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AT 6 P.M. THEY gathered inside an elementary school gymnasium, located on San Antonio’s westside, to watch Game 7 of the Western Conference finals.
Kahlig Auto Group, a local car dealer, had sponsored the watch party with a meal from a local taqueria to feed the nearly 200 attendees, who feasted on enchiladas, rice and beans, chips, guacamole, salsa and four colorful jugs of aguas frescas.
Rows of folding chairs faced a projector screen set up on a stage that was lined with black and silver balloons.
Some kids made signs — MAKE SOME NOISE, GO SPURS GO, DE-FENSE — and ran across the room with them in glee.
The environment was raucous, game-like.
GO, SPURS, GO chants echoed off the gymnasium walls. Whenever the Thunder controlled the possession, DE-FENSE … DE-FENSE did too.
All the while, some other attendees chanted something else entirely, over and over:
“Mary Help of Christians, pray for us.”
“Mary Help of Christians, pray for us.”
“Mary Help of Christians, pray for us.”
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Those were the prayers from members of the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians, a worldwide congregation of more than 10,000 that was founded in Italy in the late 1800s.
In San Antonio, they’re known by their less formal name: the Salesian Sisters of St. John Bosco, West Province. They’re also known as perhaps the biggest and holiest Spurs fans on the planet, with ties to the team dating back nearly 40 years.
They were working with kids who loved the Spurs, and the sisters learned to do the same. And they’ve gained newfound fame as viral sensations amid the team’s run to the NBA Finals against the New York Knicks, which continue with Game 3 (8:30 p.m. ET on ABC) on Monday.
They’ve attended Spurs playoff home games, greeted and prayed with Spurs players, and served as symbols either of good luck or, perhaps, even divine intervention — or somewhere in between — during the Spurs’ late postseason push.
To the sisters, who are involved in a range of charitable efforts, including work with disadvantaged kids across the city, all the attention — the requests for photos, autographs and prayers for their beloved Spurs — has been a bit overwhelming.
“We don’t want to be an advertising gimmick or anything like that,” says Sister Bernadette Mota. “Our life is dedicated to God.
“We’re in a very poor and impoverished area. We have a school that’s hanging on by an edge right now, so the amount of support that has come through is a real blessing because otherwise we wouldn’t be making it.
“This really is a godsend for us at this moment.”
If the prayers of San Antonio’s Salesian Sisters are answered, the Wemby Era will begin with their Spurs as champions. Salesian Sisters of St. John BoscoWHEN SISTER SYDNEY MOSS arrived in San Antonio in 2013, she was indoctrinated almost immediately.At the Provincial House, where 36 sisters live, including 20 who are retired, die-hards would bristle if anyone wants to turn off the television at bedtime and the Spurs are still playing.”No,” they say, “we’re watching the game.”Sister Moss would sit next to Sister Angelita Guzman, a longtime Spurs fan who quietly prayed during games.St. John Bosco, sit on the basket so the other team won’t make a shot, she’d say.Sister Moss tells the story of visiting one sister’s room. In it, there were little personal belongings but no shortage of Spurs memorabilia, including a photo with Spurs legend and former head coach Gregg Popovich.After the Spurs won their fourth title in 2007, Popovich, then the team’s coach, visited the Provincial House with some players, spoke with the sisters and took photos with them.”He would kneel down and talk with a sister,” Sister Gumzan, who passed away in 2018, previously told ESPN, noting that after his visit she began corresponding with Popovich through letters. “He was very affectionate with us.”Popovich played in a charity golf tournament that helped raise money for the sisters. And he’d ask that they pray for the team.By 2019, the Spurs were on the downslope of their dynasty, and some of the sisters who were their biggest fans had gone to heaven, Sister Moss says.New sisters arrived, and, along the way, their connection to the team began to fade.Sister Mota arrived in San Antonio in 2019.She knew the game. She’d played in high school and coached fifth and sixth graders. She loved former UCLA coach John Wooden, read books about him and even aspired to one day coach the UCLA women’s basketball team.She’d learned about the sisters’ connection to the Spurs and reached out to Popovich’s assistant to ask for tickets. The Spurs provided 30 of them for a game on March 16, 2020, but that game was ultimately postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.Years passed, including four of the Spurs’ worst seasons in franchise history. Still, the sisters cheered them on. Sister Lourdes Trevino, now 87, provided recaps over breakfast, telling her fellow sisters how the team performed and where the team was in the standings. “She knows everything about the Spurs,” Sister Moss says.When the playoffs began this season, the sisters tuned in.On May 12, as the Spurs were in the midst of their second-round series against the Minnesota Timberwolves, the sisters posted a photo on Instagram, showing some wearing Spurs jerseys over their habits, watching the game on television.
NBA Finals on ABCThe Knicks are back in the NBA Finals for the first time since 1999, and they’ll face the same opponent they did then, the Spurs. Watch the NBA Finals on ABC and the ESPN app.
Game 1: Knicks 105, Spurs 95
Game 2: Knicks 105, Spurs 104
Game 3: June 8 at Knicks
Game 4: June 10 at Knicks
Game 5*: June 13 at Spurs
Game 6*: June 16 at Knicks
Game 7*: June 19 at Spurs
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“The Salesian Sisters are cheering and praying for the Spurs!” they wrote.
The post gained attention. During the Western Conference finals, a Spurs official visited the sisters, bringing them merchandise and thanking them for their support.
Soon after, other team officials visited too.
The sisters provided a tour of the house and the chapel, and one Spurs employee offered a gift, a token of their appreciation for the sisters’ decades of support.
“We want to say thank you,” they mentioned, “but we also have a surprise for you.”
