Spurs' Stephon Castle: Paycom Center Louder than Madison Square Garden

According to one of Oklahoma City's rivals, the Thunder's arena is louder than an iconic venue.

Paycom Center in Oklahoma City is pictured in Oklahoma City, Friday, June 12, 2026. | USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect

The Oklahoma City Thunder and San Antonio Spurs competed in a hard-fought seven-game Western Conference Finals series last year with Victor Wembanyama and company coming out on top.

While a shorthanded OKC squad was unable to defeat a young Spurs' team, the Thunder had San Antonio on the ropes at multiple points throughout the series.

Specifically, Oklahoma City took a 3-2 series lead with a 127-114 win at the Paycom Center and needed just one more win to advance to the NBA Finals with one more game coming in OKC.

While Mark Daigneault's team was unable to come up with a win in either of the series' final two games, one of the Spurs' key players highlighted the Thunder's home atmosphere.

"It was the first Finals game played at Madison Square Garden in 27 years, and the young Spurs guards Dylan Harper and Stephon Castle showed up that night anticipating a much more bloodthirsty crowd than the one they found waiting for them," Cam Wolf wrote for GQ. “'It was underwhelming in that first game,' Castle recalls. 'They made it seem like it was going to be way crazier in there.'”

“OKC was way louder than MSG," Castle told Wolf.

The Thunder's home environment at the Paycom Center has been a key asset to the team for multiple seasons, including during the group's title run in 2025.

In four series during the 2025 playoffs, OKC lost just two games at home, one against the Denver Nuggets, and one against the Indiana Pacers. The Spurs prevented the Thunder from reaching the NBA Finals again in 2026, but couldn't come away with the Larry O'Brien Trophy.

While many observers expect the Spurs to reach the NBA Finals again in the coming years, there are many expamples throughout NBA history of young teams who never achieved the same heights. One of those squads is an old edition of the Thunder, who reached the NBA Finals in 2012 with Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook and James Harden on the roster.

After faling to LeBron James and the Miami Heat, OKC didn't compete for another championship until 2025, when the Thunder took down the Indiana Pacers.

Castle and Harper noted in Wolf's story that they both disagree with any potential comparisons between the current Spurs and the 2012 Thunder.

“Because we don’t have no egos. They had strong egos in that locker room. Strong-ass egos,” Castle said to GQ.

“That’s why we’re so good,” Harper added. “We’ve got eight people on the team that, if we all had an ego, we wouldn’t blend together.”