Paycom Center

I mean, the Portland Arena is fine from every one thing I've read about it.

I've been to tens of 20s of 30s of games at the Paycom Center, whatever it's called now, the Thunder's Arena.

It's not anything fancy, but it's fine.

Like, I never have been there and be like, oh, my God, this is a dump.

Just don't get anyone hurt and rest Baylor Hayes this week before they go play the hapless Arkansas Razorbacks.

By the way, Arkansas fans, you've heard of striping the Paycom Center or blacking out or bluing out the Paycom Center.

Arkansas fans are trying to empty out the stadium this week.

And I did see, I had, I gave Matt Mabry, my former Tulsa teammate who grew up in little rock.

And those things will be the difference in who's the one seed, who's the two seed.

Those things will be the difference potentially in who wins a series of having home court advantage being such a big deal at both places, in San Antonio at that old barn and in the Paycom Center.

So I do think that people are undervaluing the experience of this Thunder team and what they've been through, considering how strange that is, because at first they were overvaluing the inexperience of this Thunder team.

They've never kind of fallen into a sweet spot yet of how they're talked about when it comes to that.

There were some videos that showed this dude training before games when he obviously still was out with that knee injury.

He was working on his shot in the Paycom Center.

He was working on his catch and shoot three-pointers, something that's important to add to your game as a, a modern NBA big man.

You can't just be a paint thriver.

The Thunder Shop has everything you need to get into gear.

Check out the latest drops and find your fit at the Paycom Center's official Thunder Shop or at OKCThunder.com slash shop.

Talking ball rolls on.

It's Game Time with Sam Humphreys.

Okay.

So he walked it off with that ride, but two years ago, we, our first, like first game of the season here in Oklahoma City at Paycom Center, we were playing Arizona.

We had ridden two or three of our first bulls and Arizona had done the same thing, and this thing was like right there.

And Case jumps out there and rides a bull for seven and a half seconds.

sort of thing so maybe j-dub has a big game maybe chet does um but if you're going to put your money on it you're putting your money on shago just alexander uh putting up the numbers delivering down the stretch doing all that stuff so uh yeah i think that's a good bet

Yeah, and not only could they waltz their way to the knockout round, they could waltz their way to not playing a game outside of the Paycom Center in the knockout round until you get to the NBA Cup championship.

At that point, it goes to the historic Kinky Fieldhouse where Thunder are there, will be there, and we'll have to go back to the slippery noodle, Justin, have some fun in Indiana like we did for the finals.

But coming up, let's do some more bets on both the Thunder and the NBA.

So

somewhere in the Paycom Center, the rest of the 400 unit signed my thing.

But yes, I was there that night, the first night.

Yeah, I thought about that with Foxes in the Snow and Weathervane.

And that was during, I think, some really pivotal years for the city of Oklahoma City.

They implemented a program called MAPS, which is the Metropolitan Area Projects, where they spent over $350 million on civic projects that included everything from the Bricktown Canal to a new library, even the Paycom Center, where the Thunder Play today was built during that era.

And what it was was a penny sales tax where the city really decided to invest in itself and create new civic infrastructure and special amenities.

And I think that kind of highlighted to me, wow, it's really cool to be behind the curtain and see how people can come together, make strategic decisions about how they build out a city.

And I say that to say this.

If you start a game on a 10-0 run and you've done it on the back of turning defense into offense, and the other team burns a timeout, the Paycom Center's rocking, then you look down the line and go, "Caruso, get in there." And it's a, i- i- it's the LeBron meme, looking back and, and being dismayed by who's at the scorers table.

It's Alex Caruso coming to play into your chest, coming to get disruptions, get deflections, get steals, and get more transition opportunities.

If you burn the first timeout and you're on the wrong side of a 7-2 run and this team looks flat, they're a step slow in rotation, they're not defending well, you look down the line and say, "Caruso, go in there," he turns the energy o- on a dime because of how i- infectious, because of how contagious that his style of play is.