Metallica legends James Hetfield and Kirk Hammett had the honor of performing the National Anthem before Game 3 of the NBA Finals matchup between the band’s hometown Golden State Warriors and the visiting Toronto Raptors at the Oracle Arena in Oakland, California, on Wednesday night.
Like they’ve done at numerous San Francisco Giants baseball games over the years, Hetfield and Hammett delivered a guitar-only version of “The Star-Spangled Banner”. This time, Hetfield and Hammett showed support for the Warriors on both their amps and their T-shirts, which sported the team’s “Strength in Numbers” slogan.
Surrounded by both teams and a giant American flag, the two Metallica musicians delivered a distortion-heavy version of the anthem. However, in the end, the band’s rockin’ rendition wasn’t enough to propel the injury-riddled Warriors to victory, as the Raptors won 123-109 despite 47 points from Golden State superstar Stephen Curry. Toronto now leads the series 2-1.
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Back on April 26th, the guitar duo rocked the National Anthem as part of “Metallica Night” at the San Francisco Giants game. See our exclusive pics from that performance here.
Metallica were home in San Francisco in between legs of their European tour with Ghost They’ll resume that trek this Saturday (June 8th) in Dublin, Ireland.