“OKC Was Louder”: Spurs Star Takes Shot at Knicks Fans Despite Losing to Jalen Brunson & Co

In the clinching Game 5 of the NBA Finals, Stephon Castle went 1-for-10 from the field and scored six points while Jalen Brunson scored 45 to hand the Knicks their first title in 53 years. Castle is still finding ways to take the series personally.

In a new GQ Hype cover story, the Spurs guard says the fabled Madison Square Garden atmosphere didn't live up to the billing. Castle and fellow Spurs guard Dylan Harper appeared on the magazine's cover, and the conversation turned to their first Finals game in New York.

"It was underwhelming in that first game," he said. "They made it seem like it was going to be way crazier in there. OKC was way louder than MSG."

San Antonio had just beaten the Knicks in the Western Conference Finals Game 3. A series played in one of the league's loudest buildings, and it was also the first Finals game at Madison Square Garden in 27 years, which made the expectations around the building even higher for a young Spurs backcourt that was anticipating a far more hostile crowd.

The Spurs actually won that night, a 115-111 victory in which Castle scored 23 points and snapped New York's 13-game winning streak. But the Knicks took the next two games to close the series 4-1, and the man who led the way, Brunson, was named Finals MVP. Castle's quiet Garden, in other words, still produced a champion.

Castle's series numbers tell the rest of the story. After his big Game 3, he followed with six points in the decider, and the Spurs never found a way to slow Brunson when it mattered. The Knicks captain has spent this offseason enjoying a championship victory lap that has taken him from Arthur Ashe Stadium to his own family business launch, and few in New York are likely to lose sleep over a critique of the building's noise level.

Castle is also no stranger to stirring up fan backlash. Before the Finals began, he admitted he occasionally tries to sell a foul call, a comment that did not sit well with many fans. Now a lighthearted-sounding remark about the Garden crowd has given Knicks supporters another reason to point to the final series result.

The takeaway from Castle's comments may be less about the crowd and more about the gap between a team that entered the Finals with confidence and one that left with a trophy. Whether MSG was as loud as OKC or not, it was Brunson and the Knicks who had the last word, and Castle's remarks give New York's fans what to use in arguing as we head into next season.