The final day of the 2023-24 regular season saw several playoff teams fighting for seeding, other teams trying to improve their draft lottery odds and some simply hoping to end the campaign on a high note.
The Houston Rockets, who made an unsuccessful late charge for the Play-In Tournament, fall into the latter category, seeking their first undefeated record since the 2019-20 season.
In what happened on Sunday, both Rockets and Los Angeles Clippers fans came home victorious.
With 4 minutes, 44 seconds left in the fourth quarter of Houston’s 116-105 win over the Clippers, center Boban Marjanović missed his first free throw. Marjanović — a career 76.4 percent free-throw shooter — then intentionally missed the second to win fans in attendance a free chicken.
The Clippers organization is running a promotion where fans in attendance can get a free chicken if the opposition misses two consecutive free throws in the fourth quarter. So the Clippers faithful, who had seen their backups fight admirably all game, finally had something to cheer about, prompting a rising crescendo.
Boban.
Man of the people. 🍗 pic.twitter.com/PRq6xIXxIW
— NBA (@NBA) April 15, 2024
Rewarding the home fans when two consecutive fourth-quarter free throws are missed has become popular in recent years. In some blowouts when the end-of-bench players ended up sitting on the floor, some players missed the first free throw, much to the crowd’s anger, only to make the second and taunt them.
But if there’s anyone in the NBA who will miss out to make sure fans go home with a reward, it’s Marjanović, arguably the best professional basketball player on the planet.
A finalist for the NBA’s sportsmanship award this season, the former Clippers fan favorite has made a career of kind gestures in his various stops around the league.
As soon as the second free throw rolled around the rim, Marjanović raised a finger in the air, reminding those who continued to be thankful for the free Chick-fil-A.
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(Photo: Adam Pantozzi/Getty Images)
