Gobert offers $50 to Jazz Game Night employees
SALT LAKE CITY – Vivint Arena game night employees got an extra surprise Friday night when Utah jazz center Rudy Gobert offered them $50 each.
According to a post on Utah Jazz Reddit, Gobert made the remarkable gesture by handing out money in a personalized envelope that said Happy New Year with the All-Star’s signature to employees who work on the team’s games.
This includes security, arena and parking attendants, and maintenance staff.
“Rudy Gobert personally gifted $50 to every Vivint Arena employee,” user humpregybr0gart shared.
Gobert gave the generous freebies out of the blue, an act of kindness that would have gone unnoticed if the Redditor hadn’t shared the post showing the $50 bill.
The three-time Defensive Player of the Year even included the rotating group of temp workers who work late into the night to clean up Vivint Arena after fans leave the game.
The cleaning crew usually consists of 40 to 50 employees who go from row to row picking up discarded food and drink. During late games, temporary workers are regularly inside the arena until well after midnight.
Tim LaComb, who hosts the Jazz pre-, halftime and post-game shows alongside Jake Scott on The Zone Sports Network, said he saw how meaningful the gift was for a Vivint Arena employee who received his envelope long after the game was over.
“After the game I saw two employees walking towards each other in the suite, one of them had a stack of envelopes he was handing out,” LaComb told KSLSports. “One of them opened the envelope and almost fell out – he looked at the money like it was a million dollars.”
This isn’t the first time Gobert has given arena employees a private gift, and it’s not even his biggest donation.
After the NBA was sidelined due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Gobert donated $500,000 to part-time employees and COVID-related services in Utah in March 2020 to help to cover the expenses of those who have found themselves out of work.
The jazz star also runs Rudy’s Kids Foundation, a charity dedicated to protecting, empowering and improving the lives of children by supporting outstanding charities around the world.