NBA champion Tristan Thompson on investing in Prometheus, running SPVs, and the future of AI in sports

I'd never heard before, but uh you know, somebody wrote it in there.

Learn something new every day.

Learn something new any day. Every single day, especially on this show. Well, our next guest is investor and NBA champion Tristan Thompson. We're very lucky to be joined by him here in the DVD Ultra Dome.

John, stand up next to God.

It's like Wally Zerby.

You guys are pretty. I'm serious.

Hey, yes, you are.

Let's go.

You are all of it. You are a tall drink of milk.

Holy shikes.

What's up? What's going on, brother? How are you? We're doing great. Not

Yeah. Yeah. Why don't you stand up?

Not even close. No, I'm happy to let you guys do your thing. I just wanted the audience to understand that John is an NBA sized man.

It's true. And And on the camera, everyone thinks I'm 5'10".

And John, you guys like they might see the shortest one right now. Like seriously, you're like, "This guy's a [ __ ] He was a center for 14 years at this height. How do you do it?

Basketball.

What's going on? Anyway,

uh it's great to have you. Great to have you.

Glad to be here. By the way, congrats to you guys.

Thank you.

Congrats. We're landing you.

No, no, no. You got success in acquisition and all that, you know. Come on now. Let's talk. Thank you. Fantastic. Yeah. I I mean, I I want to start with uh I mean, tech and investing. I mean we can go through your career but I'm interested in in sort of uh how you first caught the bug how you first got interested in technology investing just your journey to financial management understanding more of your strategy and uh sort of like oftentimes there's like mentors or books or resources along the way like what was your journey

I mean I think for me and you know I won't give like the cliche like you know I think other guys are like you know I think I didn't start really investing into things outside of the the traditional Yeah. You know, state treasury bonds and the S&P 500, the stuff that Fidelity and Wells Fargo tell you to money market. I wait till my second deal. Let's be real. Like, you know, cuz and you know, I tell the young guys is, you know, your first deal

because you got to just be focused on being really good at basketball so that you get the second deal.

Yeah. When you get the second deal, when I got my my my second deal, 82 million, you know, I I switched financial advisors because of the one I was with. Bang, bang, bang. There you go. Wow. Wow. This is high energy in here. I love this. Wow. But no. Um, you got two deals.

No, I started getting into alternative assets and getting into tech and investing in companies whether it's consumer or tech or

were you getting pitched VC funds like invest in the VC funds?

Yeah. You know, like Carl Group and and and all those guys, you know, back then I was with Morgan Stanley. So, they would give us those opportunities because they had them as a client. Yeah.

So that was kind like my early uh uh kind of like get my feet wet. But obviously as I got older and and wanted to dive into more, but obviously having the capital to have that exposure um you know I started to you know look into more and start to talk to founders and

you know get ahead of the curve.

Yeah.

Probably good probably good to start uh

it's probably good to start like taking deals from Morgan Stanley because obviously or or or a partner like that because not every deal is going to really hit or be that great. better than just looking at whatever is coming through because I think when people start investing especially in private markets they everything looks great in a pitch deck right it's like oh I'm looking at the forecast it's like they're going to 100 million in like three years and then you realize like okay well that most that's in most decks and it's about being able to pick out okay what's actually going to do well verse what's going to flop

yeah I feel like one of the hardest things is uh you see one deck and you're like this is a great idea great team and you don't realize that there's three other teams that are doing the exact same thing. They started two years earlier and they're better. Do you think about trying to when you when when you identify a trend that you're interested in, you want exposure to. Are you trying to pick the one winner, get a huge stake in one winner, or do you want to have some sort of diversification across the market?

I think for me it's first of all, I always bet on the founder. Yeah.

Right. It's it's betting on the horse, right? I think that's the most important thing. And I you know these pitch decks before they're 100 million. Now they always tell you they're a billion dollars and now they always look so good. But I think for myself I try to lean on what my peers are doing as well. And I' and I've been so fortunate to have some guys that have, you know, have early ICOs in Ethereum or guys that have done great exits and whether it is a family office or is the guys that are in funds, you know, that have had that experience because for me the reality is I am still one of the younger guys that are in in the space, right? So, I try to lean on other people and honestly, people have been so good to me and kind of like kind of helped steer me the right way because they're like, "Trist, we want to see you win. We don't want to see you come in and just

give money to everybody in this back

and not get much back." You know, I remember Olaf, a buddy of mine who's one of the early Coinbase employees. Yeah. You know, he said, "Tristan, you also got to be prepared that you're going to invest in 10 things and eight are going to fail."

