Platinum Equity Founder Tom Gores Donates $350,000 to SAY Detroit

Earl Cureton, the Detroit native and former member of the Detroit Pistons, dreamed of seeing the legendary St. Cecilia’s Gym restored to its former glory.

Although Cureton passed away in 2024, the dream will become a reality,

Recently, SAY Detroit Founder, WJR-AM radio host and Detroit Free Press columnist Mitch Albom announced a major revitalization project for St. Cecilia’s, the place where many of Detroit’s legendary basketball greats cut their teeth.

And Platinum Equity Founder and CEO Tom Gores will lend a helping hand.

Albom made the announcement during the 14^th SAY Detroit Radiothon, an annual fundraiser for the nonprofit Albom founded in 2006 to address homelessness, healthcare access and other charitable support to underserved communities.

A few hours later, Pistons Front Office Associate Dwane Casey, representing Gores, announced that Gores would donate $350,000 to SAY Detroit with $100,000 allocated to support SAY Detroit’s efforts to turn St. Cecilia’s Gym and the surrounding eight-acre campus into a new SAY Detroit Play Center.

“Tom loved Earl Cureton, and he understands the tradition and the legacy of St. Cecilia’s,” Casey told Albom.

Albom wrote later the St. Cecelia’s project would likely cost close to $10 million.

Cureton, who died in 2024, was a tireless advocate for St. Cecilia’s and worked to revive the facility. Earlier this year, on the one-year anniversary of Cureton’s passing, a street outside gym, at the corner of Livernois Avenue and Stearns Street, was renamed Earl Cureton Court.

“You showed us all what it means to live a life of purpose and love,” Pistons Vice Chairman Arn Tellem said at the street dedication of Cureton, who served as an ambassador for the franchise after his playing career. “This street will bear your name, but your real monument is in our hearts and the better community you helped create.”

St. Cecilia’s rose from the aftermath of the 1967 Detroit riots. The gym was instrumental in the development of more than 100 NBA players from Michigan, many of whom have had a close connection to the Detroit Pistons.

The plan is to replicate the success of the SAY Detroit Play Center on the east side.

Since its first broadcast in 2012, the annual radiothons have raised more than $19 million. With this year’s pledge, Gores, who also owns the Pistons, will have donated more than $2.4 million in connection with the radiothon since 2017, which includes the renovation of the basketball court at the east side location.

Albom announced that Gores’ pledge this year helped the radiothon raise more than $2.4 million, breaking its previous record.

SAY Detroit provides an after-school motivational learning center for youths, a free family medical clinic, a housing program for working families and other programs centered on education, health care and housing.

Last year, Gores and his wife, Holly, pledged $350,000, with $100,000 dedicated to mental health initiatives.