By coming back from a 3-1 deficit to beat the Golden State Warriors in the NBA Finals, the Cavaliers ended a 52-year championship drought in the city of Cleveland. It was a momentous occasion in the city and because of the gravity of the Cavs' championship in Cleveland, owner Dan Gilbert is making sure everyone that was tangentially involved with team's title run will get a ring.
According to Cleveland.com's Joe Vardon, Gilbert and the Cavs will be spending more than $1 million so that more than 1,000 full and part-time employees at Quicken Loans Arena will get a championship ring. That means even the arena's cleaning staff will be getting championship rings:
Majority owner Dan Gilbert and his partners decided to present rings to more than 1,000 full and part-time employees throughout the Cavaliers and Quicken Loans Arena organization, employees who've been fitted for rings told cleveland.com.
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Employees learned about the rings earlier this month at something called the "Spectaculars," a companywide (Cavs, Monsters, Quicken Loans Arena) yearly meeting and employee-recognition event. The gesture extends to workers for Aramark, the contractor that supplies food-service workers for Cavs and Monsters home games.
The Cavaliers are just in a giving mode when it comes to their rings as they have reportedly offered a ring to former coach David Blatt and former big man Anderson Varejao, who played for the Warriors during the Finals.
Vardon reports that the employees won't be getting the exact same diamond rings that the players will be getting but this is still a very cool gesture by Gilbert. Often times, arena staff work long hours for low pay and rarely get acknowledged for their work, which is vital to the in-game experience. And while it may serve Quicken Loans Arena employees better in the long run if they actually got raises, receiving one-of-a-kind championship rings is a still a generous move by Gilbert and the Cavs.