Yep.

But the two that do well, he said, "Don't worry. It's going to cover all your capital that you put in." So, I also have that mindset as well, but I always like to bet on the founder. Bet on the horse. It's like a horse race. That's what I'm the most bullish.

Was there was there any uh athlete, entrepreneur, investors that you look up to maybe from the previous generation or people that were or maybe underrated investors that people don't know about? Because I feel like people know about the

the Shacks of the world, the guys that are super commercial, but anybody that's maybe more underrated. I mean, I look at Shaq and Magic because I think they were able to use their NIL to pivot to chapter 2 and leverage that to great opportunities, right? Like the end of the day, like the fact that Magic Johnson can open up movie theaters at Affordable and get acquired by AMC, that's big time, right? That's like like that that's creating a movement. But I think, you know, guys have done a good job as you know, of course, like the staff couer, Andre Gdala, he's done a good job. Um, but you know the reality us athletes if we make good investments we're going to tell all you guys all the guys that are doing very well

talk about it. There's no one under the radar.

Yeah. If I'm doing a 25x I'm going to hide in Indiana and not tell you about a press tour about it.

Yeah. So yeah. Do you think that there's a there's a fork in the road between uh NIL sponsorship just get the cash but put your name everywhere there it makes sense. tons of brand deals but not a lot of equity ownership versus more behind the scenes equity ownership just investing. Is that a fork in the road or can you do both reliably? How do you think about that trade-off if there is one?

I think for us as athletes and anytime I go into, you know, into the meetings and and I'm on calls all the time or if I'm going to whether it's Milkin or Medici or I'm at Token, you know,

I we only get one chance at this, right? And I think for us because when we come in everyone always we're always playing down by five points down by 10 cuz they're like

all right another athlete in here that's going to write a check and you know he's going to like I won't be a curs here but we're always going to like uh um

hoe oursel out right. Okay. And and that's what we I want to be very selective because

at the end of the day I don't want to be the guy that's for everybody. I want to make sure if I'm going down one lane, if I'm going to invest in a robotics company, I'm going to invest in tech, drones, I want to try to find one or two, not just be with 10 guys. Yeah.

Because you don't want to be that guy. But I but in terms of the NIL, I think it's very important as well because if you look at it right now, who's the biggest influencer in on planet Earth?

Elon Musk.

You would probably say Kim Kardashian, but you but we probably say Elon, right? See, but but like he's realized that, you know, Bill Gates and Steve Jobs, you know, these guys back in the day in the 90s and early 2000s, right? They would never put themselves out there and sit on Squatbox and on CNBC and talk about their product. But now you realize that the great founders, you are going to do a press run. You're like Drake and you're going to do an album roll out because you want to create the FOMO for retail for when you IPO

that people are going to buy.

Yeah. I mean you see his Palmer lucky too like very you know

and you got the look Michael Sailor's got like the can't look and then Elon got the like doesn't look human and then you got Larry Ellison looks like he's like he's like look maxing and everything right

Larry Ellison does look really young look so like I get that and I think that's why I think

Ellison really is the OG looks max

he's got the chiseled and everything remarkable it's like

he's 80 or something

and then there's no sun in SF like that so it's

that's a good point But but he sales. He sales all the time.

He's got he's a big boat guy.

Okay. So maybe he's getting the sun there. Uh who needs to be around the table when you're negotiating with a company because Olaf fantastic investor. I imagine that if he's writing a check, not many people are being like, "Hey, we'd also like to put you in our Super Bowl ad." But with you, I imagine every founder comes to you and they say, "Well, we'd like an Instagram post and we'd also like you to be in an ad." And all of that is a separate negotiation. Are there agencies that you work with? Are there are there is this something that you can puzzle out? Is it is it all just one big bucket or do you just say, "Hey, let's table that and let's just do the equity deal here and then let's talk about partnership later."

