LOS ANGLES — In an intensely polarized nation, few things unite Americans anymore. Sunday night the NBA and its All-Star Game broadcast gave us one of those unifying forces — a pre-game run-up so bad it was universally panned.
The NBA is lucky the new format seemed to work and we had a dramatic, actual basketball game to talk about, helping us move on a pre-game show that, to put it kindly, simply did not work.
It started with a roughly 20-minute singing and dancing skit that was supposed to be about comedian Kevin Hart’s journey to being an NBA player (I think that’s what it was, anyway, it made as much sense as the movie “Wild, Wild West”). It felt forced, was not funny, and just dragged on and on. Even a Kardashian thought this was terrible television.
This All Star opening is confusing me. WTF is going on? Anyone?
— Khloé (@khloekardashian) February 19, 2018
And that wasn’t even the worst part of the pregame, nor the part that sparked the most outrage online.
Fergie’s sexy, slow, bluesy rendition of the national anthem became the lightning rod.
Charles Barkley joked on TNT that he “needed a cigarette” after the Black Eye’d Peas’ singer’s performance. Shaquille O’Neal jumped in quickly to defend her (“Fergie, I love you. It was different. It was sexy. I liked it.”) as the broadcast quickly pivoted away from that topic.
Twitter was not so kind, and Draymond Green’s face caught by camera’s during the anthem became a quick meme.
Even Draymond was laughing pic.twitter.com/R8itTpUAD8
— Kenny Ducey (@KennyDucey) February 19, 2018
Twitter had a field day with Fergie’s rendition.
Kevin Hart: “I just engineered the biggest pre-game disaster in television history.”
— Tim Ring (@timringTV) February 19, 2018
Fergie: “Hold my beer.”
Not sure what Fergie was going for on that national anthem performance but if it was “my friends drunk mom acting sexy” she nailed it.
— Johnny Taylor, Jr. (@hipsterocracy) February 19, 2018
The confused looks during Fergie singing the anthem are going to provide #NBATwitter meme's for the next decade. #NBAAllStar2018
— Donnovan Bennett (@donnovanbennett) February 19, 2018
Now, let us never discuss this All-Star opening ever again. Please.
