For David Robinson, the routine has been the same for more than two months now.
Every night, the former Spurs great and his wife Valerie flip on the television in fruitless search of a distraction.
“We’re like, ‘No sports today,’” Robinson said. “It’s been very tough.”
In that, Robinson is not unlike millions of American sports fans who have seen their favorite teams’ seasons scuttled or postponed amid the ongoing COVID-19 crisis.
“Sports is an escape in many ways,” Robinson said. “It takes our minds off some of the challenges we have in our lives.”
In a city suffering in myriad ways amid the coronavirus health crisis, Robinson recognizes lack of professional basketball is low on the list of challenges.
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With no NBA games to be played for the immediate future, the 54-year-old Robinson is proud the franchise with which he spent all 14 seasons of his Hall of Fame career has been able to offer the community a different kind of assist.
On May 5, Spurs Give — the organization’s nonprofit charitable arm — announced its “Spurs Give Together” campaign meant to support San Antonio’s first responders, local businesses and families impacted by the COVID-19 crisis.
The Spurs kicked off the fund with a $500,000 donation, halfway toward a goal $1 million. With contributions from corporate partners, the fund is up to north of $700,000 and still growing.
“We know this amount of money is not going to solve all problems,” said Jennifer Regnier, executive director of Spurs Give. “It is truly to help give back and raise awareness in areas where there might be gap funding right now.”
That money is being put to use in ways that are wide-ranging and far-reaching.
For starters, the fund is being used to serve 500 meals per day from local restaurants to first responders.
In partnership with the San Antonio Food Bank, Spurs Give Together is helping provide 25,000 families with meals from local restaurants, delivered to their doors, Monday through Friday for five weeks.
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The organization has also teamed with the San Antonio Independent School District Foundation, to help narrow the technological divide in some of the city’s more impoverished areas, providing 800 families with WiFi hot-spots for a year.
A sum of $150,000 from the fund has been earmarked for childcare scholarships for families in need as more businesses begin to re-open.
Spurs Give Together has also pledged to support the Family Violence Prevention Center and other shelters for battered women and families during the COVID-19 crisis. In a separate drive this week, Spurs guard Patty Mills raised nearly $104,000 for the FVPC with his Mother’s Day coffee crusade.
“This community takes a lot of their identity from the Spurs, really,” Robinson said. “Having a leader like that makes a huge difference.”
For Robinson, who remains an investor in the team’s ownership group, the Spurs Give Together campaign has become a family affair.
His son, David Robinson Jr., joined the board of Spurs Give earlier this year, and has been vital in working with city officials to identify how money raised could be best distributed.
The younger Robinson is 22, the oldest of three brothers. He was born in San Antonio in 1998, the year before his father helped lead the Spurs to their first NBA championship.
Robinson Jr. grew up with a front-row seat to philanthropy, having watched his dad establish a charter school on the city’s east side — the Carver Academy — in 2001.
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“To be adding onto some of the legacy that my father started, I hope to continue to do that in new ways and build on it,” Robinson Jr said.
The younger Robinson’s ideas carry weight at Spurs Give, and not because of his famous last name.
“David Jr. has had a large voice in what we put together on this fund,” Regnier said. “I can’t think of any better family in the city of San Antonio to represent giving back and philanthropy in our community.”
For Robinson Jr., the task has been to highlight problems prompted or exacerbated by the COVID-19 crisis that might have otherwise been overlooked.
More than a dollar amount, Robinson Jr hopes the Spurs Give Together campaign can help raise awareness for issues ranging from domestic violence to food insecurity and others.
“Even though $1 million is a lot, it’s not going to fix the systemic things that are being highlighted through coronavirus,” the younger Robinson said. “One thing the Spurs can bring is awareness to different issues, more so than the money.
“I think a lot of it is setting some kind of example,” Robinson Jr added, “bringing people together and telling people they are not alone.”
One day, the health crisis will abate. David Robinson will again be able to flick on his television on any given night and find a live sporting event.
The Spurs will once again play basketball at the AT&T Center again.
As San Antonio begins to emerge from the rubble of COVID-19, both Robinsons hope not everything goes back to the way it was.
“COVID-19 has brought out some of the underbelly things in our community that need to be addressed,” the elder Robinson said. “Hopefully we can be better at serving one another, not just during COVID-19 times.”
jmcdonald@express-news.net
Twitter:@JMcDonald_SAEN
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