← The Pomp Podcast
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- [00:01]
Podcast Sponsor Announcer 1
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- [00:27]
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- [00:56]
Tristan Thompson
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 passed, that's going to unlock so much more capital for everything on chain and in crypto. So I tell guys.
- [01:17]
Podcast Host
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,
- [01:44]
Podcast Sponsor Announcer 3
but it blew my mind.
- [01:45]
Podcast Host
I think you're going to enjoy it. It was 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 the professional level?
- [02:16]
Tristan Thompson
I mean, you know, tech has grown so much. Anthony. I think, especially in the last couple 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 a few years ago when he constructed his Philadelphia 76ers team, he said he used AI and the technology to curate his roster. And that's why he paid Paul George and brought him on, because he saw the areas that sometimes it's about a balance. 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, Jaylen 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. His offensive efficiency goes down, right? So all those numbers play into it. But I think the next thing for, you know, for. 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. The sports science, but the next thing is, like, the next level. For instance, you know, last year's playoffs, you had Damian Lillard, Jayson Tatum, and Tyrese Halburn all tear their Achilles on. The biggest stage in 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 for football has the same issue, right? Like, nobody wants to see a star quarterback getting hurt the first round. The. It ruins the whole journey of the season.
- [04:02]
Podcast Host
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 he goes. If his efficiency goes down in traps, whatever that man won an NBA championship. He's good.
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Podcast Sponsor Announcer 3
In my book, he's a king of
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Tristan Thompson
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 is number one, because I always have respect for the OGs. But I will say this terrible. Ten years from now, when you ask the young kids, they might say Jaylen Brown's the king of New York. Might be the greatest New York athlete of all time.
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Podcast Host
100%.
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Podcast Sponsor Announcer 3
100%.
- [04:33]
Podcast Host
That is a big, big possibility. What 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 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 measure. And I've been blown away by seeing, like, the strength and conditioning coaches, the, you know, healthcare staff, etcetera, 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.
- [05:10]
Tristan Thompson
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. I play for Byron Scott and I play and Mike Brown, and those guys are old school from the Pat Riley, Greg 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 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 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 implement that and actually take it in because at first when I was in NBA, when the traders 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 that's why a lot of these coaches, older coaches, don't, Aren't coaching no more. It's a new. It's a new regime. The Joe Missoulas, the Eme now, because the old school guys, they got them out. Tom Thibodeau, though, they got them out of there. They weren't listening.
- [06:34]
Podcast Sponsor Announcer 3
I love it.
- [06:35]
Podcast Host
All right, let's talk about your transition from being an NBA champion professional athlete to now 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 is 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?
- [07:05]
Tristan Thompson
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 have to pivot to what's next. And for me, it's about what are my interests and what am I, what gets me excited, what makes me feel like a rookie again. And I really kid you not looking at like Magic Johnson, Shaquille o'. Neal, right? Those 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, and being in the tech space and knowing that it's almost like the early.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 Huang and him talking, talking about, you know, because one thing everyone wants here 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 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, 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 is not right, your house is tipping over.
- [08:41]
Podcast Sponsor Announcer 3
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- [09:44]
Podcast Host
Archpublic.com when you start thinking about, 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 cake. How do you go and actually find where you want to put that capital?
- [10:07]
Tristan Thompson
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 it, like humans are the most resilient creatures on Earth. And 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, 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 resilient, We' beat all the odds. Even when the COVID happened, when Covid happened, everyone said the world's over. Humans are gonna have. We're all gonna be gone, we're gonna 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, 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 gonna stop, the dance is gonna 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 Pro Book, right? Where he created basically this is a operating system like almost like an Airbnb but for service industry, like the first 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, to zero. But like having end state or having, 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
- [11:59]
Podcast Host
be part of what about things like space or maybe some of the other really innovative 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?
- [12:09]
Tristan Thompson
Well, I think it's about, you know, even if you look at SpaceX and 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 and 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 to 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, you got Xai, you got Boring coming. You got SpaceX. Those two, 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 when I'm flying over there, 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 we would have never thought that I was using AOL dial up. You were probably using dial up to back in the day, right? Like, that just shows you, like, why I'm so bullish on human beings like him, because it's like the horse, you always bet on them to win.
