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Tristan Thompson, Special Olympics Ambassador

Tristan Thompson

Global Ambassador

Tristan Thompson was selected by the Cleveland Cavaliers with the 4th overall pick in the 2011 NBA Draft, becoming the highest-drafted Canadian-born player in league history that year. Thompson spent his first nine NBA seasons (2011-2020) in Cleveland, where he played a vital role in the team's four straight NBA Finals appearances and the franchise's first-ever NBA Championship in 2016. He returned to Cleveland during the 2023-2024 season and remains one of only four players in franchise history to accumulate at least 5,000 points and 5,000 rebounds, joining current Laker LeBron James and former Cavaliers legends Zydrunas Ilgauskas and Brad Daugherty.

Additionally, Thompson holds the franchise record for most offensive rebounds in a single season with 306 in 2012-2013, with career averages of 9.0 points, 8.4 rebounds and 1.0 assists in 26.8 minutes.

Over his career, Thompson has appeared in 730 career regular season games (478 starts) for Cleveland, Boston, Sacramento, Indiana, and Chicago. He has connected on .519 percent from the field and has reached double figure scoring 338 times, including 21 games with 20-plus points and one game with 30-plus points. Thompson has also grabbed double-digit rebounds in 288 career games, including five games with 20-plus rebounds. He has also tallied 185 double-doubles over his career.

In the Cleveland Cavaliers record books, Thompson ranks among the franchise's all-time leaders in offensive rebounds (second, 2,115), total rebounds (third, 5,393), defensive rebounds (fifth, 3,278), blocks (sixth, 447), games played (seventh, 619) and minutes (eighth, 17,373). His 447 consecutive regular season games played from Feb. 10, 2012, to April 4, 2017, remains the longest streak in Cavaliers history.

Engagements: For Tristan Thompson, community engagement in service is not optional. Whether it’s involved in purchasing turkeys and full bags of groceries for underserved families, or shopping sprees for children during the holidays, or helping to raise awareness of domestic violence and pediatric epilepsy, which affects his younger brother, he is committed to helping his local community. He launched an education program in 2013, called “BLOCKS 13” for students in grades 6-8. BLOCKS 13 focuses on Behavior, Leadership, Opportunity, Character, Knowledge and Success, a program developed by Thompson to help at-risk children stay on the right track in school.

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