After 11-year-old Sebastien de la Cruz sang the national anthem at game 3 of the NBA Finals on Tuesday night, he was bombarded with a lot of racist tweets from people who accused him of being illegal, and felt somehow "insulted" that a "Mexican kid" was singing the Star-Spangled Banner.
De la Cruz took it with grace and in an interview said that people just assume he's Mexican but he was actually from San Antonio, Texas and a "true Spurs fan." He also explained that his father served this country in the Navy and that "people don't know my life."
Now, yet another interview has surfaced and the kid's reaction to the tweets are even more impressive. CBS reported that Sebastien wasn't planning to sing the national anthem at Tuesday's game, but instead, Darius Rucker, who first gained fame as the lead singer and rhythm guitarist of the rock band Hootie & the Blowfish was. Rucker couldn't make it on time and Sebastien took his place instead.
"When we went to the AT&T Center he called and said, 'well, you're doing the national anthem,'" said De la Cruz, who added that he responded with a "Yes!" He continued by stating that it was amazing and he also wanted to give the Spurs luck.
When asked about the social media storm that his performance originated, he had this to say: "I knew that one day when I sing that people were gonna judge me, and that's why, over the time that I've grown, I've learned that you don't really care what people say about you. It's what you think about yourself."
And he has a clear message to his haters: "I don't really care about what y'all say. It's off my shoulders."
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