{"id":545181,"date":"2026-01-18T18:53:15","date_gmt":"2026-01-18T18:53:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/545181\/"},"modified":"2026-01-18T18:53:15","modified_gmt":"2026-01-18T18:53:15","slug":"heckler-yells-leave-greenland-alone-during-us-national-anthem-at-nba-game-in-london","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/545181\/","title":{"rendered":"Heckler yells ‘leave Greenland alone!’ during US national anthem at NBA game in London"},"content":{"rendered":"

Vanessa Williams sings before an NBA basketball between the Memphis Grizzlies and the Orlando Magic Sunday, Jan. 18, 2026, in London. (AP Photo\/Kin Cheung)Vanessa Williams sings before an NBA basketball between the Memphis Grizzlies and the Orlando Magic Sunday, Jan. 18, 2026, in London. (AP Photo\/Kin Cheung)<\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved<\/p>\n

Vanessa Williams sings before an NBA basketball between the Memphis Grizzlies and the Orlando Magic Sunday, Jan. 18, 2026, in London. (AP Photo\/Kin Cheung)<\/p>\n

LONDON \u2013 A heckler yelled \u201cleave Greenland alone!\u201d while Vanessa Williams sang \u201cThe Star-Spangled Banner\u201d before tipoff of an NBA game in London between the Memphis Grizzlies and the Orlando Magic on Sunday.<\/p>\n

U.S. President Donald Trump has insisted that the U.S. should control Greenland<\/a>, a semiautonomous territory of NATO ally<\/a> Denmark, and said earlier this week that anything less than the Arctic island being in U.S. hands would be \u201cunacceptable.\u201d<\/p>\n

The heckler’s outburst drew some scattered laughter and applause. Williams was unfazed and completed the song.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

AP NBA: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/nba<\/a><\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Vanessa Williams sings before an NBA basketball between the Memphis Grizzlies and the Orlando Magic Sunday, Jan. 18,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":545182,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[7,2322,6,66,74873],"class_list":{"0":"post-545181","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nba","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-donald-trump","10":"tag-nba","11":"tag-sports","12":"tag-vanessa-williams"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/115917619489959896","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/545181","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=545181"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/545181\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/545182"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=545181"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=545181"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=545181"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}