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Pablo Torre
We have a bit of incredible news to share. Our show, Pablo Torre Finds out was not only named one of the best of 2025 by Apple Podcasts, but our episode the Silent Superstar and the Rotten Apple Tree, which was, you know, the whole investigation and aspiration and Kawhi Leonard and the Clippers was also chosen as one of Apple Podcasts best episodes of the year. You can check both of those things out, the best shows and the best episodes list right now in the Apple Podcast app. So thank you so much for listening. Thank you for making clear what Apple Time Apple Time actually means. And today you are going to find out what this sound is.
Amin Elhassan
That's why I signed in Milwaukee, so I can get free Chick Fil A.
Pablo Torre
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Pablo Torre
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Amin Elhassan
Requires auto pay.
Pablo Torre
Let me just close out all the windows on my computer. How many tabs do you have open.
Amin Elhassan
On a given day? Eight billion? I don't know. You know, I thought I had a cure by opening a second window for the overflow. Now I have like several windows of a million tabs.
Pablo Torre
Yeah, the old let's just throw all my laundry in a different room. Yeah, when your tabs look like Lebron James's Instagram stories after he wins a championship, it's time to acknowledge you have a problem.
Amin Elhassan
I can't believe my life is like this.
Pablo Torre
I can't believe you've been on this assignment for us. That your life is like this, by the way.
Amin Elhassan
Yeah. No, you know what, man? Sometimes there's like a calling that happens. I imagine this is what those pigs, they've used to find truffles.
Pablo Torre
Yeah.
Amin Elhassan
This is how they feel. Right. You get that scent. And now I can't stop. I keep going deeper and deeper and deeper.
Pablo Torre
We've been arguing already about can we even show the footage that you've collected that I have not even seen yet. And I don't know if legally we're allowed to. But we'll get to that, I guess. But like, we're talking about blurring and voice modulating. And this is sensitive in a way that I did not presume when we assigned you this.
Amin Elhassan
This is one of those things. I remember the W in the Wire that said you follow drugs, you get drug addicts and drug dealers, but you start to follow the money and you don't know where the it's going to take you. I felt like I followed the chicken and I ended up some weird places. Most importantly, places where nobody wants to talk about this.
Pablo Torre
Your enthusiasm to talk about Bricken for chicken.
Amin Elhassan
Yeah.
Pablo Torre
And the resistance you have faced around the sport that you know as well as anybody explain why you've been eager to talk about this for people who don't know what any of this even is.
Amin Elhassan
Truth be told, you could be a huge NBA fan, watch tons of games on tv, but if you've never been to an NBA arena, you may not even know this promotion exists. Kings fans, they show em how loud we can get right now in the fourth quarter or in the second half of games, depending on which arena you're in. When the opposing team is at the free throw line, if they miss two free throws in a row, everybody in the building gets free chicken.
Pablo Torre
Bricken for chicken.
Amin Elhassan
But there was one moment on national TV that happened where the announcer let the viewers at home know, hey, this is why everyone is going crazy. All right, it's that time for chicken. Free chicken. This is a playing game. The winner plays against the Knicks as the seven seed.
Pablo Torre
I remember this acutely.
Amin Elhassan
Right. The loser then has to go and play against Chicago, so you might not even make it to the playoffs.
Pablo Torre
This was deep in the third quarter. The Sixers, I remember, had blown away.
Amin Elhassan
They were awful. They were getting booed at home. And booze raining down here with the first half from the frustrated Sixer fans. And then midway through the third quarter, the heater up 11. Caleb Martin, who is usually a dependable free throw shooter, misses one and then. Yes. And the crowd explodes.
Pablo Torre
My, oh my.
Amin Elhassan
It's so easy to make people happy. Apparently the chicken is very good. They don't Spot.
Pablo Torre
I felt that in Mike Breen's loins, by the way. Yes, yes.
Amin Elhassan
But the crazy thing here is they've done the charting of what the win probability was for the Heat at that moment in time. It was upwards of 80%. It was in the bag. And that moment is the moment where everything changed. And you see the win probability descend, descend, descend, descend. Until all of a sudden you got a Sixers win. And that promo Pablo saved them.
Pablo Torre
So the argument you are making here is that Bricken for Chicken is changing meaningfully the course of basketball games in a way that has even exceeded the whole novelty marketing, sponsorship kind of design of it.
Amin Elhassan
I'll take it one step further. Dan Levatar thinks it saved the Sixers organization as a whole. This organization was ready to crumble last night.
Thanasis Antetokounmpo
And then free Chicken arrived. Yep, Chick Fil A and it made everything better.
Pablo Torre
It's an actual nightmare. Like the idea that Chick Fil A is what did this is just. It's unfathomable.
Amin Elhassan
There's the graphic right there. Look at it.
Pablo Torre
The inflection point, the cliff. Clearly the cliff that the Heat fall off is directly overlaid onto the moment when Chicken was up for grabs.
Amin Elhassan
It's insane. And yet it's undeniable what happened there. And so this is one of those moments, I think, where you got something that you want from the marketing side, right? You got something that you want to galvanize the fans with and then you got something that basketball ops, right? The coaches, the front office are like, hell yeah, this, this can help. When you get all three of those things in the same place, that's business nirvana.
Pablo Torre
Business nirvana for the NBA also, I am told, reliably a business nightmare for Meadowlark Media, which has funded truly a new high when it comes to the. We paid Amin what to investigate what.
