On this week’s episode of The Kardashians, it was revealed Kris Jenner was the reason that Tristan Thompson joined ESPN for a brief stint earlier in 2023. While talking about the gig during the episode, Thompson went out of his way to thank Jenner for pulling some strings to land him the coveted job. “It’s a dream. I mean, the fact that we could have that call on Friday, and they say, ‘Can you start Monday?’ That never happens to anyone,” Jenner quipped. “I was able to reach out to ABC/Disney and really express how talented I thought Tristan was. And how they would really benefit from him being a part of the ESPN team, for example,” Jenner added in a confessional.
Thompson was not the most engaging analyst and was used sparingly by ESPN between January and April. He left the position when he was signed by the Lakers. Perhaps his most memorable moment was in one of his first appearances on the network. In it, he argued that LeBron should be an MVP candidate in the 2022-23 season. It was an astonishingly bad take given LeBron’s mediocre season. In fact, the 2022-23 season became the first season of LeBron’s career in which he received zero MVP votes.
Thompson has been getting a lot of airtime in this season of The Kardashians. However, the ESPN bit with Kris has been one of the more positive parts. After Kim praised Thompson in the prior episode, the sister of one of his baby mama took to Instagram. “Its been so hard to refrain from speaking up, and out of respect for my sister. I haven’t for over 7 years. but this is just too much. It’s so painful to see how Tristan can find the time to these nice things for others but can’t seem to show up and be a real parent my nephew Prince,” the lengthy statement began. The post went on to call out Kim Kardashian for defending Thompson’s character on a “global platform”. Furthermore, it disputed the claims that Thompson pays child support.
Prince is Tristan’s son with Jordan Craig. Born in December 2016, Thompson reportedly ditched Craig for Khloe Kardashian while Craig was heavily pregnant. Kardashian has denied this rumor. However, Craig announced her pregnancy about a month after Thompson was spotted in Mexico with Kardashian.
