The Pomp Podcast - Bitcoin: Why This NBA Champion Buys Every Single Day | Tristan Thompson

Episode Date: August 11, 2026

Tristan Thompson is an NBA champion with the Cleveland Cavaliers who's become a hands-on tech investor and operator. In this conversation, we break down how AI and analytics are reshaping professional sports, how he evaluates AI startups without getting caught in the hype, and why he's bullish on bitcoin, SpaceX, and prediction markets. We also dig into financial literacy and building real wealth after your playing career ends.=====================Arch Public is an agentic trading platform that automates investment strategies across Stocks, Commodities, ETFs and Crypto. Whether you’re rotating into AI & Gold, allocating to the S&P 500, or accumulating Bitcoin, Arch Public executes your plan 24/7 without ever taking custody of your assets or funds. Sign up today at https://www.archpublic.com, and start your FREE automated trading strategy! =====================Uphold is the easiest way to buy and sell crypto unlike any other platform allowing you to trade in just one step between any supported asset. Check them out at https://www.uphold.com/pomp/ This video includes a paid sponsorship with Uphold. I’m compensated by Uphold for promoting its products and services and may receive commissions from referrals. Terms apply. Not available in all jurisdictions. Digital assets are risky and may result in the total loss of your capital.=====================0:00 - Intro0:51 - How AI & tech are transforming pro sports5:37 - Transitioning from NBA champion to tech investor8:49 - How Tristan evaluates AI investments12:51 - Why Tristan is bullish on bitcoin17:30 - Prediction markets & sports gambling19:10 - Financial literacy & his legacy beyond basketball21:48 - A company he's really excited about 

Listen, I'm even having teammates call me during this run and they're like, should I buy some Bitcoin? Should I buy some? I'm like, buy every day. Stack it. Stack your digital gold. Because listen, the beautiful thing about the Genius Act and if the Clarity Act gets passed, that's going to unlock so much more capital for everything on chain and in crypto. So I tell guys. All right, ladies and gentlemen, we are about to have a blast in this episode. I've got Tristan Thompson. Yeah, the NBA champion with the Cleveland Cavaliers. He now is investing in tech, but he's not a dummy. This guy understands what's happening with a bunch of tech trends.

He is in the trenches. He's trading. He's investing. He's talking to founders. And we go through a bunch of different things. What's going on in the athlete world? How are companies and different sports teams actually adopting technology? But then he starts talking about what he's investing in and how he's doing it.

This conversation, not only was it fun, but it blew my mind. I think you're going to enjoy it. Here's my conversation with Tristan Thompson. All right, Tristan, let's start talking. I think a lot of folks see athletes who are starting to invest in technology now, and they're like, oh, cool. You've got some money. You're famous. People recognize you. You're just trying to get on cap tables. But what I find most interesting is almost every professional athlete I know, they use a ton of technology in their career. AI is now becoming

pervasive. They've got iPads doing game tape, all this kind of stuff. Talk about your personal experience. Like how technologically forward has being an athlete really become at a professional level? I mean, you know, tech has grown so much. I think especially in the last couple of years, I think the beauty is that Adam Silver understands the power of technology and whether it's analytics. Even if you look at Daryl Morey, you know, a few years ago when he constructed his Philadelphia 76ers team, he said he used AI and technology to curate his roster. And that's why he paid Paul George and brought him on because he saw the areas that, you know, sometimes it's about a balance, right? I think sports, people are so used to just like either it's the eye test or analytics, but it could be a combination of both. And that's why the great franchise, whether it's the OKC Thunder, the Spurs of the world, Miami, they understand it's a combination.

But for me, even personally, I think, you know, yes, we watch film and we get analytics of like, you know, for instance, you know, Jalen Brown, when he goes left, he finishes 34% of the time. When he goes right, he finishes at 70%. Like, although that little data can change, you know, the outcome of a series, right? Even when you look at, you know, Jalen Brunson, right? When you trap him, his offensive efficiency goes down, right? So all those numbers play into it. But I think the next thing for, you know, for technology and sports is going to be like, you know, sports health, right?