Amin Elhassan
The F graph, Pablo, Like I told you earlier, you follow a chicken, there's no telling where you might end up. And where I ended up with was in some weird places investigating one of the 75 best players of all time, right? And in the process completely ruining my reputation in the NBA, which already wasn't stellar to begin with.
Pablo Torre
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. That was. That was a risk that I. I was expecting to have. Didn't expect it to get this dangerous this quickly though.
Amin Elhassan
For the truth, it's all worth.
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Pablo Torre
So this is a, in other words, psychology experiment that we're watching play out and I want to get into the minds of the players. I mean, you've promised me entree into the psychology of NBA players who have all of this at stake. But in terms of how this, this stunt originated, where does that begin?
Amin Elhassan
Well, as with a lot of conspiracy theories in this country, it starts in our nation's capital.
Lou Stredler
Well, I'm vice president of Global Partnerships at Monumental Sports and Entertainment. My name is Lou Stredler. I started here way back 1982. So this is my 43rd year.
Amin Elhassan
So this is the man behind this promotion, the man who thought it up. He is the big wig exec for the Washington Wizards, who in essence makes the partners, which is the corporate sponsors dreams come true.
Pablo Torre
Which is a hard thing to do over 43 years when you're selling the Washington Wizards.
Amin Elhassan
And he's been tasked with coming up with a promotion that helps the local Chick Fil a franchisees get more foot traffic in the door. And that franchisee was a man named John Natoli. What John Natoli said was, hey, what we found is for most people, if they try our chicken, they come back. But how do we get them to try it? So Lou says, I got it. We'll run a promo where we give away chicken when some sort of event happens. Now, what kind of event could that be? Could it be when the Wizards make two free throws?
Lou Stredler
And then we said, wait a second. That could be negative. Our players could get booed. If they go and make the first free throw and miss the second, they'll get booed for missing.
Amin Elhassan
So we've got to do something where everyone is incentivized to keep rooting for this right, no matter what.
Pablo Torre
Where the business side, where the basketball of the Wizards lose side is protected. And also the Chick Fil a side gets what they want.
Amin Elhassan
Gets what they want.
Lou Stredler
I said, wait, let's concentrate on the visiting team doing something that'll generate excitement for Mars.
Amin Elhassan
This is the brilliance of it. This is almost, in a way, recession proof. Hey, what if we're down 50? They still can miss two free throws in the fourth quarter. So it is something that has repeatable. It's repeat. Yeah. So there's no point in time where you're like, well, that promotion's over up until literally the final buzzer.
Pablo Torre
It's funny just to remember how, like, golf works and golfers hate when the crowd is interfering with their rituals, how their sport has always operated. How did the NBA react to. Yeah. A bold stunt like this?
Amin Elhassan
Well, it was an instant hit. Right. And it should come as no surprise. Fans love it. Of course. I got free chicken. Chick Fil A. The sponsor loved it. Hey, we got the thing that we wanted. We wanted people walking through the door.
Pablo Torre
But the players, though, how did they feel?
Amin Elhassan
Well, according to Louis, the Wizards players loved it. Including one guy in particular.
Lou Stredler
Absolutely. The name comes to mind real fast. Martin Gortat for the Wizards. Marcin Gortat, as soon as this happened, would stand up, grab a towel off the bench and start shaking it over his head to bring the crowd support. Marcin Gortat was so great that they called. They kept calling and saying, ask Marchand when he Wants us to deliver sandwiches.
Pablo Torre
Did Martin Gortat actually get the chicken he was promised?
Amin Elhassan
Did he get his chicken? They threw him a party. It was catered and everything. John Natoli, that Chick Fil a franchisee, was there. Lou Strutler was there and Marcin Gortot was there. That's what I'm talking about. Well, you guys got everything I asked for.
Pablo Torre
You caused a big hubbub.
Amin Elhassan
Listen, all I know, we gotta come up with a different rule. Two free throws, two miss free throws too much, two misses too much. And the Chick fil a cow. We'll come back to that a little later.
Pablo Torre
So I do want to point out something about pro athletes, which is, yes, all of them can afford lots of Chick fil a.
Amin Elhassan
Yes.
Pablo Torre
But there is something about watching a Polish born NBA player with like a Zangief mohawk just like enter into a room in America full of free chicken. That feels like kind of the dream he was promised.
Amin Elhassan
And then like a real American feel entitled enough to say the threshold is too high. Too mis free throws. What are we doing? Is this communist Russia? No, it needs to be a turnover. Right.
Pablo Torre
He's consistently campaigning to lower the threshold to get more free chicken.
Amin Elhassan
More free chicken. And at one point, John Natoli even promises him, hey, what happened to Cal?
Pablo Torre
Bring it down the locker room. All right, we got it. We got it.
Lou Stredler
We'll do that any home game now.
Amin Elhassan
Any home game. You guys, do we have.
Ad/Promo Announcer
Do we have.
Pablo Torre
Can we have Chick Fil a at the arena?
Lou Stredler
Yes.
Pablo Torre
Perfect. Can we have someone from the staff bringing little box? We'll bring it down. Just a little chick fillers.
Amin Elhassan
And maybe like, you know, 10 sandwiches. Number four with pepper Jack cheese.
Pablo Torre
Absolutely.
Amin Elhassan
And if you guys get up by.
Pablo Torre
Enough points, we'll bring it to you on the bench while they're shooting the free throws.
