

(By John McDonnell/The Washington Post)

Let’s start with the free chicken.

See, the Wizards have this fourth-quarter promotion that’s been a running gag among the team’s followers for years. If an opposing player misses both free throws during a fourth-quarter trip to the line, fans can redeem their tickets for a free Chick-fil-A sandwich. There have been nights where the fans reserve their loudest roars for the moments before and after the poultry denouement. Like, many nights.

“It’s different stages of loudness,” Wizards forward Drew Gooden explained. “You’ve got the first free throw — if he misses, that’s a cheer. Now you’ve got a bigger rumble after that, because they’re dying for some Chick-fil-A. And they miss that one? I mean, the walls are coming down.”

Everyone notices this. It’s impossible not to notice this.

“There were lots of smiles on Friday night,” Ted Leonsis wrote on his blog after a recent win over Denver. “And the crowd was so loud, chanting for their chicken.”

Dwight Howard missing second free throw to give crowd free Chick-fil-a #WizRockets @dcsportsbog https://t.co/jCfGgcyzDh — Ryan Kelly (@RyanJKelly) January 12, 2014

The thing is, a day is coming when free chicken won’t elicit the loudest cheers at Verizon Center. I don’t know when; maybe not for Friday’s home game against the Clippers, the second-most anticipated game of this young season. But that hard-to-move boulder of fan interest is tottering on the cliff of excitement just now, ready to smash through the valley of apathy before settling in the lake of metaphors gone awry.

“When’s the last time they were this relevant in December?” ESPN 980 mid-day host Kevin Sheehan asked about the Wizards. “It would be one of the Gilbert [Arenas] years, it’s been that long, but I think it’s going to be deeper with this team.”

Sheehan, in fact, began Thursday’s show — during the Redskins season — with 30 minutes on this question: Are the Wizards on the verge of becoming appointment viewing for Washington sports fans?

“Overwhelmingly, the calls, e-mails, Tweets, Facebook comments, texts all said I’m either already there, or I’m getting closer,” Sheehan said. “The Wizards are on the verge of capturing that [casual] sports fan.”

Now, the numbers are hardly massive; while Wizards ratings on Comcast SportsNet are up 46 percent year-to-year in the Washington market, they remain modest compared to other markets, or to anything NFL. And the team knows it is still chipping away at the apathy created by decades of disappointment.

“Outside of my job, I’m a Golden State Warriors fan from growing up in the Bay Area,” said Gooden, who knows this market better than most, having lived in North Bethesda when he was briefly out of the league. “And every year, we were always disappointed in the Warriors. We knew they were gonna lose and not make the playoffs, but we still cheered for them. We don’t have that luxury here. …

this happened javale McGee bricked a foul shot free chicken https://t.co/HksO9KJasQ — Chris Ford (@DCSportsNexus) December 6, 2014

“It’s a different demographic here,” Gooden went on, “where if you’re not winning or competing, you could lose your fanbase in a heartbeat. So it’s still a real fragile fanbase. … When you do it over and over again and with consistency, that’s when you build that foundation.”

And the early stages aren’t the stuff of Sports Illustrated covers. It’s my Twitter feed going crazy when the Wizards beat the Magic on a last-second shot Wednesday night. It’s my friend Ted saying he notices more and more chatter about the team on his Facebook page. It’s my editor Matt making casual conversation at the office coffee machine about how often he finds himself flipping on Wizards broadcasts. It’s lifelong Wizards fan Brian Vann watching in amazement at Comet Ping Pong Wednesday night, as about a dozen servers and customers clustered around a TV screen to watch the fourth-quarter comeback.

“To see them all gathered around and watching the game was … strange,” said Vann, who has cheered for this team in isolation for most of his 38 years. “Since the Arenas stuff, I feel like nobody really cared. So it was neat. I’m glad that other people are paying attention.”

Vann’s wife is due to deliver their first son any day now; “after Butler hit that three, I told her we might need to consider Rasual as a name,” he joked.

These were not jokes people were making in 2010 or 2011.

“Unfortunately, this is how it is when you’re losing, when you have a lot of losing seasons and then you’re trying to bring back fans,” Marcin Gortat said on Thursday. “We would like to play in front of a sold-out crowd and stuff like that, but it just ain’t gonna happen every time. … We just came back from Orlando where I was playing for four years. And when I played over there, we had a sold-out gym pretty much every day. I go over there now, and there’s a lot, A LOT of empty seats. It’s barely over half the arena. So it’s just part of the business.”

Play basketball at a .714 pace, as the Wizards have through 21 games, and that starts to change. And sure, it’s just 21 games, and sure, they’ve feasted on weak opponents, and sure, no one is in this for regular season glory.

“There’s another 60 games in front of us,” Gortat cautioned. “I mean, c’mon. This thing can change around so fast that we don’t even get excited right now. We all know what we’re playing for; we’re playing for playoffs, and the real games start over there.”

“We still have something bigger to conquer,” Gooden agreed. “I think once we start reaching our goals, all that [fan interest] will come in due time. We’ve got to just keep performing at the level we know we’re capable of. I think fans have taken notice and like what we’re doing already. They’re in, I guess, for a good season, probably a little bit more than they expected right now. I think they’re in for a good ride.”

It’s also a ride that could be peppered with complimentary chicken. And if fans want to get loud for that, well, no one will fault them. Just maybe add in some cheers for the basketball, too.

“I want to get chicken, too, of course,” Gortat admitted. “I mean, just because I play, I can’t get chicken? Whoever is listening, I want 12 nuggets, double Chick-fil-A sauce, and the sandwich No. 4 with pepper jack cheese. … I think it’s totally fine. I hope there’s gonna be other companies that’s gonna give out different things in the third quarter, the second and the first, so then we’re gonna have even more crowd, and the crowd’s gonna be even louder. I love that. I’m with them. I’m on the wagon. I wanna get free chicken.”