak havoc throughout the city. Data suggests the worst may still be to come with COVID-19 cases expected to peak in the coming weeks. The Big Apple needs all the help it can get right now and that sense of urgency has not been lost on Joe Tsai.
The Brooklyn Nets owner is doing all he can to keep his city afloat, donating 2,000 ventilators to help those in need, according to Stefan Bondy of the New York Daily News. Tsai, who serves as executive vice chairman of the Chinese conglomerate Alibaba, gifted 1,000 ventilators to the Mount Sinai hospital system last week before working with the Chinese government to procure another 1,000 ventilators, which arrived Saturday at JFK Airport in Queens.
Along with their cross-town rival New York Knicks, the Nets recently contributed one million surgical masks to New Yorkers working on the front lines of the coronavirus pandemic. Work has become increasingly hard to come by in our current climate—unemployment has skyrocketed as a direct result of COVID-19 and its wide-reaching effects. Mindful of the financial burden Americans are facing in this time of heightened uncertainty, Tsai has vowed to pay hourly workers at the Nets' home court, Barclays Center, their usual wages at least through May despite the arena's indefinite closure.
Tsai just recently purchased the Nets from their previous owner Mikhail Prokhorov (the $2.3 billion sale was completed in September), but the billionaire philanthropist has already made his impact felt in the community through his generous donations to the fight against COVID-19.
