Forget Jontay Porter, forget Shohei Ohtani, and forget all the other sportsbook scandals.

We almost had Chick-fil-A-gate on our hands Sunday afternoon.

The scene was Crypto.com Arena (you know, the Staples Center), where the Los Angeles Clippers were hosting the Houston Rockets. The game was meaningless for the upcoming NBA playoffs, with the Rockets’ hopes for the Play-In Tournament already dashed and the Clippers locked into the fourth seed in the West.

In the fourth quarter with the Rockets leading 105-97 with fewer than five minutes left in the game, Rockets center Boban Marjanovic stepped up to the free throw line. He’s a career 76.2% shooter from the charity stripe, and he … missed the first one.

Then things got interesting at the – ahem – fowl line.

Apparently, the Clippers marketing team runs a promotion that clearly states if an opposing player gets fouled and misses the ensuing two free throws in the fourth quarter, everyone gets a free Chick-fil-A sandwich.

This did not escape Boban’s – he’s a first-name basis kind of guy – attention. As he was readying himself for his second attempt, the fans started going crazy. Flighty, if you will.

Boban heard them. He started nodding and pointing to himself, then – seemingly purposefully – clanked it off the rim, raised a pointed finger skyward, and the crowd clucked its approval.

Free chicken for everyone!

Man of the people. pic.twitter.com/PRq6xIXxIW

— NBA (@NBA) April 15, 2024

Of course, we can’t have anything nice anymore, and so it’s probably worth noting the Rockets were 2.5-point favorites at America’s sportsbooks – they covered easily, winning 116-105. 

The total, therefore, was 221.

But uh … the total of the game closed (consensus) at 222.5, including at DraftKings. Some books were probably a little higher, some a little lower. And know this: It was bet up to that number. In fact, an hour earlier, according to our sister site ScoresAndOdds, it was at 221.5.

And for a few hours in the morning before tip-off, it sat at 221.

Then Boban missed those two free throws. One on purpose (probably).

Spicy.

Now, granted, there was 4:44 on the clock when Boban laid an egg (as it were) so who knows what might have happened had he not missed the second attempt, or, for that matter, the first.

Thankfully, despite some fevered searching on X, no one seems to be demanding a refund based on Boban’s hen house hijinks.

Of course, this could’ve turned ugly, but it appears as if America’s sportsbooks and the NBA dodged a bull-, well, and it appears they managed to feather the nest without a ruffled feather.