Warriors’ Pride flag-waving anthem singer responds to players laughing with angry 1-word message

Miami Heat guard Klay Thompson’s return to the Golden State Warriors’ Chase Center arena on Thursday night drew a lot of headlines.

But nothing grabbed more attention from that game (which the Warriors won 120-100) than the national anthem.

Jason Brock sang the national anthem. Shortly into his performance, he pulled out a Pride flag and began waving it while singing, which continued throughout the performance.

At one point, the game’s broadcast panned to several Warriors players, including guard De’Anthony Melton and forward Charles Bassey, smiling and seemingly laughing (or trying to hold laughter in).

A video of this went viral on social media, with one X post tallying over four million views in about 13 hours.

Brock seemed to take exception to the Warriors players’ reactions to his performance, or at least the interpretation that they were laughing at him.

He reposted a graphic that was titled, “Warriors couldn’t keep a straight face during the national anthem” to his Instagram story and wrote, “Really?”

He also added, 本当に？, which is a Japanese phrase that also means, “Really?”

Brock also replied to the viral X post and wrote, “Wow I didn’t interpret it like this, but I wasn’t watching the players. Just because they were laughing doesn’t mean it was because of the anthem.”

Brock has made several other social media posts highlighting his performance, suggesting he doesn not have any regrets about his performance — regardless of the reaction it prompted.