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

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Haakzilla

Haakzilla

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"KiKi, KiKi."

It's all I ever think about when I hear his name.
 
RIP - apparently he was a very generous man to some very worthy causes. Even if he was the owner of my second most hated franchise.
 
That is truly sad. I hope the Blazers do a moment of silence tonight in his honor. Hate the team, and dislike the man for some of his antics but at least respect the fact he's died.
 
julius said:
That is truly sad. I hope the Blazers do a moment of silence tonight in his honor. Hate the team, and dislike the man for some of his antics but at least respect the fact he's died.
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Not only that, but he was the owner of one of the most efficient and stable teams in the NBA. The Jazz and the Spurs are model franchises compared to most teams in the league.

RIP
 
I disliked Larry Miller when i first moved to SLC 10 years ago. But he grew on me. And the one reason he did was his brutal honesty about his players and their agents. Many times he should have kept his mouth shut, but he never could. RIP Larry.
 
What will happen to the franchise?

Will they pay the lux tax now?
 
Wonder how many more years Sloan will last as the coach.

New ownership -> New management -> New coach.

Anyway, RIP. Sorry to hear he died so young. He was sometimes obnoxious (I'm thinking of the douchiness around Brokeback Mountain) but he was a good owner and a brutally honest guy.
 
That has to be the worst. He had his legs amputated in an effort to live, only to die anyhow soon after. The guy was a demanding owner, but if you look at it, his teams played pretty damn hard. Organizations start from the top down. Hopefully he went peacefully.
 
Wow. That's incredibly sad. I hope we do something in his memory. Utah's a rival, but I respect the hell out of that organization. He'll be missed.
 
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Sad day for the Utah Jazz and NBA as a whole. He was a class act. RIP
 
mook said:
Wonder how many more years Sloan will last as the coach.

New ownership -> New management -> New coach.

Anyway, RIP. Sorry to hear he died so young. He was sometimes obnoxious (I'm thinking of the douchiness around Brokeback Mountain) but he was a good owner and a brutally honest guy.
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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.
 
maxiep said:
Wow. That's incredibly sad. I hope we do something in his memory. Utah's a rival, but I respect the hell out of that organization. He'll be missed.
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I asked someone who was at the game last night, and they said that the Blazers asked for a moment of silence in his honor.
 
Pinwheel1 said:
I disliked Larry Miller when i first moved to SLC 10 years ago. But he grew on me. And the one reason he did was his brutal honesty about his players and their agents. Many times he should have kept his mouth shut, but he never could. RIP Larry.
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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.
 
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MARIS61 said:
But waterboarding's okay, right?:dunno:
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Why did you feel the need to bring up politics into this discussion? We're trying to have a serious and classy discussion about someone who died. Save that crap for another thread.
 
julius said:
I asked someone who was at the game last night, and they said that the Blazers asked for a moment of silence in his honor.
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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
 
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