(LifeSiteNews) — The Salesian Sisters of Don Bosco in San Antonio, Texas, have been the “secret stars” of the NBA Finals.
Before Game 1 of the 2026 NBA Finals, San Antonio Spurs superstar Victor Wembanyama, standing 7 feet 4, bent down to pray with a group of Salesian sisters, also known as the “Spurs nuns.”
The video of the scene has been viewed hundreds of thousands of times on social media.
🚨Wembly praying with Spurs nuns before Game 1. 🙌 pic.twitter.com/lOsYQTeLMB
— GodlyVibez Studios (@GVStudios_TV) June 8, 2026
ABC News published an article titled “The superfans known as the ‘Spurs Nuns’ aiming to bring divine intervention to the NBA Finals.”
“New York has Ben Stiller, Tina Fey, Tracy Morgan among its superfans; San Antonio has a group of nuns who wear Spurs jerseys over their habits,” ABC wrote.
“We’re serving the poor and the young,” Sr. Bernadette Mota, director of the department of mission advancement for the Salesian Sisters, told ABC News. “And in order to reach the young where they’re at, you have to love what they love and then they’ll love who you love. So, we have that affinity with the Spurs because it gives us an avenue to do our mission with the young people that we serve.”
The relationship between the Spurs and the Salesian sisters goes back more than 20 years. Some of the retired sisters would watch Spurs games on TV and cheer for the players and then-head coach Gregg Popovich.
The Spurs Nuns are BACK!
Watch Game 6 of OKC/SAS on NBC/Peacock 🍿 pic.twitter.com/bY9z4AE7fT
— NBA (@NBA) May 29, 2026
Popovich would sometimes lose his temper on the sideline, prompting some of the sisters to reach out to him with letters.
“They would write to Coach Popovich and let him know when they thought he was doing great and let him know when he lost his temper — but they were really supporting him,” Mota explained. “He’s the one that actually responded back to them, thanking them for their support for him and for the Spurs. It was really just a very organic conversation that started all of this.”
“They would (correct him), in a nice way, in a very nice way,” Mota said. “They’d be like, ‘Coach, you lost your temper there, come on, we’re praying for you, you can do better.’”
The nun’s presence at the games has made them somewhat famous as the “Spurs nuns,” leading to increased donations for their mission to help the poor.
“We’ve had a number of individual people reach out and they’ve been donating anywhere from $10 to $100 and we’ve had a few ones who have larger capacity reach out, too,” Mota noted. “All of this is divine providence, God’s gift, because we’re actually very much in need. Our mission, we rely on the generosity of people who are our partners and collaborators in our mission.”
However, despite the support of the nuns, the Spurs are currently trailing 2-1 in the Finals against the New York Knicks, with the Knicks winning the first two games in San Antonio. The Spurs bounced back with a win in Game 3 in iconic Madison Square Garden (MSG) in New York, with President Donald Trump, a veteran Knicks fan, in attendance.
Game 4 will be played tonight at MSG before the teams travel back to San Antonio for Game 5 on Saturday.