NBA Finals: Watch Usher’s National Anthem before Cavaliers – Warriors game

There is no challenge out there for a singer harder than performing the National Anthem at the start of a major sporting event. Millions of people are watching, and in some ways waiting to see you potentially embarrass yourself on TV. It’s a somewhat sick culture in that way, but that does not make things any less true. Everyone is out to see someone bomb and then go online and make fun of them for it.

Luckily, no one had a chance to do that to Usher on Thursday, as he performed a stirring, memorable edition of “The Star-Spangled Banner” that you can hear below from the NBA Finals telecast between the Golden State Warriors and Cleveland Cavaliers. The thing about the Anthem is that it strips you away of everything other than your natural talent, and clearly Usher has that for days and then some. The guy can sing! He hits some impressive notes, and gets a nice ovation from the crowd to go along with it. If nothing else, this is a far better highlight from the telecast than LeBron James accidentally exposing himself on camera.

For a while, Usher was becoming somewhat of a regular presence on our television sets, as he was one of the coaches on NBC’s hit “The Voice.” However, that changed when he did not appear on the past couple seasons. Ultimately, we’re going to have to wait and see if something different happens in the spring, since he is not on the fall season.

We’ll have more news from a TV perspective on the Finals as it happens.

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