LeBron James Pizza Chain Is Growing Exponentially

Citizens of Lakers Nation may be celebrating the latest player to join the team, but in our minds, the real winners at the end of the day are still a guy name "Ron" and a little pizza joint known as Blaze Pizza. Relive the moment when one location of the fast-casual chain meets its newest employee: LeBron James himself. "I'm shadowing," he says in a commercial from 2016. "A really tall shadow."

And though he's been an investor since the company's inception in 2012, James has taken on a more visible role at the company in the past few years, and growth for the California-based pizza chain with 105 locations has been exponential, with 205 percent growth in revenue in 2016, Yahoo Finance reports. That means $101 million in sales.

By 2020, Blaze Pizza aims to be the fifth-largest pizza chain in the States, right behind Pizza Hut, Domino's, Little Caesars and Papa John's (watch out, Peyton), according to Quick Service Restaurant Magazine. But unlike its competitors, Blaze Pizza makes pizzas to order, allowing customers to pick and choose toppings before popping the 24-hour dough into a stone hearth for exactly three minutes.

But who really cares about all that when it's King James hunched over making your pie? Watch James in action below.

This article was originally published on 4/14/2016 and updated on 7/3/2018.