San Antonio Mayor Gina Ortiz Jones was seen Thursday night sitting in the lower level behind Spurs head coach Mitch Johnson at Spurs-Thunder Game 6, after what the city said were gifted tickets. The seats sat empty during the first half before Jones appeared on the broadcast.
The timing matters because tickets to get inside the Frost Bank Center started at about $220 for Thursday night’s game, while lower-level seats carried a price tag of at least $1,130. With the Spurs playing in the 2026 NBA Playoffs and a city official in one of the building’s best sections, the question was not just where Jones sat, but who paid for the access.
Andrew Fuentes said Friday that the tickets were gifted to Jones in accordance with the city’s ethics and gift rules. Those rules bar city officials and employees from accepting gifts that reasonably tend to influence or reward official conduct, and they also prohibit gifts from people or firms doing business with the city, seeking to do business with it, or pursuing zoning or development approvals.
KSAT asked who provided the Spurs tickets and who attended the game with Jones. It also asked whether she had been given tickets to, or attended, any other Spurs games during the 2026 NBA Playoffs. Fuentes had not answered those questions as of Friday, leaving the city’s explanation intact but incomplete.
The gap lands in a city with recent history on the subject. Last year, KSAT Investigates found the city spent $20,000 on VIP tickets for council members and their guests to attend the NCAA Men’s Basketball Final Four at the Alamodome, and it also uncovered other perks given to city leaders, including tickets to several A-list concerts and sporting events. That history makes the mayor’s playoff seats harder to dismiss as routine hospitality.
For now, the public knows Jones was in premium seats for one of the Spurs’ biggest games, and the city says the tickets were handled properly. What remains unanswered is the simple part that gives the story its weight: who gave them to her, and who else was there.