Amin Elhassan
That's what I'm talking about. And this phenomenon was such a transcendent moment that as tends to happen in our league, copycats start happen across the league. Because the league has this group called Teambo. Team Business Operations. What they do is they take best practices and they spread them to everybody. So they're like, hey, this promotion in Washington works really well. Everyone else should do it. And so what you see now is across the league, almost half the league has a chicken giveaway based on missed free throws. So much so to the point, Bobbo, that that now the Wizards are being targeted for it. They are now, instead of being the beneficiaries of this great promotion, they are now the victims. Just the other day in Philadelphia, a young Wizards player named Colby Jones received a new nickname from his teammates because of his exploits during the giveaway. Why do they call you Chick Fil A?
Thanasis Antetokounmpo
I sold.
Pablo Torre
When we played Philadelphia, I missed two free throws. Actually, four straight.
Amin Elhassan
Four straight.
Pablo Torre
I think I fed the whole city of Philadelphia.
Amin Elhassan
So, Pablo, you might detect a certain note of joy coming from Kobe Jones.
Pablo Torre
He has a new nickname. He has a new identity that I now will think of every time I think of Kobe Jones.
Amin Elhassan
But the crazy thing is, I listen to that sound, I don't hear the talk about the nickname Chick Fil A, not whatever it is. What I hear is, I think I fed the whole city. Right? I think I fed the whole city. And that's what got me thinking. Wait a second. What if this isn't just guys getting rattled at the prito line? What if there are guys out here who are doing a solid for the road crowd?
Pablo Torre
Hold on. So you are. You are alleging that these NBA guys, because of this incentive structure with free chicken, are betraying their franchise by taking free chicken and giving them to the people?
Amin Elhassan
Okay, two things. One, I not alleging anything. I'm asking questions, Pablo. And two, I'm not the only one asking these questions. Take a listen to Chris Miller and Drew Gooden on the Wizards broadcast talking about Tristan Thompson at the free throw line in Washington D.C. last year he.
Pablo Torre
Shot 29% from a free throw line and couldn't think of a better person at the free throw line. Cuz if he misses this, all the fans are going to get some chicken. Oh.
Amin Elhassan
Fans are happy.
Pablo Torre
But the Cavs get the basketball back.
Amin Elhassan
Did he do it on purpose?
Pablo Torre
I wouldn't be surprised.
Amin Elhassan
He's the man.
Thanasis Antetokounmpo
Man of the people.
Amin Elhassan
Man of the people. Look, that's someone asking the question that I was asking. But you don't have to take it from me or Drew Gooden or Chris Miller, because Spencer Dinwiddie owned up to it. Take a look at this tweet exchange. So fan tweets to Spencer, I hated watching you miss these fourth quarter free throws, but thank you for lunch tomorrow. And this is what Spencer says back. Miss the second one on purpose. Wanted everybody to eat like the squad shrug emoji.
Pablo Torre
Okay, now, in the case that I. I know you are trying to build, there is clearly also just some guys trying to spin their own failures into something positive that they can then, you know, make jokes about.
Amin Elhassan
I thought you might say that. Right.
Pablo Torre
So I thought you might say that. You thought that I might say that.
Amin Elhassan
We could do this all day. But I have prepared evidence of a player not only claiming it, but claiming it in the moment. I present to you exhibit C. Bon Maranovic. Fans are getting excited here. There might potentially be some free chicken on the board if he misses the second free throw.
Pablo Torre
Oh, man.
Amin Elhassan
Free chicken on the board. Y so that's why the fans are getting a little. Little fluffy. Oh, they're pointing to. He think Bon's playing with the crowd. Say, you want chicken? Here's your job. He gave him chicken. He's a man of the people. He's a man of the people. He did that on purpose. He did. He gave out free chicken.
Pablo Torre
I'd forgotten about that. Goosebumps for people who forgot about this dude. That's an eight point game with four minutes and change left in the fourth quarter. And Bobon actually did very clearly say I'm going to miss this and then missed it.
Amin Elhassan
If you are one of the people who's listening and not watching the video. He is pointing at himself. I'm going to miss it. And he's looking at the crowd. He's. I'm going to miss. He tells his team.
Pablo Torre
Such an insane video.
Amin Elhassan
A build up to it. It's not just like. It's not the Spencer Dinwiddie where he misses. I meant to do that. He is calling his shot like Babe Ruth pointing to the outfield. Right?
Pablo Torre
He's like the opposite of Babe Ruth.
Amin Elhassan
Well, yeah.
Pablo Torre
All of these guys on a relative basis are themselves like sideshows. These are relatively speaking scrubs. Kobe Joads, Kristen Thompson this season, Bobon. These are. These are circus acts in a circus promo. Just having fun off to the side, basically.
Amin Elhassan
I thought you might say that. And this is the whole point of my investigation. Follow me if you will. Right. What if I told you that the guy that this story is really about isn't a sideshow or a scrub as you very, very disrespectfully call those fine young men.
Pablo Torre
I do want to apologize.
Amin Elhassan
What if I told you actually this guy is a former mvp? No, a former two time mvp. You might know him by his own nickname. That wasn't given to him by his teammates after failure. No, it's given to him because this guy is a freak of nature. The one and only Giannis Antetokounmpo. First of all, I'm supposed to be in Vegas right now. I'm supposed to be in Vegas right now, you know, partying. But I'm here ordering Chick Fil A. Can I have a 50 piece? So that I will put you. Can I put your camera. Do you mind or.
