Joe Tsai isn’t just helping the home city of the team he owns. The Nets’ owner is also doing his part for Detroit, teaming with Pistons owner Tom Gores to deliver 350,000 KN95 masks and 100,000 medical goggles to the city in the fight against the novel coronavirus, it was announced Thursday.
The masks and goggles will be sent to Detroit’s COVID-19 testing centers, homeless shelters and frontline workers of transportation and police departments. They were donated by the Joe and Clara Tsai Foundation, run by the Nets owner and his wife, which imported the PPE supplies from China and were aided by Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan and the Pistons organization in distribution, allocation and support of the deliveries.
Tsai has been giving back during the pandemic. His foundation has made donations of PPE and ventilators to hospitals in New York, New Jersey and California, and he has pledged to pay Barclays Center hourly and part-time employees at their normal event rates through May, at a cost of $6 million, The Post previously reported.
“Many cities in America have been hit hard by the pandemic. Clara and I wish to help the people of Detroit get through these difficult times, and we are grateful that Tom and his organization readily stepped up to help us distribute the supplies,” Tsai said in a statement. “We have a history of friendship with Detroit and I want to thank Mayor Duggan for directing the PPE to where they are needed most.”