So the way I approach it is like this, right? So obviously you had the initial call and a conversation and you figure out what this what this marriage is going to look like and what and if I'm just capital if I'm just capital then

you're not going to I'm going to be more behind the scenes. But if I really believe in it and I feel like I can help your GTM and create the narrative and story to be to show what you guys are building and if I believe in it as well, we are going to strategize. I've been very fortunate to have people that come from the vententral people that have, you know, from Multicoin and and and that around those those guys, you know, they've been very helpful with like Tristan. Like if you look at Karan, it's like Tristan, you got to be very delicate at how you do things. And and for me, it all depends. Um there's definitely been a lot of investments that I no one knows that I'm invested in. Right. You know.

Yeah. Some of the best opportunities like they

you're waiting until it's a 25x and then you'll go on the tour.

Yeah.

Cuz it might be a zero and you're not going to talk about that.

Oh no. But you know what? Sometimes you guys you got to get your hit lift. I was down 31 before. So it all really depends. But I love being part of if I really feel [ __ ] about something, I love being part of the journey

because for me now

I still have the hunger and drive of winning again. I love winning championships. Y

and this is the next form of doing it. But instead of wearing a jersey, I'm wearing a Tom for suit and tie or I got this nice I don't know what color you guys call this, but I think it's very like TVPN, right? It's on brand. Yeah.

Uh taking the NBA to the next level. Is there anything that could make the NBA bigger? It's at the top of the mountain, but is there an even higher mountain? Is there a drive to survive play? What would make the NBA even bigger? If you could do anything.

I don't know if this is legal, but imagine if you like this.

I like where you're starting.

I don't know if the NBA could do this, but imagine if like

So, we have this something called the player postc career income plan, right? And I'm going to give some tea and I don't be real, right? So the player postc career income plan is where basically we take a portion of our capital and we put it into let's say let's say it's like the Voya or the principal right

we give them our money we give them a percentage of of our bi-weekly check and they hold on to it

it's good if you have you know bad spending problems and whatnot and that is is what it is

but you get nothing out of it you don't make no yield no interest right but imagine if we were able to kind of create like a MBPA

fund

but it's and but We're not going to be doing the money market four and a half like

you want to be yoloing.

But but but like like a college endowment

where they allocate 10%.

So So I Iend we follow the sport of business as you as you know. So I don't I don't I don't know really anything about this this kind of program that you're talking about. You give them money, you don't get any yield on it, and then they just give it back to you at a certain.

Yeah. So, the reason why they created this is you guys remember the ESPN 30 for30 broke.

Yeah.

Right. That was a lot of highprofile athletes that unfortunately and and it happens, right? Listen, at the end of the day,

we come from, especially myself, I've come from nothing. You give us millions of dollars and it's it's we can't rely on people back home to help us. It's like the blind leading blind

and you just get a ton up front. You think, "Oh, this is never going to stop." So, this was something that the NBA and I and I and I appreciate Adam. So and David Stern taking an init say hey

we don't want our players to pull out of their 401k at 3545 because you know you get heavily penalized the tax everything so we're going to create a player postc career income plan the day you're done playing

we are going to give you a check monthly to get you to 55 60 years old right which I love and I think that's so smart but imagine if now we're able to take some of that capital

and and get some exposure to some of these

great you know investor ments like imagine if think about this back when SpaceX back in 2022, right? If I came to you and said the NBA association is going to give endowment of 500 million, $100 million

to get into some allocation space.

That's a pretty good one to get into, right? I'm not saying go ahead and buy a bunch of Sally beauty supplies. We're saying something a little bit more protective, right? A little bit more that we

Yeah. I just don't understand why. So, so if there's capital that's been put aside coming out of your paycheck and it's sitting there, somebody's getting yield on it.

Oh, yeah.

Who's getting the yield?

Not me.

That's crazy. That's crazy.

But I will say this though. I will say those cuz then everyone's going to be like,

so they're like, "Yeah, we're taking care of the players." Meanwhile, they just have this huge pool of capital that they're they'reizing that seems a little bit might be honest.

But I will say the NBA's done a great job with the 401k. what they've done that no one else does is that they will match whatever you put in the 401k 20%.

