San Francisco 49ers tight end George Kittle was spotted courtside Monday night at Paycom Center in Oklahoma City for Game 1 of the NBA Western Conference Finals. He was seen repping Oklahoma City Thunder gear and cheering on his former hometown team.
The matchup turned into a thriller, going to double overtime before Oklahoma City fell 122-115 to the San Antonio Spurs. The extended game also gave time for several crowd shots featuring Kittle seated near the broadcast crew.
While some fans were surprised to see Kittle supporting a team outside of The Bay, the connection goes back years. Kittle grew up in Oklahoma and graduated from Norman High School before playing football at University of Iowa.
Kittle even responded to questions about his Thunder support on social media, responding:
"Graduated from Norman Oklahoma so you can chill bruh."
Kittle has also talked about his Thunder fandom before Monday night. On a December 2025 episode of "Kittle Things" with basketball Hall of Famer Kevin Garnett, Kittle shared:
"I graduated high school from Norman, Oklahoma, and that's when I was going to Oklahoma City Thunder games when they had KD (Kevin Durrant), James Harden, Russell Westbrook, Nick Collison… so I was a bit of an OKC fan."
The Oklahoma ties extend beyond George as well. His father, Bruce Kittle served as an assistant football coach at University of Oklahoma from 2010-13.
Game 2 of the series is set for Wednesday night back in Oklahoma City, so the Faithful may want to keep an eye out to see if Kittle makes another courtside appearance.
