Metallica members will play the national anthem in the third game of the NBA finals

The NBA has announced that James Hetfield and Kirk Hammett of the legendary Bay Area band, Metallica, will perform the national anthem at Oracle Arena in Oakland before the third match of the NBA's Golden State Finals. Warriors at the Toronto Raptors.

Hetfield, the group leader, and Hammett, originally from San Franciscan, have already played the national anthem at sports events at Bay Area. And judging by this video of their rendition of "The Star-Spangled Banner" from the 2017 San Francisco Giants game, it will likely be a guitar version of the anthem. Earlier this year, Hammett played the national anthem during a sold-out Giants-Yankees match. Lars Ulrich threw the first pitch in the match.

People on Twitter have had mixed reactions to the news. One person said"As a Metallica fan in Toronto, I'm sorry you do not do O Canada too." Instead of Metallica, Canadian singer Tenille Arts will sing "O Canada" in Game 3.

Another person said he would only watch Match 3 to see the metal legends play. "Technically, I always look at the unbreakable @nba if I log in to see only those guys playing?" he wrote.

There were others who were enthusiastic about Hetfield and Hammett bringing the metal to the finale, some sharing Hetfield 's gifs in his youth, but others, like this Twitter user, asked why.

This is a good question that becomes a bit more interesting when you consider that R & B singer Ne-Yo from Arkansas was invited to sing the national anthem of the fourth game. But the Bay Area has several talented young singers who could start one of two finals duels scheduled for Oakland this week. There is for example the Grammy nominated singer and native of Oakland, Kehlani. And H.E.R. native of Vallejo won two Grammy Awards this year. They are both internationally recognized for their work, though less well known than Metallica.

In 2015, Metallica played in the fifth game of the Warriors Championship. Golden State may be trying to recreate the magic of that time.

The third game of the 2019 NBA Finals will take place at Oracle Arena in Oakland on June 5th at 6pm.

Drew Costley is a SFGATE editorial assistant. E-mail: [email protected] | Twitter: @drewcostley