Blaze Pizza is a made-to-order pizza chain that’s not bad. LeBron James was an early investor in the company, which opened its first location in Irvine, California, in 2012. It’s now nation-wide, but today, the SoCal locations offered what they termed a pizza party to celebrate LeBron’s arrival in Los Angeles.

There’s nothing people like more than free food, chain or not, so the crowds were always going to be pretty big this afternoon. But last night LeBron tweeted that he might be making an appearance:

You’ll note that LeBron didn’t say he was definitely coming, but some people weren’t taking the chance on missing out.

It wasn’t just fans, either, as The Athletic LA editor Joe Lago pointed out:

Joe’s feed really conveyed the ups and (most of all) downs of the wait:

Then, a light in the darkness:

But this world is a cruel one:

And then, presumably after someone told LeBron what was happening and he or someone who works for him informed the store, the final announcement:

At least one person should be happy, because he’ll get to criticize the promotion and the no-show:

(Obligatory: what a tool.)

The tone of coverage did change quickly:

Yes, forced indeed, truly some people have had a terrible day…eating free pizza? Obviously it would have made for a cool moment if LeBron had showed up, but the much more likely thing that happened is he tweeted the Culver City thing as a way to promote the giveaway, thought about going for a few seconds, decided not to, and completely forgot about it until it was too late to swoop down near rush hour in Los Angeles.

It is, however, a nice example of the kinds of storylines we’re in for as long as LeBron is in Los Angeles. So, look forward to that, everyone!

About Jay Rigdon

Jay is a columnist at Awful Announcing. He is not a strong swimmer. He is probably talking to a dog in a silly voice at this very moment.