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Courtside seats at New York Knicks basketball games are often filled with celebrities. The sidelines at San Antonio Spurs games look a little different. A group of Catholic sisters has gone viral for their courtside prayers for the Spurs during the NBA playoffs. And don't worry, they will be back for the NBA finals. Texas Public Radio's Brian Kirkpatrick reports from San Antonio, where Game 1 against the Knicks takes place tonight.
BRIAN KIRKPATRICK, BYLINE: Sister Bernadette Mota is among the sisters from San Antonio St. John Bosco who has been attending home games dressed with Spurs jerseys on top of their modest habits and with prayers in their hearts for the Texas team. During a conference finals game, Spurs' center and Catholic Luke Kornet bent in half so the sisters could touch his head and bless him, a scene played on national television. The team went on that night to beat Oklahoma City. Kornet suggested the team fly the sisters to the next game in OKC. Sister Mota stresses they have not been praying for Spurs' opponents to lose.
BERNADETTE MOTA: God loves all the teams, and God loves all the players. Yeah, God doesn't love one team more than the other. But what we really pray for and hope for is that all the teams play to their best of their ability.
KIRKPATRICK: Spurs fans love the reassuring presence the sisters bring to games. Many of those fans feel everything will turn out all right because they are there. Fan Josh Norman says the sisters' prayer and Victor Wembanyama's otherworldly play in his third season with the Spurs are needed to beat the Knicks.
JOSH NORMAN: Any help from any area in San Antonio, man, we'll take it. But what great support. Divine intervention, that's fine.
KIRKPATRICK: The Alamo city, with its centuries-old Spanish missions, has a Catholic population in the hundreds of thousands who can readily identify with the sisters. But there's something more. They proudly and sincerely put their religion on display in a crowded arena and on national television. Fan Vanessa Phillips repeatedly used one word to describe their impact on the games.
VANESSA PHILLIPS: I think it's cool to see them there, and even more cool to see them praying for the players are the players going and asking for them to, you know, bless them and pray for them.
KIRKPATRICK: Mota says the sisters do not want to be known as the Spurs nuns, but as the Salesian Sisters of St. John Bosco, whose main mission is to help children and women at risk. And, she reminds us, there is good in sports.
MOTA: Sports are a great way to learn discipline, to learn teamwork and values and morals when sports are done correctly.
KIRKPATRICK: Sister Mota says the sisters have been fans of the Spurs for decades. And for tonight's game, they invited a guest - their archbishop Gustavo Garcia-Siller.
I'm Brian Kirkpatrick in San Antonio. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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