{"id":377674,"date":"2026-01-19T00:05:07","date_gmt":"2026-01-19T00:05:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/377674\/"},"modified":"2026-01-19T00:05:07","modified_gmt":"2026-01-19T00:05:07","slug":"leave-greenland-alone-us-anthem-heckler-at-nba-london-game-draws-cheers-nba","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/377674\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Leave Greenland alone!\u2019: US anthem heckler at NBA London game draws cheers | NBA"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mounting tensions between Europe and the United States moved into the sporting arena on Sunday when a member of the crowd shouted \u201cLeave Greenland<\/a> alone\u201d as the US national anthem was sung during an NBA game in London.<\/p>\n

Actor Vanessa Williams was performing the Star-Spangled Banner before the Memphis Grizzlies faced the Orlando Magic at the O2 Arena when she was interrupted<\/a> by the heckle. The intervention drew a round of applause and cheers from sections of the crowd.<\/p>\n

This week Donald Trump threatened<\/a> a 25% tariff on a slew of European countries, including the UK, unless the US is allowed to buy Greenland. On Saturday, Trump said he would place<\/a> a 10% tariff on Denmark, Norway, Sweden, France, Germany, the UK, the Netherlands and Finland beginning on 1 February unless his demands are met. He added the tariff will increase to 25% on 1 June.<\/p>\n

European leaders have pushed back on Trump\u2019s demands. \u201cOur position on Greenland is very clear \u2013 it is part of the Kingdom of Denmark and its future is a matter for the Greenlanders and the Danes,\u201d the UK prime minister, Keir Starmer, said<\/a>. \u201cApplying tariffs on allies for pursuing the collective security of Nato allies is completely wrong. We will of course be pursuing this directly with the US administration.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sunday\u2019s heckle was not the first time sports fans have shown their displeasure with Trump\u2019s foreign policy. Canadian fans have booed<\/a> the Star-Spangled Banner at basketball and ice hockey games in the last year, after Trump threatened to make his neighbor a \u201c51st state\u201d and raised tariffs on Canadian goods.<\/p>\n

Trump has also been booed<\/a> by fans in the US. He was greeted by jeers at a Washington Commanders game this season, and was the target of \u201clock him up\u201d chants<\/a> during the 2019 World Series.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mounting tensions between Europe and the United States moved into the sporting arena on Sunday when a member…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":377675,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[49,50,51,47,52,48],"class_list":{"0":"post-377674","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/377674","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=377674"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/377674\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/377675"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=377674"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=377674"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=377674"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}