I think we've done a good job with like, you know, the sports science, but the next thing is like the next level. For instance, you know, last year's playoffs, you had Damian Lillard, Jason Tatum, and Tyrese Halbern all tear their Achilles. On the biggest stage in the NBA is the playoffs, especially in the finals. And Tyrese is a good friend of mine. In game seven, that's the worst thing you ever want to see. And Adam said a good thing.

he said, hey, we need to start integrating more AI technology to figure out how can we keep these guys on the court at the biggest stage of moments. And I think that's the next step for sports. Even football has the same issue, right? Nobody wants to see a star quarterback getting hurt in the first round. It ruins the whole journey of the season. Listen, we can talk about a lot of things. There are no strays going to Jalen Brunson on this podcast, okay? I don't care if his efficiency goes down in traps, whatever. That man won an NBA championship. He's good in my book. He's the king of New York, by the way. King of New York, by the way.

And I will say this. I got to put it out there. He's the king of New York. And I'll say this. Derek Jeter's number one, because I always have respect for the OGs. But I will say this. 10 years from now, when you ask the young kids, they might say Jalen Brown's the king of New York.

Might be the greatest New York athlete of all time. 100%. 100%. That is a big possibility. When you're talking about though around fitness and technology, I think it's really interesting. So I'm an investor in Eight Sleep. They've been really pioneering sleep fitness. I was an investor in a company that got sold to Hyperice, and they've been doing all kinds of really interesting things around, you know, technology and heating and cooling and all this kind of stuff.

And what I maybe find the most interesting is it's not just about the implementation, it's also the measurement. And I've been blown away by seeing like the strength and conditioning coaches, the, you know, health care staff, et cetera, on these teams. They know everything about these players, you know, down to the daily weights and what they're eating and, you know, all this kind of stuff. I mean, it's pretty crazy at this point. Yeah, no, definitely. I mean, listen, we have something set up now where we even got no guys loads. We're load management, right? You know, I play for Byron Scott and I play for Mike Brown.

And those guys are old school from the Pat Riley great poppers regime where they believe it's like practice two and a half hours a day. Go hard, go hard, put knee pads on and get tape, tape your ankles. But now with this load management and actually having analytics to back it, we actually had a teammate of ours in Cleveland. I won't say his name because I don't want to put an error on his load management, but he signs, he's with the Sixers right now. but he actually his load manager words if he passes a certain threshold there's a there's a high chance he'll get injured and i remember during the season we were down a lot of guys we were down about five guys from injuries and he had to play more than what they felt like was his sweet spot and i kid you not because they have so much data he actually got hurt and had

to get like his knee cleaned out and that just shows you how strong technology is and the load management it's like and i'm glad that the coaches are starting to to implement that and actually taking it because at first when i was an nba when the trainers would say hey guys needs to be a light day coaches be like you don't know what you're talking about but now they actually listen because the data actually backs up and and that's why a lot of these older coaches don't aren't coaching no more it's a new it's a new regime the joe mazula's emails now because the old school guys they got them up tom tibbett oh no they got them out of there they weren't listening i love it um All right. Let's talk about your transition from being an NBA champion, a professional athlete to now a tech investor and very kind of ingrained.

I think I see you everywhere. Every time there's some tech event or something going on, you're there and it's not you're not there because, oh, he's a former basketball player. You're there for the substance of what you're doing as an investor and an operator. So talk about like when you first started making the transition, what was your approach to this? And then what sectors of technology have you kind of gravitated most towards? Yeah, no, for me, I think it's like, I think the toughest part for any athlete is the transition, right? And I think for me, understanding and understanding while I was still playing that at some point, the music stops on the basketball court and you're gonna have to pivot to what's next. And for me, it was about what are my interests and what gets me excited? What makes

me feel like a rookie again? And I really kid you not looking at like Magic Johnson and Shaquille O'Neal, right? Those two guys are probably the two guys that were able to pivot into a new space that there was not many people like them. And for me, being in the tech space and knowing that it's almost like the early dot-com era, there's not many guys like me, right? There's not many, unless you have KD and Steph Curry, they invest, but they're not operators.

And for me, it was like, no, I want to put my hands in it, get my hands dirty. And it's like building a championship again. So for me, going to these conferences and seeing what the next big thing is, even like when sitting at, I spoke at Milken and sitting and listening to Jensen Wong and him talking about, you know,

because one thing everyone wants to hear Jensen because he's going to give some type of alpha of like what's next. And what he said, it's like a five-layer cake, right? Everyone's looking at like the end product, but like the data centers, but it's like, what's the most important thing? Energy, right? That's what's going to power all of this, all this great tech, this deep tech that we're looking at.

