LeBron James Laughs During Macy Gray’s National Anthem Performance At NBA All-Star Game

Macy Gray’s raspy, guitar-accompanied rendition of the National Anthem before the 2022 NBA All-Star Game drew a smile from LeBron James on Sunday.

The NBA All-Star game is no stranger to unique takes on the anthem. Before the 2018 All-Star game, Fergie made waves with a highly-flourished performance that drew laughs and raised eyebrows from plenty watching at home and on-camera at the game themselves.

Gray’s performance wasn’t nearly as awkward as Fergie’s, and the guitar accompaniment actually rounded out her vocals beautifully, but some of her stylings towards the end of the anthem puzzled a couple of onlookers, including James, who averted his eyes after cracking a smile, and the legendary Bill Murray. Although, that befuddled look may just be Murray’s resting face.

While purists may have found Gray’s wavering rendition of the anthem, lacking, it was pretty distinctly in the Grammy-Award winner’s iconic style, so if you didn’t want her to perform like that, you should have booked someone else! It appears Gray got a lot of encouragement from the crowd, so even if a couple of players were laughing, the majority of onlookers were impressed by Gray delivering a standout performance that didn’t sacrifice her signature sound.

You can watch the performance here: