Cleveland Cavaliers big man Tristan Thompson shared that he met people who were in tears after the Cavs won the NBA Finals in the 2015-16 season.
Thompson, the No. 4 overall pick in the 2011 draft by Cleveland, shared some of the memories that he holds from that title during a conversation with current teammate Darius Garland for Cleveland Magazine.
“It means everything,” Thompson said when asked what the city of Cleveland means to him. “When I got drafted here, the one thing everyone was always talking about was a 52-year drought with no championship. Of course, with the [Cleveland] Browns going to Baltimore and winning [a Super Bowl], that hurt a lot of this city’s heart. So for me, the motivation was ‘Win a championship.’ When we won, all I could think about was the fans. I remember meeting people, like, guys in their 60s, and they’re like, you know, in tears, saying, ‘Thank you. I’m able to be alive and see the city win a championship.’ So those are the memories that I cherish the most.”
In the 2016 NBA Finals, the Cavs fell behind against the Golden State Warriors 3-1. Golden State, which had won 73 games in the regular season, looked primed to close things out. However, the Cavs made history and became the first team ever to erase a 3-1 deficit in the NBA Finals and win the series.
In Game 7 against the Warriors, Cleveland had a number of iconic plays, from LeBron James’ block of Andre Iguodala to Kyrie Irving’s go-ahead 3-pointer over Stephen Curry.
Thompson played a major role for the Cavs in the playoffs in the 2015-16 season, and he went to four straight NBA Finals with the franchise from the 2014-15 season through the 2017-18 season.
In the 2016 postseason, the Cavs big man appeared in 21 games, started all of them and averaged 6.7 points, 9.0 rebounds and 0.9 blocks per game. He shot 52.7 percent from the field along the way.
Now, Thompson is in a new era of his career with this current Cavs team. Cleveland is the No. 1 seed in the Eastern Conference at this point in the 2024-25 season, and it could have a chance to bring another title to the city of Cleveland later this year.
While Thompson isn’t a major piece of the Cavs’ rotation this season, he is a steadying veteran presence for a core that features Garland, Donovan Michell, Evan Mobley and Jarrett Allen.
For Cavs fans, it’s awesome to see how important it was to Thompson to win a title for the city and how important the community remains to him today.