Pablo Torre
No, sure.
Amin Elhassan
There's 150, 000 people watching you right now. Really? Yes. So can I. Can I have, please, a 50 piece Mac minis? 50. Exactly. Not 51, none. 49. Chicken minis. Yes, 50. And let me have a large drink, no ice, half Sprite, half lemonade. Thank you. So you might be asking yourself, how much does love fast food chicken? And the only answer I can come up with is, as much as any human being has ever loved anything in the history of mankind. Are we getting free Chick Fil a for life now? I want free Chick Fil A for life. There's no way. That's why I signed in Milwaukee, so I can get free Chick Fil A for life. So there's all of these documented instances of Giannis professing his love for chicken. Like there's a time he showed up to a press conference with a bucket of chicken wings. There's a time where he tweeted about Roscoe's and how much he loves Roscoe's and wishes they would open one in Milwaukee. There's the trip to China where he goes and he professes love for chicken feet.
Ad/Promo Announcer
Is there anything you want to try but not try yet?
Pablo Torre
I don't know.
Amin Elhassan
Can you guys recommend me something? We tried a chicken feet.
Thanasis Antetokounmpo
I love chicken feet.
Pablo Torre
You love chicken feet. I love chicken feet.
Amin Elhassan
Okay.
Pablo Torre
I now am remembering how Giannis, you know, one All Star mvp and decided to celebrate in the way that you are alluding to. So. So what's it feel like to finally.
Amin Elhassan
To finally win this thing?
Pablo Torre
Winner, winner, chicken dinner, and yet none of this has to do with the promo that we're talking about, Amit. So this is his love of chicken in general, but what about how he's interacted with the incentives that we're dissecting?
Amin Elhassan
Ok, so here's a video of him at a Milwaukee Bucks game where there's a chicken giveaway while the opposing team is in a chicken scenario.
Pablo Torre
Speaking of wings. Oh, everybody gets wings. Free wings from wingstop redeemed. Look at Giannis.
Amin Elhassan
He's scanning it.
Pablo Torre
He's capturing the moment. He's getting the. He wants to get the QR code.
Amin Elhassan
He's on the bench, obviously it's the end of the game, and he pulls a phone out to scan the QR code for the free chicken giveaway that they're giving to the fans. He's so enthusiastic about chicken and about the promo. He wants in on it. Like everyone else in the arena.
Pablo Torre
It's such ridiculous video that I'm overlooking the fact that Giannis just had a cell phone on the bench.
Amin Elhassan
By the way, you never know. You never know when a QR code might pop up, Pablo.
Pablo Torre
But ok, so granted, fair. But in terms of his personal at the line performance, not as a spectator.
Amin Elhassan
Right?
Pablo Torre
Right. Not as Marcine Gortat, but as somebody with something to lose or in this case, win. How does he, how does he do.
Amin Elhassan
So in essence, Pablo, what you're asking me is we've seen him be the marching Gortad of this kind of rooting for it for the home crowd, but have we ever seen him be the bobon where he's on the road and he's.
Pablo Torre
That is the investigation.
Amin Elhassan
Okay, this is what I'm gonna tell you right now. When it comes to chicken eligible free throws, giannisanampo is the Robin Hood of chicken giveaways.
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Pablo Torre
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Pablo Torre
So now we're at the tabs. Open on now both of our computers. I'm trying to run through the research here that you've assembled for a term that you dropped on our audience. As if anybody would know what the you're talking about. Yes, but chicken eligibility.
Amin Elhassan
Yeah. What I found, Pablo, is when you are investigating ground that has not been sullied by human feet, right? This is fresh snow. This is untouched by humanity. You have to create metrics to measure the things that no one even considered. And so we came up with this term chicken eligible shots, because. All right, the way the promo works, in case you haven't figured out by now, you miss the first free throw, you miss the second free throw. Everyone wins. Free chicken. If the opposing player makes the first free throw, guess what? We don't care what happens on that second free throw shot.
Lou Stredler
Right?
Amin Elhassan
So the only way we can figure out if you're handing out chicken as an opposing player is if you are converting on chicken eligible shots. So that's the second missed free throw after you missed the first one.
Pablo Torre
Right. You've created a helpful graphic here. Chicken eligible parentheses CE any free throw where a miss on that individual shot would result in the activation of a chicken based promo.
Amin Elhassan
Yes, precisely. We have another term we need you to understand.
Pablo Torre
Why?
Amin Elhassan
Because metrics. We have to build metrics off of this. It's not enough to say, hey, how many chicken eligible shots did he take?
Pablo Torre
Oh, sorry, you're moving us from counting stats now to efficiency, which Is the.
Amin Elhassan
Key to any good metric is we want to know how efficient you are.
Pablo Torre
Oh, yeah, of course, of course. I must agree with this.
Amin Elhassan
And here's the graphic. The chicken conversion rate, which is your chicken eligible misses, divided by your chicken eligible attempts. In essence, this number gives you the efficiency you have at providing chicken to 20,000 people.
Pablo Torre
So just to over explain this, CCR is the rate at which a player will miss a free throw with chicken on the line.
Amin Elhassan
Yes.
Pablo Torre
And so Giannis Antetokounmpo, when it comes to his conversion rate, when he's chicken eligible, I mean, is what.
Amin Elhassan
So his CCR over the last two years, 80%. 80% of the time he's got an opportunity to get you chicken, he comes home with it.
Pablo Torre
Eight out of ten times, Giannis is converting free chicken for the crowd.
