O, say, can you please stop singing?

The best thing about Fergie’s performance of the national anthem before Sunday’s NBA All-Star Game was that it was so traditional, a throwback, so to speak. For years, singers have omitted Francis Scott Key’s stirring closing line: “Let’s play some basketball!”

I’m not going to critique Fergie’s anthem, other than to say it made me feel patriotic, in that I started wishing I were Lithuanian.

Far be it from me to criticize an acclaimed singer, songwriter, actress and eight-time Grammy Award winner from Hacienda Heights, California. I know Fergie is all that because that’s how she was introduced. I’m not sure why we need to know an anthem singer’s resume, like she’s a prizefighter ... In this corner, weighing 122 pounds, the Hacienda Heights Hurricane ... Performing the anthem is tricky, and I speak as a man who butchered it on harmonica before a Sacramento River Cats game. Even a great artist can’t please everyone, so I salute Fergie for making the choice to please no one. Our country needs unifying, and Fergie inspired people to overlook petty differences and reach across the aisle, to borrow earplugs.

Draymond Green, caught by a TV camera, appeared to be deeply moved by Fergie’s anthem. Either that or he suddenly realized he’d put his jock on backward. Hard to read that guy.

Fergie added some nice touches to the anthem, changing “what so proudly we hail” to “what so proudly we ail.” So appropriate! Or maybe it was “ale,” in honor of America’s craft-brew revolution.

Fergie went courageously off-road, exploring the boundaries of sound. No performer has changed pitch so radically and with such dramatic effect since Mrs. Doubtfire.

And how about those bonus syllables! “Banner” became ban-er-er-er, which inspired me to check my car battery, which has been turning over slow-oh-oh-oh-ly.

Fergie’s pacing was spot-on. She didn’t rush the anthem, but managed to wrestle it to a conclusion well before the start of the second quarter. I noticed a few people at Staples taking a knee, but they weren’t protesting. They were just tired.