What does a 14-year career in professional basketball have in common with mastering the crypto market? According to NBA star Tristan Thompson, who played for the Cleveland Cavaliers this past season, both require discipline and persistence.

At last week’s Bitcoin 2025 conference in Las Vegas, Thompson told Decrypt that he’s been able to learn a lot about cryptocurrency since entering the space two years ago, leaning on “crypto tutors” through countless three-hour sessions and hosting his own podcast.

“Too many celebrities, especially [in] this meme coin era, were just extracting from the space,” he said. “I wanted to not only be in this space. I wanted to understand it.”

In addition to Courtside Crypto—a show that mixes sports and crypto—Thompson has become an ambassador for a crypto-focused sports betting platform Sportsbet.io and Ethereum layer-2 network called Corn that’s trying to leverage Bitcoin for decentralized finance, or DeFi.

But when it comes to his goal to “make crypto cool,” the NBA veteran avoids jargon and prefers sports analogies.

“Bitcoin is Michael Jordan, LeBron James is Ethereum, Solana is Stephen Curry, and XRP is Kevin Durant,” Thompson said, pairing digital assets with legendary NBA talent.

Thompson is among the latest cohort of celebrities to wade into the cryptosphere since a series of high-profile collapses, culminating in FTX’s industry-shaking bankruptcy, spawned class-action lawsuits against sports icons like Tom Brady and Shaquille O’Neil. Those athletes are examples of people that didn’t educate themselves enough, he said.

“FTX made people take a step back,” he said. “Those who are educated in this space, even when it’s tough times or there’s trauma, they understand you still hold.”

To that point, Thompson said that Cleveland Cavaliers president Koby Altman told him to report back to the team on anything he learned from the conference, he added. Coincidentally, the Cavaliers debuted an Avalanche-powered fan app last year.

Thompson said his crypto journey is about self-empowerment, taking control of his own assets and moving beyond financial advisors who encourage clients to stick to the status quo.

“They’re like dinosaurs,” he said. “I want to educate the Web2 space because I think what the centralized banks have done is basically manipulated, brainwashed, and made people sheep.”

Thompson said that Ryan Fang, the founder of Tomo Wallet and an advisor to Trump-backed DeFi project World Liberty Financial, has been a personal mentor. During the conference, Thompson said he got the chance to meet with Eric Trump, the U.S. president’s son.

Fang did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Decrypt.

Edited by Andrew Hayward