2014 NBA Finals: Austin Mahone gets National Anthem honors on ABC (video)

For some reason, major sporting events for many typically just become an opportunity to discuss whether or not we have a botched National Anthem on our hands. There are many out there, after all, who do not care much one way or the other if the Miami Heat or the San Antonio Spurs win the NBA title. They are the same two teams as last year, and that does not lead to a whole lot of excitement.

In the end, ABC doesn’t really have a whole lot of control over who is picked to sing the anthem, mostly because the team and the arena often like to give it to someone who has some sort of tie to the region. Austin Mahone fits that bill perfectly, given that he grew up near San Antonio and judging from the fact that he wore a Spurs jersey, is a pretty big fan of the team to boot.

As for the performance, we have to admit that we were nervous. Most of his songs are reliant on a lot of sound effects and vocal tricks in the studio, so there haven’t been that many opportunities (at least on the radio) to her his pure singing voice. In the end, this was pretty good! It’s not going down as one of the best anthems in television history, but he at least hit the majority of the notes and didn’t suffer any enormous flubs.

Another bit of good news for Austin is that he managed to perform before the air conditioner started to malfunction in the AT&T Center, making the arena into a hotbox.

What do you think about Mahone’s performance on the show tonight, and the choice to let him sing the anthem? Share below, and head over to the link here to get some further TV updates via our CarterMatt Newsletter.

Photo: ABC