Wow.

Which is great. So fantastic. So the NBA does a really good job protecting the players and and trying to put the players in the best position to be successful, which I appreciate.

So that's, you know, you got to give a little bit. It's a start. It's a start. And it's like, you know, we're not no one's ever finished product. Every business can get better. That's why

AI, robotics, that's a big thing, right? Especially in the workforce. What guidance do you give to young players that are real prospects? Maybe they're getting, you know, about to become a teenager. They're on the path to college, hopefully the NBA.

How what advice do you give them around navigating like the internet? I imagine like,

you know, the same way for any endeavor people that have some type of following or notoriety or aura, they can get better deals done. Mhm.

Uh but what advice are you giving cuz you you know I imagine like you that wasn't even something that you had to deal with at the time but then you obviously leverage social media now.

Yeah. I mean I wish there was NIL when I was playing you know back then when I was playing I was getting the money through the back door. Now you get it through the front door, right? So I wish I was getting that 11 million direct depart or that wire to my account back in the day. But what I tell these young guys is that you know just just be careful like protect what you've built, right? Because everyone's going to want a piece of you. And the reality is that

we are not going to be the smartest in the room. We are going to be basically the squirmy fish in in the cess poolool and people are going to want to, you know, eat us up, right? So you got to really lean and and I tell guys, lean I know I I'm sorry, guys. I'm just very I'm very honest. Yeah, this is part of being a big man, a center in the NBA. We're not pretty. We're very ugly with it and we get down and dirty.

So that's amazing.

But no, but I think it's like lean on your peers and older guys. I' I've always been the one whether it's LeBron, whether it's Kevin Love, whether it's Antoine Jameson, Anderson Ver, I've always went to my older and my vets to to ask questions and don't be afraid to, you know, be vulnerable because I think that's the one thing for us as athletes. We're we fear to saying like, man, I my my [ __ ] might be screwed up.

I might have might be in some bad deals or I might have a bad financial adviser. That's the one area where we where athletes become small

and that's not something we should do.

Yeah. So,

uh, what about AI and sports? I'm sure you get pitches all the time. I imagine you seem to like to invest in really big categories because you're going for the you're going for the 100x, the the thousandx, but uh, what's exciting to you at the, you know, at at the intersection of AI and and, you know, basketball?

Well, I think, you know, I would, nothing would make me more happy if we had a fourth referee. And my friends think I'm crazy if that referee was, you know, we used AI.

It's worked in tennis.

Yes, it's worked. It's worked in tennis. And it's even in in in soccer or football

in World Cup right now. They have a they have this band or something like that.

They're cancelling goals on Paraguay or cancelling goals on C. Remember, I'm Canadian. So, we scored. They're like, "Nope, bring it back VR." But I remember like being a kid watching the World Cup. I said that never used to happen. But now they realize using AI technology to try to make the game more efficient. But especially in the NBA in the NBA in the playoffs when it's a one possession game and you know when they're saying it's a charge or block or I mean we were we were a victim of it game one against Golden State when LeBron took took the charge on Kevin Durant and then they called it a blocking foul and they switched and I think and we lost that game and I think we got swept there but that was a turning point in the series um among other things. But yeah, I think like

that was like I I I feel like that's the next step for sports and AI and I think

you know AI has taken over so many different sectors in the world. I think sports is like the one area that it's been like the most like it's like the slowest one. It's like the last one to the party of course and it's like people on the court.

Yeah. But in reality like guys

Yeah. I just mean outside of that like performance things like recover. Well, think about this. famous last year in the playoffs you had Jason Tatum, Tyler Hbert and and Damen Lillard all tear their Achilles and Adam Silver said we got to start using AI technology to protect our players right because don't get sports science is great but there's another level to this course you can't have your best players in the faces of your league

go down to the most important time where is the money maker time which is the playoffs so to to hopefully that answers your question where I think that's the next step for it's more for sports

sports medicine and science and I would wouldn't mind a you know a So, fourth referee just to clean up some stuff.

Yeah, that makes sense. Yeah.

How are you? What What's your personal biohacking stack? Are you doing anything?

I How How long do you want to live? You thinking like 90? I'm good.

