Spurs Sisters Shine as a Storybook Tale, Trinity Professors Say

It was Thursday, May 28, the night of the NBA Western Conference Finals Game 5. The San Antonio Spurs were down 3-2 in the series. In the moments leading up to the game, along a crowded sideline, Sister Bernadette Mota, 5-foot-1, reached up and touched the head of 7-foot-1 Luke Kornet of the San Antonio Spurs as he leaned over for a blessing. A posse of sisters gathered ‘round, Spurs jerseys pulled over their starchy white habits. One touched Kornet’s arm. They all bowed and prayed. Someone took a video. 

That was the moment the women religious of the Salesian Sisters of St. John Bosco became the Spurs Sisters. It was a classic storybook beginning.

“Sister Bernadette reaching up to bless Luke Kornet is exactly the kind of image, or scene, that does everything a great story opening has to do,” says Mario Gonzalez, Ph.D., a Trinity University marketing professor and an expert in storytelling. “There was contrast, surprise, tenderness, belief. You don't need a backstory.” 

Furthermore, Gonzalez says, the scene “pulls you in and leaves you with a sense of intrigue, a need to forage for more: ‘Who are these women? How long have they been doing this?’ That pull is the signature of a truly immersive story. The Spurs Sisters effectively opened a story world that fans can explore further.” 

Explore they have, all over the world. Stories about the Spurs Sisters have run in The New York Times, The Washington Post, scores of local and national TV newscasts, Catholic TV, and the sisters’ own Instagram. The video of Kornet’s blessing has more than 43,500 likes on the sisters’ Instagram account alone. Another video from their watch party of Game 6 of the Western Conference Finals has more than 160,000 likes. 

 “The Sisters’ fandom is sincere." - Elaine Penagos, assistant professor of religion. 

They might seem like an overnight success, but the sisters have been fans since David Robinson and Sean Elliott ruled the court in the late 1990s. And, they’re in a city where 29% of adults identify as Catholic. 

There’s also a deeper reason the sisters resonate, says Elaine Penagos, Ph.D., a Trinity religion professor. Their story is genuine. 

“The Sisters’ fandom is sincere,” Penagos says. “They show up to the games wearing their Spurs jerseys over their white habits, and their joy as they cheer on their favorite team is palpable.” 

The 1992 movie Sister Act is one of Penagos’ favorites. She sees the Spurs Sisters as a “real-world version of that movie’s premise, namely, women in habits fully inhabiting a world people didn’t expect them in, and doing it with obvious joy while meeting their religious charge.” 

“What Sister Act dramatized as fiction—that women religious could be culturally alive, funny, and fully human while also devout—turns out to just be ... true,” Penagos says. “Viral moments like these keep happening because the world keeps being surprised by something that was never actually hidden. Women religious have long been active participants in the secular world. We only need to think back to those sisters who’ve been on the front lines of protests against all types of injustices and wars.”

Theologically, Penagos says, the Spurs Sisters “are just leaning into their faith, literally practicing what they preach.” The order’s calling is to evangelize to young people. Basketball is a way of connecting in a very tangible way. Women religious around the world are doing this. Penagos mentions a video of two Brazilian sisters beatboxing and hip-hop dancing on Catholic TV. It drew celebrity attention, but there was also substance behind their act, she says.  

When fans wanted to pay to send the Spurs Sisters to OKC for the Western Conference Finals, the sisters stayed true to their mission. If people wanted to help them, Sister Bernadette said on camera, buy them a bus because theirs was on its last leg. Help them build a new playground for the young people they serve. A local philanthropist heard them and wrote a check for $200,000. 

It would be a mistake to think of the nuns as taliswomen. They don’t pray for wins; they pray for the players and the team to do their best and to be joyful. According to Penagos, “Through their presence at basketball games, the Spurs Sisters remind us, and especially the youth they seek to serve, that joy is sacred.”