Why 23-cent pizza and not FREE pizza Thursday (May 8) in the Northeast Ohio area?

Papa John's Pizza has issued an apology to the Cleveland Cavaliers and Cavalier LeBron James for making T-shirts with LeBron's number and the word "crybaby" under it, T-shirts that appeared at Friday's playoff game with the Washington Wizards in Washington. "They were being stupid," Dan Schuler said. "That shirt was an insult to all of Cleveland."

Papa John's is offering 23-cent pizza Thursday (May 8), the day the Cavaliers play the Boston Celtics in Boston, to fans who may have had a "bad taste" left in their mouths after the T-shirt incident. Why 23-cent pizza and not FREE ? Because Lebron James is "The Number 23".

As part of the apology to Cavs fans, Papa John's corporate public relations Director Tish Muldoon said Monday that all 44 Papa John's shops in the Northeast Ohio area will provide one large, one-topping pizza for carry-out/pick-up only, for customers.

The stores open at 10 a.m. and customers can call or come in to a shop to get the deal. However, no home delivery of the special "apology" pizzas will be made on Thursday.

The 23-cent deal is limited to one per household or one per person and all proceeds from the 23-cent pizzas are going to the Cavaliers Youth Fund.

"At Papa John's, we are huge fans of Cleveland, the CAVS and LeBron James. We have more than 40 restaurants throughout the Cleveland area that are operated by managers, pizza makers and drivers who grew up and live in Cleveland. These team members and Papa John's are committed to Cleveland, the CAVS and LeBron," the corporate statement read.

Papa John's will also donate $10,000 to the Cavaliers Youth Fund. Late Monday, the managers of the Washington, D.C.-area Papa John's also will donate $10,000 to the cavaliers Youth Fund.

The shirts appeared after LeBron complained about hard fouls from the Washington Wizards, and Wizards' center Brendan Haywood called him a crybaby.

As Papa John's found out, there are a couple of things you don't do. With apologies to Jim Croce, "You don't tug on Superman's cape, you don't pull the mask of the ole Lone Ranger," and you don't mess around with James, Lebron James, that is.