Sergio Estrada-Imagn Images
The Kings were hoping to benefit from having home-court advantage during their play-in game against the Mavericks on Wednesday night. The team didn’t waste any time leveraging that edge, as they deployed the My Little Pony theme song for one of the most entertaining pregame intros you’ll ever see.
The announcement of the starting lineups at NBA games tends to be a pretty straightforward affair. In the vast majority of cases, the person tasked with rattling off the players who will take the court will list the guys on the visiting team in a decidedly unenthusiastic manner before kicking things up a notch for the home squad.
However, there are some situations where they decide to get a little creative, and that definitely includes what went down when the Kings hosted the Mavericks for the right to face off against the Grizzlies for the final playoff spot up for grabs in the Western Conference.
Both squad squeaked their way into the play-in round after finishing the season with a losing record, and Sacramento headed into the contest as a 5.5-point favorite.
It’s a bit hard to imagine there are any NBA players who would be thrown off their game due to an incredibly unorthodox pregame intro, but the Kings still deserve some credit where credit is due for the approach they harnessed by cueing up the My Little Pony theme song as the announcer read off the names of the Mavericks starters—each of which was puncuated by the sound of a neighing horse.
Kings arena welcomes the visiting Mavericks by playing the My Little Pony theme song and horse neighs during player introductions
LOL pic.twitter.com/Ec5nO20k34— MrBuckBuck (@MrBuckBuckNBA) April 17, 2025
This isn’t the first time the theme song to a television show aimed at children has been deployed for a similar purpose, as the Bucks used the one from Barney when they faced off against the Raptors in 2017.
Unfortunately for the Kings, the Mavericks got the last laugh with the 120-106 victory and will face off against Memphis on Friday to determine who will take on the Thunder in the first round.