Amin Elhassan
Yeah, he's chewing 20%.
Pablo Torre
Yeah, that's pretty bad.
Amin Elhassan
It's awful.
Pablo Torre
Yeah, but he's also a bad free throw shooter, though.
Amin Elhassan
Sure, yeah. I mean, look, he's not great at shooting free throws, right? Overall in his career, he's in the 60 percentage spot. But here's the crazy part. When you look at his quarter by quarter free throw percentage for this year, let's say, right, he shoots 64% in fourth quarters of games. He's a pretty, like for his standard, pretty good free throw shooter, the only time we have a drop is when he's shooting free throws versus when he's shooting free throws with chicken on the line. And then that drop goes from 64% all the way down to 20%. Pablo, that is the difference. That, that delta that we have there is the equivalent of Steph Curry shooting a free throw versus Shaquille o'.
Pablo Torre
Neal.
Amin Elhassan
You're telling me that this guy, who's not a great free throw shooter, I.
Pablo Torre
Mean, famously, people count down, crowds are mocking him by pointing out how long he takes to shoot a free throw. And now you've got a sign for Giannis in the end zone and he hits the free play. Even that guy, you're saying, becomes that much worse when there is this incentive at stake.
Amin Elhassan
It strains credulity. I don't know if I'm saying that word right.
Pablo Torre
I think stunningly, you might be.
Amin Elhassan
Okay. It strains it, though.
Pablo Torre
It strains my credulity that you know to pronounce credulity.
Amin Elhassan
So it's strange credulity to believe that someone who is bad at free throws is magically, horrendously worse. Only when there's a chicken giveaway.
Pablo Torre
But this is Where I just need to continue to channel the Sloan Sports Analytics Conference and point out that the theater, and it is convincing theater, graphical theater, full of lots of terms. The theater you're giving us is kind of small sample size theater. Like, I'm looking at the graph. When you say 80% and I say eight out of ten, I mean, we're talking about ten shots here. That's not a lot.
Amin Elhassan
It's ten shots for chicken. Right? Because here's the crazy part. When it comes to giveaways of any other sort of variety, pizza, ice cream, hot dogs, whatever it is, he shoots his regular free throw percentage, but when it comes to chicken, he shoots the absolute worst. And Pablo, this is where all of that context we ran through. We were like, why are we seeing all these videos and clips and stuff? That's why. Because this guy has a demonstrated connection with a love for fast food chicken. I wish I had a Charlie from It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia bulletin board here where I could have some strings and attach all the connecting factors here. He loves chicken, and he wants to share that love with. With everyone.
Pablo Torre
What does Giannis have to say about all of this?
Amin Elhassan
Well, Pablo, I had the same question, so I went home to Phoenix to see the Milwaukee Bucks play the Suns, to ask Giannis myself.
Pablo Torre
So you land in Phoenix, you land back home, and the Bucks are visiting. They're the road team. There is chicken in the air. Yeah, but you want to go ask questions, journalistically responsible questions of the person that we are theorizing about. How hard was that?
Amin Elhassan
You know, it wasn't easy, right? Because I don't know if, you know, this NBA shootarounds, what they do is they do their practice, their little morning walkthrough on the day of the game, but then they don't let the media in until the very end, which allows for players to escape without talking to media if they don't want to. And I had been warned that Giannis notoriously does not talk to media.
Pablo Torre
He has a reputation. If you're not familiar with the reputation that he doesn't for all the videos we played, doesn't actually like giving time to us journalists.
Amin Elhassan
And yet I saw him and I try to catch up with him.
Pablo Torre
This is a video of you running through the tunnel. That's that patented amino acid sprinting speed.
Amin Elhassan
Just missed him. Just missed him. We'll get to the bottom of this. They're going to try and sneak him out the back way, but we're going to get to the bottom of this.
Pablo Torre
That was an episode of Severance, you're running down hallways that don't go anywhere.
Amin Elhassan
And so I'm trying to catch up with Giannis, but he's a big guy with big strides. So I did the next best thing. When I got to the game later that evening, I went to locker room availability and I tried to talk to one of his teammates about it. I don't know if you've noticed this. You know, some of these arenas have a free giveaway if the opposing team misses two free throws, right? Sometimes it's chicken, sometimes it's pizza, something like that. Even though Giannis shoots better in the fourth quarter on free throws, when it's the chicken giveaway, he tends to miss those. Why do you think that is? I don't think there's any reason for shots going or shots don't go in.
Pablo Torre
It's just name of the game. I mean, to clarify why the thing we alluded to before we actually did need to do here, the doctoring, the voice modulating, the blurring of this secret video, why is this so secret? Why. Why aren't we seeing and hearing what you heard and saw?
Amin Elhassan
Because the moment I asked the question, I was asked politely to leave. They didn't want any questions about this whatsoever.
Pablo Torre
The question you asked, as soon as you articulate it, which we did hear, the implication becomes, wait a minute, I should answer this very carefully and perhaps not at all.
Amin Elhassan
There was a weird energy around this, clearly, from the tri. The approach on Giannis, to entering the locker room, to the conversations afterward. All of it felt like the Bucks wanted nothing to do with this. And we reached out to Giannis directly through his agent and talked to him. That was rebuffed as well, right? I mean, we've tried even the beat writers, by the way, guys that cover the Bucks on a day to day basis, when I tried to talk to them about it, everything was like, nope, don't want to be involved in it. Because they were worried, I think, like, how that would reflect on them. This is the part where I said, I, I'm risking my reputation here.
