Tristan Thompson Revealed His Hype Song For When The Cavaliers Play The Warriors


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The Cleveland Cavaliers and the Golden State Warriors have the best rivalry in basketball, and it isn’t even close. When you’ve had to face each other in the NBA Finals for three years in a row, developing bad blood is inevitable.

This is about more than basketball, though. These teams trade shots off the court just as much as they trade shots on it. Seriously, you could write a book about all the subtweets, social media videos, and even dueling T-Shirts, but this WWE-style Draymond Green promo does a pretty good job summing up the hatred.

With all the obvious bad blood between these guys, it’s only natural for NBA players on both teams to look for anything that’ll give them an edge. Cavaliers forward Tristan Thompson does exactly that, and detailed what he does to get a little-added motivation heading into a big game against the Warriors.

Thompson was a guest on Thursday’s episode of Total Request Live (TRL is back?!) and he talked about his special playlist for matchups with the Warriors. While you’d probably expect to find some Migos, or Future, or Kanye West on there, Thompson goes a different route.

“I love hip-hop and rap to get me going, but I got to be able to calm myself down from all the anxiety and stress. So I got to be able to relax, so I listen to “Shake it Off,” and a little “Bad Blood” for rivalries, like Golden State.”

I’m not here to knock Thompson for his taste in music. There is nothing wrong with Taylor Swift, and on the surface, “Bad Blood” sounds like a decent song to get you hyped up for a big rival, but the lyrics couldn’t be less applicable to a basketball rivalry.

‘Cause baby, now we’ve got bad blood
You know it used to be mad love
So take a look what you’ve done
’Cause baby, now we’ve got bad blood, hey!
Now we’ve got problems
And I don’t think we can solve ’em
You made a really deep cut
And baby, now we’ve got bad blood, hey!

Did you have to do this?
I was thinking that you could be trusted

Did you have to ruin what was shiny?
Now it’s all rusted
Did you have to hit me where I’m weak?
Baby, I couldn’t breathe
And rub it in so deep
Salt in the wound like you’re laughing right at me

On the second read, the line “did you have to hit me where I’m weak? Baby, I couldn’t breathe.” may actually apply to Draymond Green’s favorite defensive tactic, but aside from that, it’s still a bizarre choice.

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