‘Man of the people!’: Rockets’ Marjanovic misses FT, gives Clippers crowd free chicken

Boban Marjanovic

In a nothing game between the Los Angeles Clippers who’ve already secured the fourth seed in the west, and the Houston Rockets who were already eliminated from post-season contention, Boban Marjanović got the crowd on their feet.

With just under five minutes to go in the fourth Marjanovic stepped to the free-throw line after getting fouled by Daniel Theis. The Serbian missed the first free throw, but as a 72 per cent free throw shooter, his odds of making the next were solid.

That was until a buzz took over the Crypto.com Arena crowd — loud enough to get the attention of Marjanovic. The Clippers run a promotion where if an opposing player misses two consecutive free throws in the fourth quarter, every fan gets a free Chick-fil-A sandwich.

Once Marjanoic realized the situation in real time, he took matters into his own hands and appeared to rile up the crowd before clanking the second free throw.

He’d even gesture to the crowd after the miss, almost as a way of saying “you’re welcome.” It seems like they call it the charity stripe for more reasons than one.

Not only did the arena erupt, it led to an electric broadcast call by commentator and former NBA player Ryan Hollins. “He gave them chicken, he’s a man of the people,” Hollins exclaimed on the Rockets broadcast. “He’s a man of the people.”

Marjanovic may not have helped his averages with that move, putting up just 2.5 points a game through 13 games played this season, but he definitely made himself an arena full of fans. The Clippers would end up losing 116-105 but at least they wouldn’t leave empty-handed thanks to Marjanovic.

Truly a man of the people.