I clearly got the height extension surgery.

Yeah. Right. Put it in my legs.

No, but um for me, you know, I'm very big on peptides. I want to look good for a long time, guys. All right.

Let's show you guys. I want to look good for a long time. I I'm 35. I want to look 25. I want to keep this skin good. I want to keep this jaw chiseled. I want to stay in shape. So I will do listen I'm very I look in the mirror I look in the mirror myself a lot I want to look good every day.

So whatever I need to do I'm about it. So yes I do a little you know little for the hair. So you know I got to make sure I'm right.

I love it. Uh I'm sure you've traveled all over the world. If there's one city where you could put in new NBA team, where would you put it?

Oo.

Anywhere in the world.

Oh in the world.

Anywhere in the world.

NBA team.

NBA teams.

I mean is that not a kind of a dumb question?

No. really dumb question. That's the point.

Uh

just like it would be exotic. It would be interesting to go play there. I don't know. That's what that

I would say I would say America

or I would say I mean Dubai has a team right now but Dubai is so beautiful.

Yeah.

That's a magical place.

See, dumb question. Interesting answer.

Yeah.

How how much time have you spent in Morocco?

You know, I'll be honest. Never been there yet.

You just Morocco.

You got to go. You got to go. goes there every year. He calls me. He's like, "Ti, you have to come." He's been invited the last three years. He's like, "Ti, you have to come." And then one of the agents that work for our sports agency at Clutch Sports, he's Morocco. He's like, "Ti, you have to go. You have to go. It's beautiful. It's magical." So that's why I say Marish, but Dubai spends a lot of time there. That place is magical. They're forward thinking. They love entrepreneurs. They're about what we're about.

They're all about That's what I love.

Morocco is great. Morocco is great. Surf surf trip probably

nine years ago.

Now I see it in the hair.

Yeah. Yeah.

There you go. You spent a lot of time in Laguna,

Malibu.

Ooh, they're closer.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

That's amazing.

What uh like do you think you'll ever get bored with investing?

No. You know, I I'm I'm actually so excited

that that actually does happen. Like there's some like the generational investors, specifically angel investors that are doing it for the love of the game and then they just get a little bit tired chasing the next deal. The issue is if you're good, you just get you get too rich and then you're like, "What's the point? It's the boat. It's the boat. If you get the boat, you'll just be on the boat.

Yeah. You know, it's it's not about the invest. You know, I love

talking to people and like these meetings and the calls that I have, you learn so much. Like for instance, like I have a call with a gentleman that's creating a nuclear energy company. I just want to learn learn about what he's thinking, his thesis, why what he thinks, where he thinks the world's going because I just love the education, right? It's almost like class is in session. So, of course, yes. Do I like investing? Do I like winning? Of course. Like when I did a hype short, everyone thought I was crazy, but now I'm laughing to the bank. When I when I closed out my hyper liquid trade, right? So that's what I was happy about. So I like being right, but I like I like the storyteller because I think

I I I I bring everything back to team.

Yeah.

And and everything's a team. You guys are a team. The guy, the gentleman, you guys back here, they got they love you guys at that. You got a squad here, right? Everything is team oriented. The team sports. So I love to always hear how how this team is trying to operate and what they're trying to accomplish. And if I could come and whether it's capital or whether it's leveraging my resources or intros, I want to do that. Especially if I believe in who you are.

Would you ever would you ever raise outside capital from other players? Say, "Hey, I don't want you to in don't invest 100% of your money, but give me give me 2% of your next deal. I'll deploy it." And and so they can kind of like, you know, get the benefit of everything you've learned.

Well, you know, I've been running a lot of SPVS the last two years.

Sure. And I've had some some great success. I mean, I just, you know, one thing I'm very bullish on is Prometheus and I just invested in, you know, their last round. You

got the Prometheus allocation.

Yeah, I got the Prometheus allocation. The friends and family. Shout out to family. You know, shout shout out mom for the, you know, the 70th birthday at Jeff's house. Shout out mom. I love you. So, you know, I definitely, you know, allocated to allocation.

