Tristan Thompson reveals every Cavaliers player put $100 in Oracle Arena locker room after winning Game 5 of 2016 Finals: ‘We’re going to come back and get that money’

Tristan Thompson revealed that Cleveland Cavaliers players put $100 in the Oracle Arena locker room after winning Game 5 of the 2016 NBA Finals against the Golden State Warriors. 

The Cavaliers fell down 3-1 to the Warriors in the 2016 NBA Finals. They won Games 5, 6 and 7, becoming the first team in league history to erase a 3-1 series deficit in the NBA Finals. 

“After game five, when LeBron James and Kyrie Irving had 40 — go crazy, T Lue [coach Tyronn Lue] and Bron, they’re like, ‘Everyone put $100 into this pot, and we’re gonna leave it.’ They left it in the ceiling and said, ‘We’re going to come back and get that money.’ That was game five. So game five, we win that, so [the series is] 3-2. Go back to Cleveland. Win game six, and then we win game seven. I don’t know where that money is. I don’t know if Bron ever got the money,” Thompson said for Cleveland Magazine. 

LeBron won the 2016 Finals MVP Award. He averaged 29.7 points, 11.3 rebounds, 8.9 assists, 2.6 steals and 2.3 blocks in the series, helping the Cavaliers win the title for the first time in franchise history. 

Thompson, who has had two stints with the Cavaliers, will never forget what it was like bringing a title to Cleveland. 

“It means everything,” Thompson said. “When I got drafted here, the one thing everyone was always talking about was a 52-year drought with no championship. Of course, with the Browns going to Baltimore and winning [a Super Bowl], that hurt a lot of this city’s heart. So for me, the motivation was win a championship. When we won, all I could think about was the fans. I remember meeting people, like, guys in their 60s, and they’re like, you know, in tears, saying, ‘Thank you. I’m able to be alive and see the city win a championship.’ So those are the memories that I cherish the most.”