Clippers, Jazz pledge Hawaii pre-season game proceeds to Maui fire relief

The NBA’s Los Angeles Clippers and Utah Jazz on Wednesday pledged the proceeds of their October 8 pre-season game in Hawaii to wildfire relief efforts on Maui.

The teams will meet at Honolulu’s SimpliFi Arena. Both teams will train in Hawaii before the game. The Clippers will hold a training camp October 3-9 at the University of Hawaii at Manoa while the Jazz will train at the Hawaii campus of Brigham Young University.

It will be the Clippers’ fourth training camp in Hawaii since 2017.

Proceeds from the game will be donated to the Maui Strong Fund, which is being administered by the nonprofit Hawaii Community Foundation to address recovery needs in the wake of the deadliest fires to hit the United States in a century.

At least 115 people have been confirmed dead and authorities said Tuesday that more than 1,000 were still missing two weeks after the fires ravaged Maui and destroyed the historic town of Lahaina.

“We are proud to partner with the Clippers on this trip that will be so much bigger than basketball,” the Jazz said in a statement.

The Clippers were already among a dozen Los Angeles professional sports teams — a group that also included the NFL’s Rams and Chargers and Major League Soccer’s Galaxy and LAFC — that donated a combined $450,000 to the relief efforts this month.

Some of the California clubs have ties to Hawaii, where the Dodgers opened a baseball and softball academy last year and the Galaxy and NBA Lakers have held training camps.