Energy is a big thing because without that, and we can't figure out how to make it reusable and recycle it and repackage it, we're going to run into some issues. So for me now, it's about like, you know, it's all from the infrastructure layer, right? That's the most important thing. It's like building a home. If your basement's not right or your foundation's not right, your house is tipping over. Today's episode is brought to you by ArchPublic.

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and then you can learn what automated trading can do for you. Archpublic.com. When you start thinking about it, let's look at the AI stack, that kind of five-layer cake. How do you think about where you want to play, right? Like, obviously, you've got personal capital, you've got investors, you've got a lot of relationship with fund managers, and then, you know, founders as well. And so, like, you approach and say, okay, I want to invest in AI, I understand the five

layer. How do you go and actually find where you want to put that capital? Yeah. So, for me, you know, the way I look at AI in this bubble, right, it's, you know, first of all, I like to tell everyone, like, this whole AI fear mongering, like, it's got, like, humans are the most resilient creatures on earth. You know what I tell people? People are like, yo, I'm longing robotics. I'm longing, you know, defense. No, you know what I'm longing? Human beings. We have bounced back from the Spanish

flu. We have bounced from the industrial industry. When the industrial industry came around, people thought humans were going to no longer have jobs and have no use. We've beat all the odds. Even when the COVID happened, when COVID happened, everyone said, the world's over. Humans are going to have, we're all going to be gone. We're going to pass away. No, Humans are the most resilient individuals on earth. And even with this AI bubble, the way I look at it right now, it's about, you know, everyone's, you look every day on your platform, all these platforms, it's like this company's raised 40 million, 50 million, 100 million.

At some point, the music's going to stop. The dance is going to stop. And it's about, forget about the software. Who's actually creating a service behind their software that can actually make a difference and actually help people and actually make retail want to buy or use it, right? I think a great example is the gentleman, he just raised $40 million

for the company called ProBook, right? Where he created basically this AI operating system, like almost like an Airbnb, but for service industry, like for service at your home. And that's like a guy like, he's gonna be one of the winners, right? It's like the early .com era

where like a lot of these .com companies went to zero. but like having a end state or having uh when the fourth quarter comes actually having a real product that can actually generate income and actually make a difference that separates the greats from the fakes so that's what i look at to be part of what about things like space or maybe some of the other really innovative uh areas right we know ai is definitely going to be a theme people are going to continue to play that what other themes are you really interested in well i think it's about you know even if you look at space saxon anthropic right i think spacex right this what I tell everybody, right? You know, SpaceX has, you know, had this insane valuation, right?

And the numbers are off the charts. People are like, how is this possible, right? But I tell people, you know, Elon Musk has become the biggest influencer on planet Earth, right? Before, you might have said it was Kim K, but now it's Elon Musk. But he's realized that as a founder, you know you have to put yourself on the forefront and really talk your story because you know like you talked a lot of founders they struggle with putting sentences together they might build great tech but someone that can have you know understand the tech would have the nil combination that that's going to be that's huge and that's why like i love what he's building and even look at the numbers right and he's very he's very creative you got starlink you got xai you got

boring company at SpaceX. Those two, the, you know, SpaceX and more, their numbers aren't the greatest, but the beautiful thing, beautiful thing about it and what makes him such a great businessman and the guy that you want to bet on always is because you have Starlink. I'm flying, I'm going to the Middle East and, and when I'm flying over there to go speak at Web Summit and other, and other conferences, I'm going over to the North Pole where Santa Claus and Mrs. Claus live. And I have, and I'm on a FaceTime call, like nothing happens. Like, do we understand how amazing and and and we would never thought that i was using aol dial-up you were probably using dial-up too back in the day right like that just shows you like why i'm so bullish on human

beings like him because those it's like the horse you always bet on them to win what do you think about things like uh bitcoin oh come on orange pill if you look at my phone it's orange orange pill um you know actually i had a conversation yesterday at lunch with a gentleman that's an investment banker and we were talking about it and i'm very bullish on bitcoin right the reality is that bitcoin is the way i look at it when the o-way market crash happened it showed that there was a chink in the financial institution armor and bitcoin became like this robin hood batman where represent financial freedom and for me that that's what makes me excited because especially as an american and living in america we are still at such an early age of that adoption

