“I was lucky to play with LeBron James”: Tristan Thompson explains why he signed with Celtics and his plans to beat the Lakers with Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown

LeBron James carried Tristan Thompson and co to their only championship in 2016. The Celtics big man isn’t in a hurry to forget.

The Lakers are the reigning champions, but there are younger, fitter teams closing in on their crown. Although they are back on top of the Western Conference standings, there are teams on the other coast shaping up to rival them. Heavy is the head that wears the crown, as they say.

Tristan Thompson signed with the Celtics this past offseason, providing them some much needed toughness in the interior. The Celtics did not have a defensive specialist guarding their paint last season. This hampered their ability to take over games on the defensive end against the likes of Embiid.

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The Cs will be queueing up to take the top spot in the Eastern standings. Currently, the Sixers lead the league with a 7-2 record, but the Celtics are not far off at 7-3.

Tristan Thompson talks about LeBron James and his impact

In a recent ESPN interview, Thompson opened up about James’ impact on his career:

“I was just so lucky to be a part of those three different eras. For me, being with LeBron for those last four years, it just shows you what great players do. The first year right after Labour Day he was in the gym ready to go an [indiscernible] a few weeks later. So me and Kyrie were like, ‘this guy is full in gym sweat before 10 am, this is what the greats do.”

“My decision to the Celtics, I texted him, ‘everything you taught me those four years and even prior to that in our relationship, I wanna basically pay it forward to these guys like Jayson and Jaylen and Marcus’ . These guys all have potential to be very good and you see how great Jayson is. Jaylen, in my opinion, is an All-star talent and Marcus is getting better every single year in his career.”

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