It was four tickets to Game 4 of the Western Conference finals against the Thunder.
The sisters beamed with excitement. They arrived before tipoff and stood on the sidelines during pregame warmups. Spurs center Luke Kornet, a devout Catholic, approached and shook their hands.
Sister Mota, who was attending her first Spurs game, looked up at him.
“Can I pray a blessing for you?” she asked.
Kornet accepted.
The 7-foot-1 Kornet bent down to the 5-foot-1 sister, and she placed her hand on his head. They each closed their eyes. She prayed for the holy spirit to be with him.
The moment went viral. The Spurs won. Kornet, who finished with six points, seven rebounds and two blocks off the bench, mentioned afterward that the sisters needed to be in Oklahoma City for Game 6.
“We’ve got to get ’em on the plane,” he mentioned.
Salesian Sisters of St. John BoscoTHE SISTERS FIELDED offers to travel for Game 5, but they stayed home to watch, with their people. No such watch party would be acceptable for Game 6 at home, though.A woman crowdfunded to buy them four tickets in the stands, and Kahlig Auto Group offered them five seats in a box suite at the game.And so it was that, on game day, two black SUVs, driven by security officials who work with the Spurs, pulled up to the Provincial House, and a police escort helped the nine sisters navigate through rush-hour traffic to the arena.Sitting in the SUV, Sister Mota imagined their night ahead.”Oh, we’ll get to meet famous people!” she mentioned to one of the security officials.”Sister,” the official replied, “You are the famous people.”She was taken aback. “No, we’re sisters.”Security met them at the arena, shepherding them inside. Some visited the suite and began chanting “Go, Spurs, Go”; as they did, fans looked up, saw the sisters, and the chant soon spread.Before tipoff, the sisters gathered in the tunnel where Spurs players run onto the court.As the players trotted out, they greeted the sisters with high-fives and fist bumps.The sisters waited for several minutes more, waiting for the biggest star of all. Then, Victor Wembanyama emerged, and their necks craned up. He looked at them, slowed his stride and placed his hands together.
Then, as he walked by, he placed each of their hands in his.
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“In his eyes, you could tell how focused he was,” Sister Mota says, “and how grateful he was that we were there.”
Throughout the game, fans asked the sisters for photos and thanked them for their prayers for the Spurs.
“Yes, we can pray, but so can you,” Sister Mota told them. “Our prayers aren’t higher and holier than anybody else’s. Talent has a lot to do with it. The Spurs are a good team.”
That night, the Spurs showed the sisters on the jumbotron, and the arena erupted in cheers. When they returned home that night after another Spurs win, a passerby spotted them and slowed their car.
“Are you really a sister?” the woman asked Sister Moss.
Yes, she mentioned.
“Oh, my god, thank you, thank you!”
Sister Moss nodded her head.
“God bless you guys,” she mentioned. “And go, Spurs go!”
ALONG WITH FRIENDS, friends, family and other kids, 20 sisters watched Game 7 of the Western Conference finals from the St. John Bosco Elementary School gymnasium, which sits across the street from the Provincial House.
Sister Mota wasn’t there. She was in Southern California for her nephew’s high school graduation, she says, but caught the highlights after. When she saw Kornet’s game-changing chase-down block on Oklahoma City’s Isaiah Hartenstein in the fourth quarter, she watched the focus in his eyes.
“Sometimes you have that ability to go beyond your normal talent to do something that you need to do right at that moment,” she says. “When I saw him running down the court, I was like, ‘Lord, he’s in him right now.'”
Back inside the gym, as the seconds ticked down, the sisters — wearing Spurs jerseys over their white-and-gray habits — pumped their fists and waved their silver and black pom poms. They chanted and cheered and prayed, as the Spurs completed their win to reach the team’s first NBA Finals since 2014.
2026 NBA postseasonESPN has you covered through the NBA Finals.• Bracket, schedule, news and highlights
• Staff: Game 1 takeaways, Game 2 preview
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Right outside, a parade of bumper-to-bumper traffic filled West Commerce Street, a main artery that flows into downtown. Cars honked, fans cheered, a communal celebration under way.
Soon after the game, Sister Moss and Sister Mota began talking about what they’d do for the NBA Finals. There were no plans to attend games in New York. As for the games in San Antonio, the sisters mentioned they didn’t want anyone to crowdfund for them to attend games, either.
“Let’s use the money for something else,” Sister Moss says. “We don’t want people to spend that much money on us to go see a game.”
The sisters would prefer that money, in general, to go toward supporting their school and their charitable efforts.
Their recent fame has brought in more online donations, with people from around the country — and even beyond — offering money and items on their Amazon wish list.
One recent donation will help fund a new playground and school bus for St. John Bosco Elementary School.
“It’s all such a blessing,” Sister Moss says.
Thanks to another invite from the Kahlig Auto Group, four sisters attended Wednesday’s Game 1 loss to the Knicks.
Before the game, the sisters once again gathered in the tunnel. Kornet, after passing them by, came back and thanked them for being there.
Wembanyama came out last again and again acknowledged them. Soon after, they were standing courtside when a familiar voice asked them to turn around.
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“Sisters, could you please pray for me?” Wembanyama asked them.
They were shocked and humbled. For a few precious moments together, they all bowed their heads and closed their eyes, the sisters asking God to give Wembanyama and the Spurs the grace and strength to play well.
“It really just felt like it was us and Wemby,” Sister Moss says.
The sisters were at Game 2 on Friday. They’re still hoping, and praying, for a Spurs win in the series — especially if the team can make it to June 13.
That day marks not only Game 5, but the feast of St. Anthony, the patron saint of San Antonio.
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