Everything We Know About the Salesian Sisters, the Nuns Cheering for the Spurs

If you watched the Spurs’ dominant 103–82 win over the Thunder on Sunday night, then you likely saw the NBC broadcast pan to a group of four nuns sitting court side at Frost Bank Center.

It’s definitely not the group of fans you’d expect to see at an NBA game, or an NBA playoff game at that. Yet, San Antonio fans may not have been so surprised that this group of nuns was seen at a Spurs game, as they used to be regulars at Frost Bank Center.

Who are these nuns? They’re known as the Salesian Sisters, from the San Antonio chapter of the Salesian Sisters of St. John Bosco. Here’s everything we know about them.

Who are the Salesian Sisters?

Although the group of nuns went viral on Sunday for attending Game 4 of the Spurs–Thunder playoff series, the Salesian Sisters began attending Spurs games 20-plus years ago. However, this was the first game the group of nuns attended this year. To a casual NBA fan or non-Spurs fan, it might’ve seemed random for the nuns to be Spurs fans, but San Antonio diehards likely recognize the Salesian Sisters are because of their appearances over the past couple of decades.

Sr. Bernadette Mota, director of mission advancement of the Salesian Sisters, sat down recently with Sojourners to explain how the Salesian Sisters first began attending Spurs games.

“It started about 20 years ago,” Mota said. “We had a couple elder sisters at our provincial house, our retirement house for our sisters who need assisted living. Some of them were born and raised in San Antonio, and anytime there was a game on they would watch it. And they would get very irritated when the game had to be turned off because it was bedtime. These were die-hard Spurs fans, and since then, those sisters have passed away. But we have other sisters who have taken the baton.”

Salesian Sisters are in the building tonight 👋 pic.twitter.com/WF0uOZpcZ9
— San Antonio Spurs (@spurs) May 24, 2026

Because of their attendance at various games over the years, some of the sisters grew a close bond with former coach Gregg Popovich.

“Him and his wife came and visited the convent a couple times just to show their appreciation,” Mota continued. “So that’s one of the reasons we still have the love of the Spurs, because of their respect for us as religious women and the church. Really his wife was the one who nudged him into coming and visiting our sisters.”

Mota clarified that the sisters do not pay for the tickets to the games because it wouldn’t be a good use of their funds, so the games they go to depend solely on whether they are gifted tickets. They also only watch Spurs games on television if they aren’t on cable or streaming because they can’t use their funds to pay for the extra coverage.

“After dinner and chores, whoever wants to stay and watch the game will watch it there,” Mota said. “We only watch the games that are on regular TV because we don’t have cable. We used to have cable but it was ridiculously expensive, so that wasn’t a good use of our funds. If they go too late we’ll just check the scores or highlights the next day. So maybe there’s like eight to 10 of us who watch a game.”

The Salesian Sisters are dedicated Spurs fans, to say the least. Their story reminds us of Sister Jean, who went viral during the 2017 Final Four. Sister Jean, who recently died at age 106, was the chaplain for the Loyola Chicago men’s basketball team and became a dedicated and passionate fan over decades. She attended as many games as she could, and would always give a pre-game blessing to the players.

The viral prayer given to Luke Kornet before Game 4

One of the reasons the Salesian Sisters went so viral on Sunday is because of the pre-game prayer they gave Spurs star Luke Kornet ahead of tip-off. Kornet is a notably devout Catholic, and he looked to the Salesian Sisters in attendance for a pre-game blessing. Something seemed to have worked as the Spurs scored their biggest victory thus far in the Western Conference finals against the Thunder to even the series at 2–2.

Luke Kornet getting blessed by nuns pic.twitter.com/ctFzBkqA9E
— Oh No He Didn't (@ohnohedidnt24) May 24, 2026

Kornet admitted after the game that he plans to try to find tickets for the Salesian Sisters to attend Game 5 in Oklahoma City. This means that Kornet has to also find plane tickets for the nuns to get there.

“One-0, pretty good results,” Kornet said. “That’s not what it’s about, but we’ll take it. We’re gonna fly them to OKC. I don’t know, we got to get ’em on the plane.”

We’ll see if Kornet can pull that off, otherwise the Salesian Sisters will likely make another appearance at Thursday night’s Game 6 when the series heads back to San Antonio.

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