- [13:49]
Podcast Host
What do you think about things like bitcoin?
- [13:51]
Tristan Thompson
Oh, come on. Orange pill. If you look at my phone, it's orange. Orange pill. 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 is when the away market crash happened, it showed that there was a chink in the financial institution armor. And bitcoin became like this Robin Hood Batman, where it represents financial freedom. And for me, 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 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 to web3spaces 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.
- [14:52]
Podcast Host
One of these 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, you know, advantage they can capture by being a first mover, like all this kind of stuff. There's a 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, you know, 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, the message is the exact same.
- [15:45]
Tristan Thompson
Yeah, definitely. And, and what I always tell people is like, I don't, I don't own bitcoin because I, I expect the 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 passed, 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 so smart. You're the best, you know? And that I think that that's really what I tell my teammates. And that comment, 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.
- [17:20]
Podcast Sponsor Announcer 3
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- [17:46]
Podcast Host
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- [17:47]
Podcast Sponsor Announcer 3
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- [18:27]
Podcast Host
Now one other big area that I think is is rapidly growing is everything to do with prediction markets, these sports books etc and I think that the regulators are going to have to try to figure out like what's sports gambling, what's not. 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?
- [19:02]
Tristan Thompson
Well, I think, you know, the one thing 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 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 together. 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 was like the Midas touch. 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 the, he's like, yeah, welcome to my game. This is, this is. He was like thanos and just snapped his finger and everything just changed.
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Podcast Host
What do you want? Like what's your goal? What do you want people to kind of remember you for post playing career?
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Tristan Thompson
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 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 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 them. Like I'm telling rookies, you know, you should be looking at your P and L statements. You should. If you're going to give someone a power training, make sure you get your bill sent to you. Look at every line sheet to make sure you can protect yourself. Because what is 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 living 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 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 this is like my. My. My Black Panther moment is what I always like to say.
- [21:44]
Podcast Host
Now, who are the vets? And, like, tell me one good story about a vet that. That kind of imparted knowledge on you.
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Tristan Thompson
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 Oura Ring, right? And he got in during COVID when, remember, I don't remember if you. You. You picked it up or if it was online, was that Oura 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, wellness and. And longevity of life and living a healthy life. And he found the oil rig, and he was telling, 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 align yourself with these kind of companies. And, you know, he's probably one of the, like, him getting out our ring super early and telling me about it. And then, like, he's like, you got to do this. Like, start. Start getting involved in companies that you believe in.
- [22:45]
Podcast Host
I love it.
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Podcast Sponsor Announcer 3
But before I let you go, tell
- [22:47]
Podcast Host
me one company you're an investor in that you're really excited about. I'm not asking you to pick favorites,
- [22:52]
Podcast Sponsor Announcer 3
because I know every baby is the
- [22:53]
Podcast Host
same, but what's one that you're like,
- [22:55]
Podcast Sponsor Announcer 3
hey, you know, right now, I haven't
- [22:56]
Podcast Host
spent A lot of time with them or something. And you're really excited about it.
- [23:00]
Tristan Thompson
A company that I invest, I'm very excited about. You know which one, which I like is. It's a company called Palomino Labs. Right. And what they're, what they're doing, it's a great team. One of the founders, he actually had a big exit with Elon Musk with SpaceX, held one of his technologies to them. What they're doing especially with data centers, right? What's the biggest thing in these, these, these spaces, 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 like they're, they are trying, 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 bullshit. Because the reality is that these things 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.
- [24:01]
Podcast Host
I love it.
- [24:02]
Podcast Sponsor Announcer 3
Where can we send people to find you online?
- [24:03]
Tristan Thompson
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 them. But guess what, guys? Price comes up, price comes down. And I had a great exit on my perks. So I'm a perf trader. So you know T. Thompson 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.
- [24:32]
Podcast Host
I love it. So you're saying that you, you shorted hype right into all the bulls and you came out victorious?
- [24:39]
Tristan Thompson
I was a big bull. 610.
- [24:44]
Podcast Host
All right. We'll do it again in the future.
- [24:46]
Tristan Thompson
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 was gonna get the suits, 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.