Pablo Torre
No, for you, for your show. This is where, as I was hearing what was transpiring, I was like, oh, so the. So the Giannis that is the most vocal global ambassador for chicken in this regard is the exact opposite.
Amin Elhassan
Right.
Pablo Torre
And the General, by the way, the flavor around even the champions of Chicken, like, I mean, it's worth pointing out, too, eventually we here at Pablo Torre finds out. We reached out to Margin Gortat and his response was, what? How would you describe that.
Amin Elhassan
I won't describe it. I'll just show it to you on the screen. And so this is his response to our request for an interview quote, sorry, guys, but don't really see that laughing.
Pablo Torre
Emoji with the, like, sweat bead.
Amin Elhassan
With the sweat bead on it. Exactly. Me talking about chicken.
Pablo Torre
Gritted teeth, emoji, gritted teeth, Pablo.
Amin Elhassan
That's not the response of someone saying, hey, man, I don't feel like talking about this.
Pablo Torre
That's not the guy we saw in the video who was, like, having a chicken party, right?
Amin Elhassan
Like, who was requesting that the threshold be lowered on what the chicken giveaway is. This is someone, again, who does not want to be on the record on this. And you know what it reminded me of, Pablo? It reminded me of a prior episode of PTFO when we went to go see the Haunted Hotel in Oklahoma City, remember? And Nate Robinson, who had experienced supernatural activities there, when we reached out to ask him, and he said, no, I don't want to talk about that. And he texted something very similar. Right? Like you could pick up the telltale signs of someone who feels disincentivized to have anything to do with this conversation.
Pablo Torre
So Giannis doesn't want to touch this. The people that we think would want to touch this actually do. Not at all. But there is a game that night.
Amin Elhassan
Yes.
Pablo Torre
And so what happens when the ball is tipped? An NBA heavyweight matchup highlights the bill on this Monday night, with two teams in full fight mode down the stretch. It's a Solented Bucks here in the PHX on Arizona's family sports.
Amin Elhassan
So fast forward to the fourth quarter, because that's the only part that anyone cares about, right? It's the chicken giveaway, which in Phoenix, by the way, it's called a foul shot.
Lou Stredler
Right?
Pablo Torre
F O W L. Yeah, see, it's a double entendre.
Amin Elhassan
So suns are up two. Giannis gets fouled about 2 minutes, 19 seconds left in the game. He goes to the free throw line. He misses the first one, and then this is what happens on the second move.
Pablo Torre
Oso's got to secure that inside possession.
Amin Elhassan
You hear that, Pablo? They're not counting like they usually do. They're not booing. They are going nuts. And in the corner, I don't know if you saw it, the little chick fil. A cow.
Pablo Torre
Oh, I saw.
Amin Elhassan
Oh, the same cow that was with Marching Godot Losing chicken party. Yep. Is back dancing its ass off. God, it was. It could not have been scripted any better.
Pablo Torre
I mean, again, rational brain wants to enter the conversation okay, so as much as it's a signal that something that is total proof of your theory is happening, I mean, like, it was a. That was a two. I'm looking at the score. Yeah, that was a two point game. The Bucks badly needed this, right? The whole theory that Giannis is being incentivized because of his love of chicken and because of his love of, frankly, humanity. The theory that he's doing this on purpose. I mean, again, they need these wins. I mean, why. Why would he do this?
Amin Elhassan
Well, why would he do it in general, regardless of whether the game is on the line or not? It's a lot of things. Like, maybe it's, again, he loves chicken. He wants everyone to have it. Maybe it's because, hey, this is my weakness that everyone jeers and mocks me for. That turns into something that makes me a little bit more affable, right? Maybe it's, hey, guess what, Pablo, ever look at the All Star voting? You know who's number one? Not Steph Curry, everyone's darling. Not LeBron James, the greatest player ever, according to some people. Not Victor Wembanyama, this phenomenon, the number one All Star vote guy in the league is Giannis Antetokounmpo who plays for Milwaukee. Well, it's not like everyone in Wisconsin turned out to stuff the ballot boxes.
Pablo Torre
Wait, you're saying that Giannis Antetokounmpo has been using chicken the way Elon Musk Musk has been using money to win elections?
Amin Elhassan
I mean, look, what I'm saying is this guy's really popular.
Pablo Torre
It's a quid pro chicken.
Amin Elhassan
He's really popular, Pablo. More popular, arguably by the metrics than Lebron.
Pablo Torre
It is a shock. I did not realize that. That is actually quite shocking.
Amin Elhassan
And on the other hand, he loves chicken, right? And you bring these two things together, I'm giving opposing fans, opposing fans. It's one thing to win over 20,000 people in Milwaukee. It's another thing to win over 20,000 people in 29 other NBA arenas.
Pablo Torre
Campaign across the aisle.
Amin Elhassan
Yes, that's basically what he's doing. He's reaching across. And it's working. It's working.
Pablo Torre
We're now we're firmly in the realm of trying to climb into the mind of someone who does not want us to see inside.
Amin Elhassan
You know, Pablo, there is one person I didn't talk to who could address those things. The inner psyche of Giannis Anadokounmpo, who knows him better than anybody on the face of the planet. It's his brother. I know you're gonna have to talk to tenacious Anoko.
