LA Clippers owner Steve Ballmer donates $25 million to battle COVID-19

Self-made billionaire and Los Angeles Clippers owner Steve Ballmer donated another $25 million to organizations working to control the novel coronavirus outbreak through The Ballmer Group, a foundation he owns with his wife, Connie.

Last week, the Ballmer Group donated $1 million to several groups to help provide food for students, low-income families, healthcare workers, and other essential frontliners. During the week, they pledged $10 million to the University of Washington Medicine emergency response fund.

According to MSN sports, the remaining funds will go towards the healthcare system in Seattle, to support programs working towards a vaccine for the coronavirus. Other funds are also directed towards southeastern Michigan and Los Angeles.

The Ballmers live in Seattle, which is also home to Microsoft, the company Ballmer worked at for most of his life. His stock options in the company comprise a majority of his 51.8 billion net worth. Southeastern Michigan is Ballmer's home town, and Los Angeles is the home of the Clippers.

During the week, Ballmer also agreed to a $400 million deal to purchase The Forum in Inglewood, California, to finalise the long-overdue home arena for the Los Angeles Clippers. Since the controversial franchise moved from San Diego to Los Angeles in 1984, it has been sharing the Staples Center with the Los Angeles Lakers. The WNBA team Los Angeles Sparks and the NHL team Los Angeles Kings also call the Staples Center home. The current owner of the events place is the Madison Square Garden Group, the owner of the Boston Celtics.

Since moving to Los Angeles, the Clippers have been viewed by some NBA fans and sportswriters as a "Lakers" B team. The negative commentary is not without basis, the Clippers rarely outperform the historical NBA powerhouse and they share the same home crowd fan base. This year, after two major acquisitions, putting all-star Paul George and reigning Finals MVP Kawhi Leonard into their roster, the Clippers have a 44-20 record. They stand second in the entire Western Conference. Unfortunately, that still puts them 5.5 games behind conference leaders LA Lakers at 49-14.

If the NBA resumes it's 2019-2020 season at some point in the future, this season will give the Clippers a chance to get out of the Lakers' shadow.