Yeah. It's beautiful. And God is good to me. And and I want to give, you know what I really want to do? I want to give guys the same opportunity. That's also why

That's what I'm saying. That's what I'm saying. Cuz like you work, you work to get to the point where you get that slug. But

yeah, so I think it's like now instead of keep SPV, maybe at some point I might want, you know, around Q4, maybe start a fund for for me and my people and, you know, give guys the opportunity that I have and it's globally. It's not just in America, you know, it's, you know, yesterday I was sitting with some gentlemen that work with the QIA and they've been really good and they've been very open doors to me and show me nothing but love and respect and I love the people of DHA and Qar. So I want to give the people the opportunity that I have because I think it's about paying it forward and that's about being a real team player. And me being a center, I didn't score 20 points a game. I did if you need me, if Kevin Love was out the game. But, you know, for me, I'm getting the low double D. I'm getting the rebounds. Be a star in your role. Yeah.

And now my role now is pivoting to be, you know, helping my guys that are still got the jerseys on or the young guys are guys that are retiring.

Give them the access opportunity to make their money, make money.

Yeah. Give them a start.

Yeah. Yeah.

Robotics. You're excited about robotics. What specifically? Humanoids, nonhumanoids, wield stuff? No, I think you know.

Yeah. How what's your timeline to a humanoid being able to beat you one-on-one?

So,

this is the real

like it might be it might legit be

like we got the touring test. We got the Trist.

Well, well, the day that I go oneon-one versus a robot and if I lose, I better make sure I have so much peptides in my shoulders and bices where I can rip it apart.

I better have so much allocation in the robot that beats me. I better be out

if you're not making if you're not making money on the robot that's whooping you then then it's over.

Yeah. But no, I'm I'm you know my thesis on robotics right now it's and Jensen Wong said this two years ago. It's about physical AI and I think robotics is physical AI. Humanoids I'm not

we're not there yet. You know I'm not going to sit here and say I would want a robot taking care of my 9 8 and threeyear-old. I'm not saying that. What I'm saying for the physical AI it's it's more so you know whether it's in healthcare whether it's and one area like health care agricultural you know uh construction landscaping right all those areas robots and robotics can help it's making it's making the owners be more efficient on the business aspect and especially one area I like to touch on is is agriculture like the farmers right because you know back in the day you know a lot of the you know a lot of the tractors right now are autonomous they're doing it on their own but back in the day you had people, labor workers doing it and you know a lot of these farmers were spending so much time on the labor and missing out on the business growth and opportunity which was killing their margins. Now us using more autonomous you know machines and robotic even like what what Jeff's doing with now the packaging what he's going to have in Amazon with Prometheus right it's not just you know the drive the cars it's no it's more like the packaging the armoop so it's more efficient which that's what I'm super bullish on because I want people to find ways to improve their business and less relying on the manpower let's us focus on building the business side and I think one area that I that I'm very excited about like the agricultural space, how we can improve that.

Yeah.

Because those farm they're important to us. People always forget like we're talking about like AI and and energy and all crops are important.

Yeah.

And there's a labor shortage.

You ever start a company?

Would I ever start a company?

Go through YC run it up.

Oh, like why? I mean, listen, those guys have man.

You know, one thing I will say on this guys, I I am I am a capital allocator, so I do believe in a lot of people and and I I don't mind writing checks. So if there's the right opportunity, maybe one day like create my own accelerator.

I've thought about it as well,

you know, especially

go headtohead with Gary Tan.

Yeah. But but but founding the fund is the entrepreneur.

Yeah. Yeah.

Or you know doing doing a multi- you know how they do multif family opposites.

Yeah.

Like doing like a multi family accelerator

where it's like G you you you could both put like 100 cuz I know like why come they used to put 250 and then they want like 10% back.

G we bust it in half.

Okay.

10 and 10.

Yeah.

10 and 10.

Yeah. 10 and 10. And and I'll put the 100, you put the the 150.

Fantastic.

Well, thank you. That was super fun. This is so much fun. No,

guys. Thank you guys.

Yes. No, I love it, man. We're all in the same place. Thank you guys so much. Super. Listen, I'm a big fan. Huge fan. Watch you guys daily. I'm so glad we're able to make this work. This is awesome. I would love to come back again. I appreciate it. Thank you guys so much.