Pablo Torre
I mean, I guess I can totally believe that you have dragged me to this point, but it's time for us to make one more. So the very first thing that you need to know about the guy I'm about to call here is that he is Giannis's older brother, one of five Andokumbo brothers in all four of whom, by the way, have made the NBA, which is its own incredible story. But Thanasis Anetokumbo, crucially, is the only Anetokumbo brother to have played alongside Giannis. Thanassis was a third stringer when they won a title together in Milwaukee in 2021. And the two are so close to this day that Thanassis still lives and works in Milwaukee right alongside Giannis, whom he calls his best friend and his partner. And so while Thanasis's two time MVP winning brother would not take a call from Pablo Torre finds out, most especially during these ongoing NBA play playoffs, Thanasis, I was told actually would, because Thanasis and I also happen to share something very important in common. An incredible affection for the truth.
Thanasis Antetokounmpo
One of my nicknames is Truth Teller, because if you don't tell the truth, if you don't say that the way it is, they won't listen to you.
Pablo Torre
And this is a lesson. It turns out that Thanasis has been heating at home with Giannis and in locker rooms around the NBA and also now on his own podcast, which he titled Thanalysis, which is, you know, a pretty good name, gotta admit. And so at this point, I just decided to ask Thanassis straight up about the truth behind Bricken for Chicken.
Thanasis Antetokounmpo
Is that one of the free throws, and they miss free throws, you get.
Pablo Torre
The Bricken for Chicken. Bricken for Chicken. Wow.
Thanasis Antetokounmpo
You know, one time we actually was looking at the Jama show, was trying to get our phones to get the, the scanner to get the, the same.
Pablo Torre
Discount too, which you may now recall from earlier in this episode with Amin, when we talked about that game where Giannis somehow had a cell phone on the bench, was trying to scan that QR code off the Jumbotron to get free chicken alongside everybody else in the building. And this memory got Thanasis thinking about a different game actually from a few years ago in Atlanta.
Thanasis Antetokounmpo
You want to hear a story? We come in and this guy had to be 2022 or 2021. One of these years we come in, third unit, third string. We come in, you know, trying to finish the game, you Know, as always, not the best. You know, sometimes sloppy, sometimes it's okay, you know, just not the best time to be in. But I'll take it. You know, I'm blessed. I'll take whatever I can get.
Pablo Torre
11 different Atlanta Hawks players have scored here tonight. Thanasis going for his first points.
Thanasis Antetokounmpo
So I'm shooting the free throws, and I missed the first one, and everybody's going ballistic.
Amin Elhassan
And I'm like, what?
Thanasis Antetokounmpo
I look around, I'm like, why is everybody so hyped?
Ad/Promo Announcer
And as you can hear, it's getting.
Amin Elhassan
Very loud because it is fast.
Pablo Torre
Valentine.
Thanasis Antetokounmpo
And then, you know, I hit the second free third. I hear this. Oh, deflation.
Pablo Torre
No chicken for you.
Ad/Promo Announcer
Sh.
Thanasis Antetokounmpo
And then I asked the. I was like, why is everybody. What did I do? Why is everybody. Was everybody, like, boring and yelling?
Amin Elhassan
He's like, no, it was free food. That's why.
Pablo Torre
Depriving these Atlanta people of much needed nourishment was any part of. Of you, Thanasis?
Amin Elhassan
Yeah.
Pablo Torre
If you were aware. If you were aware of the free food you could have given that city.
Amin Elhassan
Yeah.
Pablo Torre
Is there any part of you that was like, man, I wonder what it would feel like if I missed the second one?
Amin Elhassan
No.
Thanasis Antetokounmpo
A part of me would have said, make both and I'll buy you guys dinner. I'm not missing a free throws, man. Dinner's on me. It's okay. You know, I got to make my free throws.
Pablo Torre
Well, this is. This is the thing I'm fascinated by, is that the crowd is trying to root you on.
Thanasis Antetokounmpo
Yeah.
Pablo Torre
But the opposite, right? They're trying to. They're. They're actively trying to get you to miss because the free food thing is a magical lure. What I'm curious about is whether you're aware of how much free chicken your brother Giannis has won people around the.
Thanasis Antetokounmpo
NBA, so I'll tell you this. They usually free throws. Those free throws come in the clutch. In the clutch. He makes them like he's never. He doesn't miss in the clutch. Maybe in the beginning. They don't have that offer in the beginning, in the game. So I don't know specifically, but I would assume these are definitely giving out, like food.
Amin Elhassan
Definitely.
Pablo Torre
This is the funny thing, okay. In the past two NBA seasons, Giannis has had 10 chicken eligible free throws.
Thanasis Antetokounmpo
Okay?
Pablo Torre
Okay, so this is the second crucial free throw with chicken on the line. We call them chicken eligible free throws.
Amin Elhassan
Okay?
Pablo Torre
And he's had ten of them, and he has missed eight of them.
Hannah Berner
So.
Thanasis Antetokounmpo
What do you mean, so he gave eight of them he gave chickens, chicken, bacon, chicken to people. Oh, that's a. He's a philanthropist. That's good.
Amin Elhassan
That.
Thanasis Antetokounmpo
That's. That's amazing, man. Who doesn't love a free chicken.
Pablo Torre
He is the league leader in chicken eligible conversion rate. No one has given the NBA more free chicken in that way than your brother. He is the Robin Hood of free chicken.
