On Saturday night, when the Cavaliers welcome the World Champion Knicks to town for a heavyweight tussle – and Eastern Conference Finals rematch – the franchise will be celebrating their own franchise title at Rocket Arena.
Saturday marks one of three nights in which the Wine & Gold will commemorate the 10th anniversary of the 2016 NBA Championship, when the Cavaliers became the first team in league history to overcome a 3-1 deficit to win the whole thing, storming back to win it all in an unforgettable Game 7 at Oracle Arena.
Before the game tips, one of the heroes from that squad – and one of the most beloved figures in Cavs team history – will pull the sword at center court to get the party started: The one and only Tristan Thompson.
Drafted with the 4th overall pick out of Texas in 2011, the blue-collar big man from Canada left an indelible mark on the franchise, capped with the World Championship in 2016. After a reunion tour in 2024-25, Thompson would end his Cavs career high among the squad’s all-time lists – ranking 2nd in offensive rebounds (2,220), 3rd in total rebounds (5,701), 5th in games played (708), in blocks (472) and in defensive rebounds (3,481). He’s also 14th in points scored (6,069), field goals made (2,448) and – yes – free throws made (1,164).
Just before Tristan boarded a plane at LAX bound for Cleveland, the beloved big man took a moment to speak with Cavs.com before Saturday’s celebration on the corner of Huron and Ontario …
What are you up to these days?
Tristan Thompson: Life’s been good! I’ve been doing a lot.
Obviously, there’s NBATV and I’m doing some broadcasting – always staying, you know, close to the game because, at the end of the day, the game was good to me. So, I’m always going to have some sort of involvement on the NBA side, doing some commentating.
And then, globally, basketball-wise, being a global ambassador for Dubai basketball, which is a EuroLeague team. We’re seeing the amount of NBA talent coming in from overseas, which means obviously there’s a lot of high-level talent, and the NBA can’t be only home for them. And the EuroLeague is growing very rapidly. That’s the reason why Adam Silver is trying to put an NBA imprint with NBA Europe.
So, right now, just helping the Archer Group make Dubai basketball the number one destination for those guys that are that are playing in the EuroLeague.
Did that Championship have a special meaning for you, being drafted high and having toiled through some lean years with the franchise?
Thompson: Kyrie and I came in at that weird time after LeBron left, so there was a sense of pride and ownership, winning that Championship. Because the two of us saw the true dog days in Cleveland. Yeah. Downtown was a ghost town. There was nothing to get excited about. When LeBron left that first time, it was like the soul of the city got sucked out.
We were just like two 19-year-olds trying to breathe some life back into the city. And then, of course, we got LeBron back, and that sped the whole process up.
Why did that particular group of guys – you, LeBron, Kevin, J.R., Channing, etc. – have the right stuff to win the title that year?
Thompson: I think, first of all, the guys that we had were all about the right things. I mean, I think it helps a lot that all those guys had been paid, and they actually had peace in their life. Channing had his heart issues years before. RJ had been around for 15 years and seen it all – rebuilding teams, competitive teams. He just wanted to win a Championship. J.R. had been a former Sixth Man, but he had a lot to prove in the league. We had guys who had peace in their life and were done with chasing personal accomplishments.
The only ones that didn’t get paid were me, Kyrie, Delly and Shump. And me and those other three, we were all just good human beings. And we really wanted to win. We had guys here before that who really weren’t about winning and we traded them, right? I won’t say their names. But that Championship team was filled with guys who were all about winning and playing hard.
People sometimes forget that the regular season wasn’t all sunshine and roses. What changed that year that led to the Championship run?
Thompson: I think it was when we brought in T-Lue.
I think Coach Blatt did a great job, but I don’t think anyone really believed he could be the head coach that we would win a Championship with. And that’s nothing against him, right? He didn’t get hired to coach a Championship-level team. He was hired to coach Kyrie, me, Dion (Waiters) and Tyler Zeller – a young team that’s trying to become a 7th or 8th seed. He didn’t get hired to hold Larry O’Brien, right?
But I think once T-Lue came in, he kind of brought that swag – that M&%#$@ F&%#$@ in the suit. He knows what winning looks like.
We were really focused that season, though. Losing (in the Finals) the previous year really bothered us. It kept us hungry and motivated. More than anything, we wanted to deliver and make good on the promise that LeBron made to the city of Cleveland.
You played like a man possessed in Game 6 of the 2016 Finals – hit all six shots, led both teams with 16 rebounds. What was your mentality that night?
Thompson: Well, we knew in our heads, if you win Game 5 out there in Oakland, there’s no way we’re losing Game 6 at home. It wasn’t even an option.
So, I just wanted to leave it all out there, and I was having a great game. I was dunking and running the floor. And we just felt like the whole city was behind us. I wanted to destroy Golden State that night.
When the clock hit triple-zeros at the end of Game 7 and you knew the Championship was yours, what went though your mind?
Thompson: Honestly, I thought about the city of Cleveland, you know?
Like, I remember being drafted here, and one time me and Kyrie did a basketball camp, and a little kid asked me: ‘Are you gonna leave us like LeBron did?’ And when it happened – when that buzzer went off – all I could think about was the city of Cleveland, how proud we’d made the city. That’s all I could think about. You’d heard all the stories of heartbreak. And you knew all that was over.