The San Antonio Spurs’ loss against the Oklahoma City Thunder had Jason Whitlock wondering if something was going on with the crowd noise.
The San Antonio Spurs opened up their 2026-27 NBA campaign with a loss against the Oklahoma City Thunder. Considering that it was a rematch of the Western Conference Finals from last season, it was a highly anticipated game.
The Oklahoma City Thunder took a decisive lead in the second quarter but the Spurs were threatening a comeback in the third. The energy at Frost Bank Center was palpable. However, Jason Whitlock took to social media to make an interesting allegation.
Jason Whitlock implied that the Spurs’ crowd noise was fake because of the ’empty seats’
The San Antonio Spurs crowd was a little subdued in the second quarter when it looked like OKC might pull away, but that was far from the case in the third when the Spurs put together some great offence.
Jason Whitlock was apparently watching the game around this time. He posted on X saying that there were empty seats at the arena and questioned if the noise being generated in the third was ‘fake’.
“Why are there so many empty seats in San Antonio? Is the crowd noise fake?” Whitlock asked. That is a fairly serious thing for a sports analyst to insinuate and many fans got into the comments to explain how wrong he was. The provocative analyst’s insinuation is easily debunked, though.
Two facts show why Jason Whitlock was wrong to suggest that the crowd noise was fake
The first fact to check when it comes to a suggestion like this is fan attendance. Whitlock mentioned empty seats in his post. However, as per data provided by ESPN, it was a sold out arena on opening night, which makes a lot of sense. The official numbers say there were 19,160 fans in attendance.
Seeing as the Frost Bank Center’s official capacity is listed at just under 19,000, that means the arena was actually more than full. So why did Whitlock post about the empty seats?
The answer is quite simple and brings us to the second fact. The analyst’s X post came at around 10:16 pm CDT. The game was scheduled to tip off at 8:30 pm CDT. So taking into account time delays, Whitlock shared his musings just around the time the third quarter was beginning.
That means the empty seats were likely a result of fans still returning from the concourse after getting some food and beverages, among other things. Seeing as the Spurs began the second half on a 23-9 run, it also explains why even without all fans in their seats, the arena was still extremely loud. Overall, a fairly thoughtless post by Whitlock, and one easily disproved.
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