compared to, you know, Asia and the Middle East where they're, you know, you look at Emirates, they're already accepting crypto payments for flights. So for me, that's one reason why I really got into Web3 space was because it was so early and why not be a Black Panther and wave the flag of what financial freedom looks like and what it's going to look like in our country. One of the things I find interesting is, you know, there's a couple of people that I've seen talk about, well, actually like minority communities. maybe will actually be much more open to this idea

for a variety of different reasons. They feel like they've been discriminated against before. They feel like there's some sort of advantage they can capture by being a first mover, like all this kind of stuff. There's this guy, Isaiah Taylor, who he's done a great job, wrote a book about it, et cetera.

And I've always found it fascinating because you as an athlete, you got a lot of people across many different genders, ethnicities, et cetera, but also countries. I mean, NBA now is a global game, right? So you've got all these people looking to you. And when you start talking about Bitcoin, it does feel like this is like an international language now. People all understand, you know, hey, there's a currency that is not tied to any one government.

And so, yeah, it can help people here in the United States, but also globally, like the message is the exact same. Yeah, definitely. And what I always tell people is like, I don't own Bitcoin because I expect a dollar to fall. I own it because I expect internet to keep winning. That's what it is. Right? I'm betting on what we're speaking on right now. Internet always wins.

And that's why Bitcoin is, right? And like you said, it's become so international. And the beauty is, like you said, sports has become such an international, and basketball has been so international now, where we have this platform where, listen, I'm even having teammates call me during this run, and they're like, should I buy some Bitcoin? Should I buy some? I'm like, buy every day. Stack it.

Stack your digital goal. Because listen, the beautiful thing about the Genius Act, and if the Clarity Act gets past that's going to unlock so much more capital for everything on chain and in crypto so i tell guys you don't want to be 70 and have your grandchildren say to you papa you didn't buy more bitcoin back when it was at 63 000 you are you are not smart papa i don't want to be that guy i want to be where my greg is like papa you're so smart you're the best you know and i think That's really what I tell my teammates and they call me. I'm like, load up, guys.

Don't worry about the price. Play the long game. Listen, at the end of the day, Bitcoin has had a better APY than most yields. Definitely better than what the banks give you. I'll tell you that, right? Like Bitcoin, if you look through a yearly in the last 14 years, it's appreciated by over 60%. Name a savings account that does that. You can't find it.

So like that's why I'm super bullish on it. Today's episode is brought to you by Uphold. Are you someone who's tired of juggling multiple apps just to trade, earn, stake, or spend your crypto? Then listen up, because Uphold does all of that in one single unified platform. You can access 300 plus crypto and fiat currencies with an interface that works for you, whether you're a beginner or an expert. Uphold also features any-to-any swaps, where you can swap crypto to fiat, fiat to metals, and tokens to tokens directly in the app.

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but it's obvious that people want to wager and they want to wager on the stock market i think that's just as much gambling as a prediction market as you know sports whatever right but like how as an athlete do you think about these things because sports is a big part of it right so you have like this aspect where the prediction markets and sports gambling obviously is all related to sports but then there's also the promise of like things outside of sports and so what are your thoughts there well i think you know the one thing i i appreciate about prediction i think it's helped fan engagement in sports i think the one area in sports that was becoming an issue was that games were going too long and i think the it's the beautiful thing about the nfl and nba

was that they were allowing more outside platforms that were not nba affiliates being able to show highlights or show engagement but i think that kind of killed the viewerships a little bit so i think prediction markets has kind of helped bring more of a fandom moment and engagement um together um but i think from just i mean no different investments i mean look at leopold like he you know a month ago he was like the golden child he was like karate kid like he he was like the Midas touch and and you know obviously you know Ken Griffin I mean that's a whole nother topic but you know thank you for playing the game yeah big OG came down and just hit him with it he's like yeah welcome to my game this is this is he he was like Thanos and just

snap this finger and everything just changed um what do you want like what's your goal what do you want uh people to uh to kind of remember you for post playing career i mean i think for post playing career i think it's for me it's about just motivating the guys behind me paying it forward right i've been so lucky and fortunate and blessed to have a great amazing vets that have always opened up and shared me the game and i think for me now as an athlete it's like the financial market right that's just an area where so many of us you know especially human beings we we don't like to talk about it because we're uncomfortable whether we don't know or embarrassed to look like our financial situation is messed up so for me it's always about paying it forward and putting

