Tristan Thompson of Cleveland Cavaliers in action in a basketball match of the NBA against the 76ers of Philadelphia, Sunday November 27, 2016, in Philadelphia. (AP photo / Matt Slocum)
Copyright 2016 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
Tristan Thompson spent more than a decade under the brightest lights in basketball. At 34, with his declining player career, he channels the same record that brought him to the NBA in construction Basketball.funA platform that aims to rethink the way fans, data and players intersect in modern game.
When asked how life after the NBA changed it, Thompson pushes the idea that everything seems different. “I don’t think much about changes,” he says. “It’s always the same trip and Grind. The players on the field are different, but now it is a question of testing the mind, opening my brain and unlocking a path that I have never had before. It is almost like feeling again as a recruit.”
Thompson attributes his time to the League for shaping his state of mind as a manufacturer. “The hard work beats the talent when the talent does not work hard,” he says. “Give me the guy who will fight teeth and nails for size. Even if he never reaches him, I bet on him because one day he will find a breakthrough.” He underlines that LeBron James as the ultimate example, recalling how the superstar would appear in Cleveland a month before the start of the training camp, often in the gymnasium at 7 am, “seeing that as young players, it motivated us. Especially Kyrie and me.
Its transition to business has been shaped by years in the eyes of the public. As part of one of the most informed families in the media in the world, he has seen the brand and distribution in the first hand can raise a company beyond a product. He underlines how each member of the Kardashian-Jenner family has built companies aligned with their lifestyles. Scumes for Kim, cosmetics for Kylie, Tequila for Kendall. “The only thing about my family and what they have built is that he is organic for whom they are,” explains Thompson. For him, this next chapter must bring the same authenticity. “It’s about solving the problems that matter for my world.”
Toronto, Ontario – August 01: NBA champion Tristan Thompson attends the 2019 Amari Thompson Soire in support of Toronto epilepsy which was held in the Globe and Mail Center on August 01, 2019 in Toronto, Canada. (Photo by George Pimentel / Getty Images)
Getty images
Many athletes have turned to businesses such as real estate, restaurants or media production after the end of their career. LeBron James built a covering wallet Springhill Entertainment And Fire pizzaMichael Jordan has long invested in real estate and the old ownership challenges of the NBA, and Kevin during supported startups Going from Coinbase to postmates. Thompson wanted something different. “This is digital finance, digital assets,” he explains. “It is no different forty years ago when the athletes went to the bank and the investment. For me, it’s the next Wall Street. ” This desire to learn a new industry, he says, consists in creating opportunities not only for itself but also for others who do not have access to financial and technological education.
In the center of Thompson’s push in the blockchain is Basketball.funA platform built on the idea that fans deserve a more important role in the game they love. The idea of giving more influence fans is not new. Projects like NBA Top Shot have introduced Millions of people with digital collectibles. Even Formula 1 A experienced with blockchain partnerships To bring fans closer to the action. “Social media has already shown that this can influence everything, from coach decisions to players’ stories,” said co -founder Herman Narula. “By letting fans put real data and predictions behind their opinions, we can transform this influence into something measurable that leagues and teams cannot ignore.” Thompson believes Basketball.fun Can be based on these first experiences by going beyond collectibles and tokens sales to something that gives fans a real-time influence on the conversation around players and teams.
He stresses that teams, leagues and the media always say that fans are the vital element of sports, but rarely give them real influence. “Everyone says fans are league,” says Thompson. “But do they really invest in it? We want to empower fans because they have knowledge that people in costume often neglect.” The platform aims to allow fans to use data, predictions and even a real-time feeling to shape conversations around the performance and value of players, which Thompson sees so long in basketball.
Beyond the vision, Basketball.fun is designed as a prediction and data platform powered by fans. Users can support their point of view on players and games with real challenges, creating a live market for the performance and feeling of players. Instead of looking passively, fans can participate in the assessment of talents, by identifying emerging stars and shaping conversations around sport. The platform uses the blockchain to make these markets transparent and secure while avoiding high costs and common doors in fantastic sports or fan token projects. It will only be available on the Somnia blockchain, which was put online earlier this month.
For Thompson, the construction of a business requires the same objective and the same sacrifice as victory in the NBA. “I think everything in life is the same DNA, the same recipe,” he says. “It’s a workhorse, spending time, not shortcuts.” He remembers having left the house at sixteen to continue basketball in a boarding school in the United States, a decision that put him on the NBA path. Now, with three young children at home, he admits that traveling around the world to launch a technological business requires the same type of commitment. The difference this time is that the arena is digital rather than physical.
Thompson thinks that technology can fundamentally change the way fans interact with the game. He considers basketball. “We want to be disruptors,” he says. “Not to criticize, but to ask for what is other. We can change the way fans connect with sports forever.” Its co-founder Hadi Teherane compares the idea to the prediction markets that disrupted policy and finance, pointing platforms like Polymarket, which developed quickly as users bet, elections to economic versions. He maintains that the same data focused on fans that shape political coverage today could one day influence players’ assessments and even front-office decisions in professional sports.
While other platforms have experienced fantastic sports, fans tokens and prediction markets, Thompson insists Basketball.fun adopts a different approach. He highlights problems such as high fees and limited transparency on existing platforms as ripe areas for improvement. “Other products charge predatory costs and maintain a real locked influence,” he says. By giving fans a voice supported by data and a real participation of players, he thinks that the platform can provide better ideas and a stronger sense of the community than everything on the market today.
For the future, Thompson says that his motivation has just proved skeptics. “In five years, I want people to say when I saw him for the first time at a crypto conference, I doubted him. And now he has built something real, ”he explains. The same determination that brought him to the NBA when people told him that Canadians do not go to the League to feed his work in the world of technology. For him, Basketball.fun is not only a product launch, but a chance to show that athletes can be manufacturers, innovators and leaders far beyond the game.
For other athletes who think of life after sport, Thompson says that the key is self -awareness. “You should know who you are to find your next move,” he says. “Find something that excites you in the same way as the game did. Otherwise, you risk losing a goal at the end of your game days.” Too many players, he adds, fight with the transition because they never discover what pushes them outside basketball. “The sooner you understand this, the more fluid the next chapter.