Thanasis Antetokounmpo
Wow, that's good. I'm telling them. I'm gonna tell him. Telling that I. But, you know, I'm afraid if I tell him, he's gonna not miss now. He's gonna think about it and not give no more free chicken. So I'm not gonna say anything. I'm just gonna lady rock. I'm just gonna lay it right.
Pablo Torre
What's just funny is that, like, the love you get, though, like the. So we went through and just watched what it's like when you miss the second free throw and you. And you do when your brother does what you refuse to do because you sank that second one, man, it is like they would have voted him for president.
Thanasis Antetokounmpo
Yeah.
Pablo Torre
It's just. It's an amazing thing.
Thanasis Antetokounmpo
Even though he's not American. It was not like. It was crazy.
Pablo Torre
Yeah, we can get. We're living in crazy times, man. That doesn't really matter anymore. We can do whatever we want. But here's, here's. Here's the funny thing. I am now curious. Do you think there's any part of your brother in his mind, deep in his brain that is hearing the applause and. And is thinking to himself, maybe I should just miss the second one?
Thanasis Antetokounmpo
Oh, no, I don't think he's just like me. No, he's not missing anyone. I'm not going to lie to you. He's just like me. I don't think he thinks that. He's so zeroed in, and when I say zero, he's so laser focused that he's thinking like, I'm going to make two free throws. And it is what it is. I'm going to do my best in my ability to make him.
Pablo Torre
The statistic I have to follow up on that, though, to continue this investigation is that we also tracked Giannis's free throw percentage when it came to other types of food that were on the line in promotions. Okay, so the non chicken foods. Okay, Non chicken food eligible free throws over the past two seasons.
Amin Elhassan
Yeah.
Pablo Torre
With non chicken eligible shots, he made five of eight.
Thanasis Antetokounmpo
Five of eight. He doesn't want to give people bad product. He want. He only wants to give them. They're what they want. The most. They want chicken. That's what they want.
Pablo Torre
I don't think there's a bigger truth you could tell Thanasis than what you just said, that people want chicken, and we gotta give the people what they want.
Thanasis Antetokounmpo
That's how you build your legend. That's how you become this phenom. Just give people what they want.
Pablo Torre
Thanasis out of the Kumbo. A true truth teller. Thank you for solving a mystery that I can now finally have some peace about.
Thanasis Antetokounmpo
Put the rest. Okay, man. Thank you so much, Mama.
Pablo Torre
Thank you.
Thanasis Antetokounmpo
Thank you, brother.
Amin Elhassan
Thank you.
Thanasis Antetokounmpo
Anytime.
Pablo Torre
And at this point, there was only one thing for us left to do. It was time to summon our intrepid correspondent back into our studio for a piece of. Of something else. So, me and Alhassan, I just have one last thing to tell you, which is that thank you for not bricking this assignment. And as your reward, we got chicken.
Amin Elhassan
Okay. All right. So this is the part where I have to admit it's not just Giannis who's crazy about chicken and free chicken giveaways.
Pablo Torre
Yeah. The least shocking twist of this story is that both of us, honestly are starving.
Amin Elhassan
Bones.
Pablo Torre
Ooh. Honestly flavorful. I get it. I get it.
Amin Elhassan
Be honest. I don't know if you're doing it on purpose or not, but it's worth it.
Pablo Torre
Sometimes all we got to do is say thanks.
Amin Elhassan
We have any hot sauce?
Pablo Torre
This has been Pablo Torre Finds Out a Meadowlark Media production. And I'll talk to you next time.
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Pablo Torre
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Pablo Torre
Hannah Burner Are those the cozy Tommy John pajamas you're buying?
Hannah Berner
Paige to Sorbo? They are Tommy John. And yes, I'm stocking up because they make the best holiday gifts.
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So generous.
Hannah Berner
Well, I'm a generous girly, especially when it comes to me. So. So I'm grabbing the softest sleepwear, comfiest underwear, and best fitting loungewear.
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Hannah Berner
Of course I'm getting my dad Tommy John. Oh, and you? Of course.
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Pablo Torre Finds Out: "Fowl Shots: The Untold Story of Brickin' for Chicken" (PTFO Vault)
Release Date: November 27, 2025
Host: Pablo Torre (The Athletic)
Correspondent: Amin Elhassan
Key Guests: Lou Stredler (Monumental Sports), Thanasis Antetokounmpo
This episode is a deeply reported, investigative—and often hilarious—“talkumentary” into the origins, impact, and conspiratorial mythology behind “Bricken for Chicken”, the NBA arena promotion where missed opposing-team free throws can mean free chicken for the entire crowd. Through spirited conversations, hard-to-get interviews, and some remarkable statistical analysis, Pablo Torre and Amin Elhassan probe the unexpected ways this stunt collides with fan psychology, player behavior, and possibly even NBA outcomes, with special scrutiny on two-time MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo—the alleged "Robin Hood of free chicken."
[03:39]
[10:42-12:47]
[15:28]
[17:05-19:20]
[20:35]
[27:20-31:11]
[32:29-36:10]
[38:00]
[39:43-40:57]
[42:59-49:34]
[49:37-50:35]
The episode is characteristically witty, irreverent, and sharply journalistic—a blend of tongue-in-cheek analysis, pop culture references, and true investigative rigor. Pablo and Amin banter but also dig deeply into metrics and incentives, all while maintaining warmth and a sense of wonder at basketball's strange intersections with commerce, fandom, and free food.
(For full context and flavor, listen on Pablo Torre Finds Out, The Athletic Podcast Network.)