Former NBA superstar Tristan Thompson has become a trending topic over the weekend as the retired NBA champion filed a lawsuit against World Mobile Group over an allegedly botched $2 million endorsement deal. In other news, he revealed on his ex-partner Khloe Kardashian’s podcast that she gave him an “ultimatum” to get a vasectomy.

Both incidents have caused the former NBA player to trend on both courtrooms and celebrity gossip columns, with coverage ranging from legal analysis of his Delaware Chancery Court filing to recaps of his reproductive choices. It is a combination that shows how much the 35-year-old has embedded himself in both the tech and entertainment worlds since retiring from professional basketball. Thompson signed a brand ambassador agreement with World Mobile Group, a UK-based crypto telecom company, in May 2025.

Former NBA superstar drags World Mobile Group to court

According to the complaint filed in Delaware’s Chancery Court, the deal promised quarterly distributions of the company’s WMTX token, worth up to $1 million per year across two years, to Thompson. In return, Thompson promoted World Mobile on social media, made public appearances, and took the title of Chief Digital Equity Officer.

The partnership was launched publicly at TechCrunch Disrupt 2025, where the NBA star and the company announced a community-owned mobile network called Uplift. However, the relationship fractured in December 2025. World Mobile reportedly told Thompson that it had accidentally transferred more tokens than intended in its quarterly payment. Thompson’s legal team says he proposed a straightforward fix to the issue, which was to credit the overage against his next scheduled distribution, due roughly 60 days later.

However, World Mobile rejected that offer, issuing a formal notice of material breach and terminating the contract, three months after flagging the error, in March 2026, according to Complex. According to World Mobile, the grounds for the termination were the NBA star’s failure to return the excess tokens and his sale of some WMTX holdings. Thompson’s complaint calls that justification manufactured. “Defendants’ purported basis for termination does not constitute a material breach of the agreement,” the filing states.

The three-count suit includes breach of contract and unauthorized use of the NBA veteran’s name, image, and likeness. Thompson alleges World Mobile kept running promotional materials featuring him even after cutting ties. He is seeking the unpaid compensation, damages, interest, and a court order blocking further use of his identity. “Monetary damages alone are inadequate to remedy the continuing harm to Mr. Thompson’s reputation, goodwill, and control over the commercial use of his identity,” the complaint states.

WMTX peaked near 98 cents in February 2022 and now trades below 5 cents, a roughly 95% decline, according to CoinMarketCap data. The lawsuit and the podcast appearance both reflect Thompson’s aggressive pivot into business and technology after 13 years in the NBA. He won the 2016 championship with the Cleveland Cavaliers and has since invested in AI company Anthropic, taken advisory roles at blockchain venture AxonDAO, co-founded Basketball Fun (a Web3 platform), and joined sports analytics firm Tracy AI as chief content officer.

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