(RNS) — Sport competitions often prompt the most pious fans to see divine favor and religious meaning in the performance of their chosen teams and athletes. This year’s NBA Finals, pitting the New York Knicks against the San Antonio Spurs, are no exception.

The Knicks, who had been on a winning streak since April 23 until the Finals’ third game, would end a 53-year championship drought if they claimed the championship title by winning one more of the remaining playoff games. That alone has inspired many to see the team as specially anointed this season. The Spurs, who won the championship in 2014 and are now down 3-1 to the Knicks, have received support from a now viral group of Catholic nuns known as the “Spurs nuns.” 

Here are five faith facts about this year’s NBA Finals: 

The Catholic university graduating (potential) NBA champions

Three Knicks players — Jalen Brunson, the team’s captain; Josh Hart; and Mikal Bridges — graduated from Villanova University, a private Augustinian college in the suburbs of Philadelphia. The trio’s ties to the Catholic university have earned them the nicknames “Villanova trio” and “Nova Knicks” throughout the championship. In 2016, all three were part of the Villanova Wildcats team that won the NCAA championship.

For fans, it’s no coincidence that Villanova is also the alma mater of Pope Leo XIV, who graduated from the college in 1977 with a math degree. Long before the Finals, film director Spike Lee, a long-standing Knicks fan, had stressed how auspicious it was that three Knicks players and the pope graduated from the same place. During a November meeting with the pope at the Vatican, Lee asked him to sign a custom Knicks jersey flocked with “Pope Leo #14,” which he wore during Game 3 on Monday (June 8).

“We’ve been blessed by Pope Leo,” the diehard fan told Vanity Fair in a recent interview.

Filmmaker Spike Lee, left, smiles during warmups prior to Game 3 of the NBA Finals basketball series between the San Antonio Spurs and the New York Knicks, Monday, June 8, 2026, in New York. Lee wore a personalized jersey signed by Pope Leo XIV. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)

The Catholic sisters rooting for the San Antonio Spurs

Though the Knicks have their fair share of celebrity fans, among whom are Timothée Chalamet, Kylie Jenner, Taylor Swift and Mayor Zohran Mamdani, the Spurs have no reason to envy them, with the Salesian Sisters of St. John Bosco cheering the team for more than two decades. 

The kinship between the team and the “Spurs nuns” dates back to the 1990s, when a group of retired sisters and diehard Spurs fans began writing to former Spurs coach Gregg Popovich and were eventually invited to games.

Now the sisters sit courtside at almost every game, rocking black Spurs jerseys on their white habits. Their newfound fame as Spurs cheerleaders has unexpectedly boosted donations to the sisters, which they use in their mission to serve the youth and the poor.

Sister Bernadette Mota, the acting director of the mission advancement department, is herself a former basketball player and high school basketball coach.

The Salesian Sisters greet players prior to Game 1 of the NBA Finals basketball series between the New York Knicks and the San Antonio Spurs, Wednesday, June 3, 2026, in San Antonio. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)

The Catholic archbishop of San Antonio announcing a bet with the New York archbishop

Last week, Archbishop Gustavo García-Siller of San Antonio opened a “friendly wager” with his New York counterpart, Archbishop Ronald Hicks, on the outcome of the Finals.

In a short video, the San Antonio prelate said Hicks should send him lox and cream cheese bagels from the famed New York shop H&H Bagels to celebrate an NBA title win for the Spurs. And “if by some slight possibility, hard to think, the Spurs aren’t victorious,” García-Siller said he would send Hicks a gift basket from the Texas-based H-E-B grocery chain.

“I’m really looking forward to enjoying those bagels,” García-Siller said before adding that he and the Salesian Sisters were praying for the safety of all the players.

This 7-year-old interceding for the Knicks

“Dear God, it’s me, Kobe. Today I’m back at the Mecca to pray,” said Kobe McRae, a 7-year-old New Yorker and Knicks fan, in a recent viral Instagram video as he walked toward Madison Square Garden wearing a Knicks jersey flocked “Brunson.” 

In another video, McRae films himself praying at the top of the Empire State Building, a few hours before the Finals’ second game. “I figured up here I would be a little closer to you and thanked you for all the prayers you already helped come true,” says McRae in the clip that received 33,000 likes.

The young creator, who posts under @kobecash.nyc and boasts 29,000 followers on Instagram, has since given multiple interviews and become a Knicks mascot. “Those other guys might have the nuns, and that’s a powerful thing to know, but New York has 8 million strongs refusing to let go,” says McRae in the Empire State Building video.

An ode to New York’s diversity

My mayor is Muslim

My bagel’s Jewish

My Christian Dior

Knicks in four.

This is what 23-year-old MD Ahnaf Hossain shouted during an interview with the betting company Kalshi as he grabbed the mic after the Knicks won Game 2 last week.

The video counts over 7.4 million views on TikTok, and the phrase, praised by The New York Times as “pure New York City poetry,” has ended up on fans’ merch. The riff, which celebrates the city’s communities and musical culture, has been embraced by many as a unifying cry in this Finals season.

“I grew up with Jews, Muslims, Haitians, Pakistanis, Bengalis,” Hossain told The Washington Post. “ … I just had to bring everyone together.”

The first two lines are nods to Mamdani, the city’s first Muslim mayor, and to Jewish New Yorkers who’ve shaped the city’s culture since the late 19th century. “My Christian Dior” is a reference to “Dior,” the 2020 hit of the late Brooklyn-born rapper Pop Smoke.

Since the Knicks lost Game 3 on Sunday, dashing hopes of winning the championship in four games, Hossain has remixed the poem:

My mayor still Muslim

My bagel’s still Jewish

The pope’s on our side

Knicks in five.