By Matt Fredmonsky

Record-Courier staff writer

Ravenna resident Jason Knisley weaved through the crowd flowing out of the Kent Papa John's store Thursday morning clutching his prized pie above his head.

Knisley was just one of thousands of northeast Ohio pizza and basketball fans who benefited from the company's 23-cent pizza deal offer Thursday as an effort to make amends for a jab at Cavaliers star LeBron James. Friday, during the Cavaliers' playoff series against the Washington Wizards, some Wizards fans appeared wearing T-shirts emblazoned with the Papa John's corporate logo with a phrase denouncing James as a "crybaby."

Tish Muldoon, director of public relations for the pizza chain's corporate office, said the company offered customers a large, single-topping pizza for 23 cents Thursday as an effort to apologize for the shirts.

"We just hope everyone takes us up on it," Muldoon said.

And that they did. Thursday morning customers waited an hour or more in a line extended up North Lincoln Street about 50 yards from the door to the Kent State University Lincoln Building just 20 minutes after the store opened.

Knisley's grandfather, Arden Mills, had called ahead and picked up his pepperoni pizza while the 17-year-old ordered at the store and waited inside.

Mills said neither he, nor his grandson, are big Cavaliers' fans.

"If I had driven by and seen the line I wouldn't have stayed," Arden said.

He waited patiently outside for Knisley, who emerged and proudly proclaimed the wait had been worth it for his 23-cent pizza.

Muldoon said the northeast Ohio area Papa John's restaurants ordered up to eight times the normal amount of food ingredients that would be on hand for a typical Thursday.

"The expenses of (Thursday's) 23-cent offer will be absorbed by Papa John's International and the Washington, D.C., franchise group," she said.

The Kent store's phone line rang busy throughout the day yesterday. Customers were limited to one pizza per person, but many people walked out of the store with three or more pizzas. And many of the store's early customers, like Knisley, reported an hour wait.

But Dan Bradley, an employee at PC Surgeons in downtown Kent, avoided the long line and busy signal. Bradley beat the system by using an automated dialer at his office to continually call the store until he got through.

Bradley gets an hour and a half lunch break and said he would have waited up to an hour to get his pizza. But he strolled past the long lines with his pizza after about 15 minutes.

"I guess it paid off to call early," Bradley said.

The promotion also paid off big for the LeBron James Family Foundation and the Cavaliers Youth Fund. Papa John's agreed to donate $10,000 to the youth fund, and all proceeds from the 23-cent pizza sales will benefit the family foundation.

The company issued a corporate statement Thursday, which attributed the T-shirt distribution to a local Washington, D.C., operator who did so without corporate approval.

"Nonetheless, we believe this was in poor taste," the statement read. "We wish the Cavs and LeBron the best of luck throughout the playoffs."