Lakers Fan Gets Virtual Playoff Seats for Community Work

By Timothy Parker Downtown Los Angeles PUBLISHED 10:15 AM ET Sep. 07, 2020

LOS ANGELES – As befitting someone with a downtown bird’s eye view of Staples Center, Tiana Gayton is among the lucky fans to get a virtual seat to Los Angeles Lakers playoff games in the NBA bubble in Orlando.

“You actually feel like you’re in the stands with a group of people behind you cheering all together,” Gayton explained.

The virtual seats are hard to come by. Those who land them can be seen across the world, cheering on their team.

Select season ticket holders are picked, as well as community leaders like Gayton.

She was selected because of her work as a development manager with the After-School All-Stars, Los Angeles chapter. The program provides support for academics, arts, robotics, and sports to about 20,000 young people across Southern California.

“That student that needs encouragement, that was me. I could never be a part of cheer and dance because the outfits were too expensive,” said Gayton

“You know I tried to be in basketball but you still have to buy uniforms. After-School All-Stars offers those for free,” she said.

Thanks in part, to partnerships like the one the organization has with the Lakers.

“We were able to bus almost 200 students and families to a Lakers game last November and most of them have never been,” Gayton said.

She began working with the non-profit organization in part because of Kobe Bryant. When she worked with his basketball camp, the late Laker legend brought in kids from the program.

“Through that partnership and how much Kobe cared about After School All-Stars. He actually at that point was an ambassador for all-stars. I wanted to know more,” she said.

Years later, the Lakers now know all about her. She was given 25 virtual tickets to give to those who also serve, including her husband, Jovan.

“It’s amazing man. That’s my wife. This is my team. So, it’s like a dream come true,” he said.

The Lakers rotate fans for virtual seats to give more people opportunities. They will face the and Rockets in game 3 in the Western Conference Semifinals Tuesday night. But that’s technically a Houston home game, so it will be Rockets fans displayed in the bubble.

By Vanessa Pappas, General Manager, TikTok US

As schools across the country close, one of the greatest challenges facing many parents is how to feed their children. Millions of students, teachers and families depend on school resources for more than learning. The reality of this struck a nerve for the TikTok family, with many parents on our team and countless students, parents, families, and teachers in our community. As a company, we are committed to helping the broader TikTok family navigate through this extraordinarily difficult time.

We are all operating in uncertain times, and it’s more important now than ever before, for both our local and global communities to come together to help those in need. Today we are donating $3M through a partnership with After-School All-Stars (ASAS) to help provide food for families who have been impacted by the loss of access to free or reduced-cost school meals. ASAS, an organization founded by former California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger that provides school-based, free, comprehensive after-school programs, is currently supporting 100,000 families year-round across 13 different states.

Our donation will aid in the distribution of food credits and gift cards for local grocery partners, providing critical support for families in 60 cities across the U.S., including Los Angeles, Miami, New York City, Newark, San Francisco, Seattle, Washington D.C., and more. These resources will help communities that have been hit the hardest by the residual impact of the coronavirus pandemic. And while this alone won’t mitigate the impact of the current situation, we hope it can relieve one worry for parents who are balancing social distancing mandates, work and caring for children who can no longer go to school each day. In addition, TikTok will also match up to $1M in employee donations to ASAS to further the organization’s ability to provide food for those in need.

“While our After-School All-Stars programs are paused with schools closed, we take our responsibility to serve the 100,000 families we work with year-round to provide a safe place for their children to learn and grow after-school seriously. When I founded After-School All-Stars in 1992, the goal was always to support the families who need us the most. I want to thank my friends at TikTok for their donation, because it will allow us to pivot to use our After-School All-Stars team to deliver groceries and gift cards for groceries to the families we help.” 

– Arnold Schwarzenegger, Former Gov. California and Founder of After-School All-Stars

We will also continue to use our platform to facilitate other partnerships that will benefit families across the country and around the world. We are mindful of the role TikTok plays in the lives of the people who rely on us daily and will do everything in our power to ensure that our platform and resources help people through this difficult period.

To learn more about TikTok’s effort to support our community, visit our COVID-19 resources on our Safety Center.

Excelling in tech, sports, science, the arts, fitness, service, not to mention friends, love, and lots of yummy afternoon snacks are just some of the reasons why LeBron and students like Dequan  after school. Won’t you join them too? #ILoveAfterSchool #SaveAfterSchool #AfterSchoolWorks #AfterschoolForAll