{"id":117826,"date":"2025-06-23T04:30:10","date_gmt":"2025-06-23T04:30:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/117826\/"},"modified":"2025-06-23T04:30:10","modified_gmt":"2025-06-23T04:30:10","slug":"kristin-chenoweth-to-perform-national-anthem-at-nba-finals-game-7","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/117826\/","title":{"rendered":"Kristin Chenoweth to Perform National Anthem at NBA Finals Game 7"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tAt 4-foot-11, Kristin Chenoweth<\/a> is still making it to the NBA Finals.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe award-winning actress, singer, Oklahoma native, Oklahoma Hall of Fame inductee and unabashed Oklahoma City Thunder fan is performing \u201cThe Star-Spangled Banner\u201d before\u00a0Game 7 of the title series\u00a0between the Thunder and the Indiana Pacers on Sunday night (June 22), the NBA announced.<\/p>\n

\n\tChenoweth\u2019s performance will air live on ABC at 8 p.m. ET, shortly before tipoff of the season\u2019s final game.<\/p>\n

\n\tShe teased the appearance on social media<\/a> Saturday, revealing \u2014 while wearing Thunder gear \u2014 that she was in Oklahoma City, then said she better \u201cstart warming up\u201d and sang the first few notes of the national anthem.<\/p>\n

\n\tChenoweth\u2019s Thunder fandom has been no secret since the franchise\u2019s early years, though she also has professed at times to liking the Los Angeles Lakers and New York Knicks as well. That said, the Thunder are clearly her top choice \u2014 so much so that she once told Tulsa World<\/a> she spent three hours bedazzling a Thunder hat. She went to Oklahoma City University after growing up in Broken Arrow, about 115 miles northeast of where the Thunder play.<\/p>\n

\n\tAnd her dog\u2019s name is Thunder. She even dressed the pup up once in a Thunder outfit.<\/p>\n

\n\tChenoweth has been the anthem singer at multiple Thunder games in the past, sometimes alone and at least once with children from her Chenoweth Broadway Bootcamp. That camp is part of the arts and education fund that she founded to cultivate \u201cyoung artistic expression by enriching children\u2019s lives through the power of education, entertainment and experience.\u201d<\/p>\n

Chenoweth won a Tony Award in 1999 for best leading actress in a musical for her role in You\u2019re a Good Man, Charlie Brown. She also earned two other Tony nominations for best leading actress in a musical \u2014 one in 2004 for playing Glinda in Wicked and the other in 2015 for playing 1930s Hollywood diva Lily Garland in On the Twentieth Century.<\/p>\n

And in 2009, she won an Emmy for best supporting actress in a comedy series for her work on ABC\u2019s Pushing Daisies.<\/p>\n

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