OT: Utah Jazz owner Larry H. Miller dead at 64

Sad day for the Utah Jazz and NBA as a whole. He was a class act. RIP

 

If they are smart, as long as Sloan wants to be their head coach. I could only dream of having a coach of that level of talent here.

 

I moved to the Salt Lake area about 4 years ago, (wife's from here) and I can honestly say that he grew on me too.

I sometimes thought he was a bit of a self-promoter (who isn't when they're that successful? PA, the accidental zillionaire notwithstanding) and sometimes a blowhard, but I admired his honesty and HUGELY admire his unbelievable generosity.

Just one example--every December he invites the entire community (i.e. the whole friggin' state) to an evening Christmas caroling sing-along at the Delta Center, his arena. (I will continue to call it that)

Free hot dogs, popcorn and drinks and an entire tone deaf arena singing the classics with a live big band. This year he was in his wheelchair (just before the amputations) and incredibly emotional when he addressed the audience. I think he knew his time was very short and wanted to express his love and gratitude towards the community. The Jazz are a great organization and Larry Miller isn't Paul Allen. He has to run a business and make it successful in a very small, and to put it nicely, frugal market.

He provides over 300 scholarships through his charitable foundations. He built an entirely new college campus donated to Salt Lake. It wasn't for BYU or even the U of U, just the humble SLCC.

He built/donated a new headquarters campus for the Utah Dept. of Public Safety. (the state police academy, Highway Patrol, and correctional training, etc.) For some reason, the guy appreciates those who put their lives on the line for the sake of society. Go figure.

As an NBA owner, he would appear weekly on the local Jazz radio station on a show called "the Hour of Power" (terrible name!) and just talk to the host as if he were having a casual conversation with you about the team. And they would often veer onto political subjects (he's very conservative, surprise surprise) and lately they talked A LOT about the down economy, (even before it was official) and I have to say that I appreciated his candor about how it was likely to affect his many interests. He was honest about his worries for EVERYONE, however. It was like your really conservative dad having a sit down with you, who just happens to own an NBA team and is a real fan of the game. He'd talk about it all and it was actually fairly entertaining, particularly for the truly committed, thinking fan.

The thing I found the most interesting, and even touching, was the rocky relationship he had with 'old Elbows. Malone spent 4 days with Larry this last July, at his bedside, when he was recovering from his heart attack and kidney failure.

Ever heard of anything like that in the NBA, or even in sports?

Larry will be sorely missed in this state.

 

But waterboarding's okay, right?

 

Good, another bigot bites the dust.

 

Thanks for the update. I appreciate it. I'm glad the Blazers acknowledged him.

 

While I never shared his political views, I always respected the fact that Larry Miller was a self-made man who generously gave back to the community, a straight shooter who was honest and spoke his mind, and was passionate about his beliefs, his community and his basketball team. He did a great job fielding a highly competitive team in a small market. The NBA could use more owners who are as passionate about winning, as loyal to their coaches and players, and as dedicated to their communities as Larry Miller was.

BNM

 

I guess you really have to be a "tolerant" kind of person to make a remark like that.

 

You get what you give

 

Lying is "classy"?

Interesting take.