guys on and teaching like i'm telling rookies you know you should be looking at your your your pnl statements you should if you're going to give someone a power training make sure you get your bill sent to you look at look at every line sheet to make sure you can protect yourself because what is the the stereotype or what happens to a lot of athletes we make a lot of money and when we exit we don't have as much so for me it's like almost giving that financial literacy and freedom but not just for athletes from the young kids from my upbringing right like we don't in my upbringing where i grew up we don't we aren't taught about any financial literacy until we make it the guys we see make money are the guys that are in the streets and live in a life that

we don't want to live. And as soon as they make, get the money, they spend it. Right. So we don't understand about how to save it and make money. And what are the best yields and interest opportunities to have your money compound and stack? And for me, it's like, that's what I want to do where people are like, yo, Tristan went into a space where not many people like him. He's leading the charge for all of us. You know, it's like, it's like, it's like, it's, this is like my, my, my black Panther moment is what I always like to say. Now, who are the vets? And like, tell me one good story about a vet that, uh, that kind of imparted knowledge on you. i mean kevin love i mean kevin i mean obviously lebron you see all his investments they're great

but even kevin love like he was one of the early you know investors in aura ring right and he got in during covid when remember i don't remember if you you uh you picked it up or if it was online was that aura ring was able to catch kind of like the early symptoms of covid and k love one thing about k love he's the guy that eats like the peanut butter packs like he's super healthy i mean if you look at his body he's lost a lot of weight from when he first started to now in his career he looks great handsome man but he understands the importance of health and wellness and and and longevity of life and living a healthy life and he found the aura ring and he's like he's like double t like this is where you start leveraging your nil and your brain

and understanding what's going on in space to to align yourself with these kind of companies and you know he's probably one of the like him getting our aura ring super early and telling me about it and like he's like you got to do this like start start getting involved in companies you believe in. I love it. But before I let you go, tell me one company you're an investor in that you're really excited about. I'm not asking you to pick favorites because I know every baby is the same, but what's one company that you're like, Hey, you know, right now I've been spending a lot of time with them or something and you're really excited about it. Hmm. A company that I'm very excited about. Um, you know, which one I, which I like is, uh, it's a company called

Palomino labs. Right. And what they're, what they're doing, it's, it's a great team. Um, One of the founders, he actually had a big exit with Elon Musk, which SpaceX sold one of his technologies to them. What they're doing, especially with data centers, right? What's the biggest thing in these, you know, mid-market towns? They're like, data centers are using too much electricity and too much water. And what they have done is created these micro LED channels that save you about 40% electricity and 40% of the water usage. So if you're thinking about these small towns that are having these data centers, they are addressing a market where it's like, we are helping the people have a better life, right?

And saving and not spending. And that's what I'm super bullish on because the reality is that data centers aren't going nowhere. But who could figure out how to make them more efficient? And that's what they have done. So that's one of the ones I'm very excited about just because of the climate that we're in right now. So that's one I'm super bullish on.

I love it. Where can we send people to find you online? X, if you're a little older, people call it Twitter. I'm on there all the time. I'm tweeting. I'm doing my long and shorts. People thought I was crazy when I did my hype short. They're like, let's liquidate him.

But guess what, guys? Price comes up, price comes down. And I had a great exit on my perp. So I'm a perp chair. So, you know, T times a 13 on X. You can catch me on Instagram, posting my kids, posting what I'm working out, whatever I'm doing, Snapchat. I'm on all platforms because I want everyone to see

what's going on and be part of my journey with me. I love it. So you're saying that you, uh, you shorted hype right into all the bulls and, uh, you came out victorious. I was a big bull, 6'10". All right. We'll do it again in the future. Okay.

Thank you for having me on and congratulations, man. Keep, keep up the success. I'm a big fan. I've been, I've been watching your shows for over a year and a half. So it's, I'm surprised I didn't get the suit today. I thought I didn't get the suit, but I guess we're on brand, we're on brand. We're summertime. We're cozy.

We're cozy in the summertime. Cozy. I love it. I love it.