For all the notebooks he filled with nuggets of wisdom from his father over the years, Greg Miller had to find the words on his own when he addressed the Jazz in the locker room before Saturday's game against the New Orleans Hornets.
He thanked the players for the Jan. 26 hospital visit that lifted his father's spirits, as well as the victories over the Los Angeles Lakers and Boston Celtics that brought inspiration in the last 10 days of his life. Most importantly, he told them that while he never would ask them to win a game in Larry Miller's honor, he would ask them to give everything they had every night, just as his father always did in 24 years as Jazz owner.
The message came through on a night that started with a video tribute, moment of silence and spotlight shining on Miller's empty seat -- Section 17, Row A, Seat 22 -- and ended with Deron Williams delivering the game ball to Miller's wife after a 102-88 victory.
"We're going to be reminded every day," said Matt Harpring, who wrote a letter to Miller in the days before he died Friday at 64 from diabetes-related complications, "and maybe we should be."
After the final horn, Kyle Korver crossed the EnergySolutions Arena court to say thanks to Gail Miller. Since coming to Utah, Korver has had the stall next to Miller's in the locker room, and summed up the owner's life fittingly by saying, "He left it all out there."
"For us, I thought the best thing we could do was to leave it all on the floor tonight, and I thought we did that," Korver said.
Williams, who finished with 20 points and 13 assists, followed with the game ball, which was signed by every player afterward. "That's a strong family for them to suffer such a loss last night and turn around and be here today," Williams said.
Mehmet Okur led the Jazz with 25 points, including a three-pointer with 4:37 left to make it 96-81. After hitting the shot, Okur looked into the crowd and then at the Miller family sitting a few feet away courtside.
"It was tough, it was sad, especially before the game, we see him one more time up there on the screen," Okur said.
Jazz coach Jerry Sloan, who nearly broke down talking about Miller at the pregame shootaround, acknowledged he had no idea how his team would come out given the emotions of the previous 24 hours.
"It was a good win. It was a really good, solid win," Sloan said. "It's hard to talk Basketball right now."
Had Miller paid his customary visit to the locker room at halftime, he would have been pleased. The Jazz shot 59.5 percent and led 61-51 with nine players having scored, paced by Okur's 15 points.
The Jazz led 28-21 after the first quarter and made their push with Williams and New Orleans' Chris Paul on the bench to start the second quarter. They outscored New Orleans 13-7 behind Andrei Kirilenko and Okur on the way to building a 15-point lead.
The Jazz owned a 73-60 lead in the third quarter, but New Orleans scored 11 unanswered points to climb back in the game. Williams restored order in the fourth, hitting a 21-footer and three-pointer, improving to 10-2 head-to-head against Paul in their careers.
Kirilenko had four blocks in the fourth quarter and punctuated the victory by erasing from behind Paul's layup bid on the fast break with 1:46 left. Paul had 24 points and seven assists for the Hornets, who were coming off an overtime loss to the Lakers on Friday.
As much as the night was about Miller, the Jazz also secured a critical victory. They improved to 7-1 in February, pulled even with New Orleans in the standings and gained the playoff tiebreaker by winning the teams' three-game season series.
"For me, the most touching part of the whole evening was to hear and see the response of the crowd," Greg Miller said. "Some of the comments that you could hear right after the moment of silence and some of the signs that I saw expressing condolences and well wishes to our family really meant a lot to me."
rsiler@sltrib.com
