Watch: Boban Marjanovic delivers free chicken

Houston Rockets center Boban Marjanovic.

In the Rockets’ final game of the season, little-used Boban Marjanovic put up 12 points and one assist. Two assists if you count free chicken.

Late in the fourth quarter, Marjanovic stepped to the foul line with his team leading 105-97. The Clippers have a promotion where, if an opposing player misses two straight foul shots in the fourth quarter, every fan gets a free sandwich from Chick-fil-A. After Marjanovic missed his first free throw, he knew what he had to do.

After the crowd began making noise about their potential collective chicken feast, Marjanovic clearly noticed. Or, he remembered the Chick-fil-A promotion from his time playing for the Clippers. Regardless, he appeared to fire up the crowd and then intentionally clank the second free throw, as announcers declared he was a “man of the people!”

Marjanovic blocked a shot, scored on a dunk and grabbed four defensive rebounds down the stretch to help the Rockets hold on for the win. But in another crowd-pleasing move, though not an intentional one, he lost a jump ball to Xavier Moon.

Moon is six feet tall. Marjanovic stands 7-foot-4. Moon deserves a chicken sandwich of his own for winning that jump. Moon tried it again a minute later, pushing his taller teammates out of the way. In the rematch, Marjanovic tapped the ball out, but the Clippers got possession.

Houston held on to win the game, no thanks to the chicken chicanery, getting themselves to a .500 record. That’s a 19-game improvement over 2023-24. While the game didn’t matter in the standings for either team, it was a nice way to end the Rockets first non-losing season since 2019-20.

Appropriately enough, Houston’s last points of the season were scored by Boban, who empathically dunked in the final seconds.

Could it be the end of Marjanovic’s NBA career? The Rockets clearly love having him around, but he’ll be 36 next season and played in only 13 games. Plus, he has a burgeoning acting career, with memorable roles in the movies “Hustle” and “John Wick 3,” and countless excellent commercials.

But if this is it for the big man, monster dunks and free chicken sandwiches is a pretty nice way to go out.

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